about the FM and Bypass/or anyone with advice

[Guest guest]

> Hi Saundra,

> My name is Jan and i'm new here but I'm very curious about the By

> pass surgery as I've been recoomended to have for many health reasons.

> One is the FM. Did you have the FM before or after?

Hi Jan. I'm not Saundra but what the heck. ;D For background, I'm

57, 4'11.5 " short. At age 9, I weighed 95 lbs. At age 11, I weighed

125. 8 months later, I weighed 150, start of 7th grade. Life as an

overweight teenager was hell. I became morbidly obese in my early

20's, and except for four miserable years in Overeaters Anonymous

between 1978 and 1982, I've been super morbidly obese my entire adult

life. In 1998, I deliberately stopped dieting, at 333 lbs (BMI of

63) and started paying attention to and satisfying food cravings, and

my weight stablized and gradually decreased 50 lbs over the next 7

years until my weight loss surgery. I had a Duodenal Switch. You

can see diagrams of this surgery (and others) at www.asbs.org, which

is the American Bariatric Surgery web site.

I've had FM, or what I used to call " all-over pain " , since I was a

little girl. I was hospitalized for a week in 1961 while they failed

to figure out the cause. It only got a name about 8 years ago. Same

pain, just has a name now.

> I have

> these " lumps " on my arms legs and some on my stomach. They all hurt.

> Some are big like a golf ball some are just tiny BB's. These are what

> really hurt the most. I was told some are fat deposits. Others are my

> muscles all bunched up. Either way only I can touch them. I guess what

> I want to know is do you have anything like that?

I had, and still have, lots of lumpy fat. Only now it's lumpy skin. ;D

> If so did they start

> to go away after the By pass? This is what I've been counting on.

Huge globs of lumpy fat have been replaced with a lot of hanging

skin. What has happened is that it's a heck of a lot easier to tell

what's going on 130 lbs down from my surgery weight, and 180 lbs less

than my peak weight in 1998. My docs are ecstatic. It's so much

easier to see and feel, and when I get osteopathic manipulation, it's

so much easier for my doc to treat me. She can do things that she

couldn't when I was so heavy. Add to that, I no longer have high

blood pressure, my cholesterol is dead normal, and my Type II

diabetes - my blood sugar hopped around for two days after surgery,

then went to dead normal and stayed there. My last HA1C was 4.5. I

was able to get both knees replace, and a great deal of increased

mobility, plus I shed a whole lot of pain from my seriously

degenerated knee joints. I worked hard on the rehab from the knees,

and have been more active, so a lot of the pain of unused muscles,

and structural problems like back pain have largely disappeared. I

still have arthritis and am currently trying a generic form of

Voltaren because of the cost, instead of brand name Celebrex. So far

it's not working very well and a lot of arthritis pain has come back.

About 2 years out from August 2005 surgery, I told my doc that I was,

in the back of my mind, a little disappointed that losing the weight

didn't seem to have much of an impact on the fibromyalgia pain. She

said that Fibro is not connected with weight, and that weight loss

wouldn't really help it.

What the weight loss has done is helped me to clear out the

treatable, correctable sources of pain from my life. Increased

strength and activity, as well as less weight to move around, had

decreased the incidence of casual injuries and muscle strain. My

back, legs, and arms are much stronger from exercise, and I no longer

injure myself just getting in and out of the car, or doing household

tasks. That leaves the fibro pain, which is bad in itself, but is a

lot easier to tolerate without the knee pain, back pain, and frequent

weight-related injuries.

> My whole house hold is not on a regular schedule like the

> Cleavers seemed to be.

What!?! You don't wear pearls and high heels and an immaculate

shirtwaist dress to vacuum??! Shocking! ;D ;D

> And for anyone else that has had the By pass or similar. How the

> heck did you lose the 10% required to have the surgery. I'm having an

> awful time.

This is one of the stupidest things that the insurance companies have

ever thought up to plague patients. If we could *lose* the daggone

weight we wouldn't be looking at weight loss surgery for pete's

sake!!!!! I was working with an excellent surgeon in Northern

Virginia, Dr. Elariny, and they encouraged me to lose some weight

before the surgery. Actually, he wouldn't do the complete duodenal

switch in one surgery on me because of my high BMI. I went on South

Beach and gained 10 lbs. :-/

My insurance did not cover weight loss surgery, so I was self-pay. I

could have sprung for one surgery, but two was beyond my means. I

took my life in my hands and went to a surgeon in Brazil. He's U.S.

board-certified, and a world leader in the kind of surgery I had. I

went alone, had the surgery in a hospital that puts US hospitals to

shame, recovered in an efficiency-type apartment in a hotel, had

world-class care, was fortunate to have no complications, came home,

and recovered well. I have not reached an arbitrary goal; my weight

stablized at about 23 lbs over a " normal " weight, but I am wildly

happy with my weight loss and with its apparent stability.

> It's sink or swim!

Speaking of swimming, can you get more active? Even sitting in a

chair doing arm and leg lifts would help you. If you can get to a

pool, walking in a pool and moving your arms is a safe way to

exercise when you're super morbidly obese, and may also help your

fibro pain. Any strength and muscle tone, as well as lung capacity

you can build before surgery will help you.

> I want to lose weight, I really hate the way

> I am but I just can't seem to shut my mouth. Any ideas short of wiring

> my mouth shut? Or am I really not wanting this bad enough.

It is practically impossible for those of us who are super morbidly

obese to lose weight. Diets have a 95% failure rate.

You may be able to get the 35 lb requirement waived by assembling a

weight loss history. Make a spreadsheet, and list the year, diet,

starting weight, amount lost, amount regained, and any comments. If

you can, get a letter from your PCP and any other doctors you go to

(orthopedic, whatever), supporting you, that you need the surgery

regardless of whether you can lose 35 lbs.

Another thing, DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!! Make sure your surgeon is board-

certified (www.asbs.org), and experienced in the kind of surgery you

get. Also, you should do some research on different kinds of

surgery, comparisons between them, what life is like afterwards, how

much you can expect to lose, and the chances of regain. Gastric

Bypass (or RNY) is the most commonly performed surgery for weight

loss. I looked at it but there were things I didn't like, and things

I didn't think I could live with. I chose the Duodenal Switch, which

is sometimes considered more drastic than the Gastric Bypass. In my

opinion, it isn't. For research, I started with www.nih.gov, and

www.asbs.org. There are sites like www.obesityhelp.com. See if your

surgeon has a web site, and better yet, a support group. Talk to

people who have had your surgery, join internet support groups. Make

sure that you can adjust your eating afterwards to what your surgery

requires, and that you can afford post-op followup and

supplementation. Remember that weight loss surgery isn't brain

surgery. It is possible to sabotage even the most effective surgery

and regain weight. It is simply a tool that can help you lose weight

and maintain the weight loss.

But keep in mind that *ANY* weight loss surgery will demand life-long

compliance with post-op requirements. Gastric Bypass has its own set

of rules; others can speak to that. Duodenal switch, the rules are

simple: protein first, sufficient fluids, supplementation, and

periodic followup lab work and care. For life, which will probably

be much longer than I could have expected being super morbidly obese.

> Ok PS: Is it the meds that make us so tired? I take Effexor for the Bi

> Polar thing. I had it down from 150 mg to 75. Then the FM hit and I

> had

> it raised back up. I know that makes me tired. So is it the FM or the

> meds? I hate to think it's a double whammy. I really hate being tired.

> I like my mornings. I miss the mornings. Really leaving now before I

> think of something else.

>

My " meds shrink " (the doc who handles my psych meds) said once that

with multiple conditions, it's almost impossible to parse out what is

caused by which condition. You may be right about the Effexor. Or

it may be fibro. Or partly the result of dragging around the

equivalent of 20 ten-pound sacks of potatoes. ;D Like I said above,

the weight loss surgery was a tool that helped me to clear a WHOLE

lot of sources of pain out of my life. Mine was effective.

Good luck on your journey!

Z