is gastric bypass surgery high risk? (LONG)

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone: This also is a post to people discussing whether GB is high risk

or not. I have seen elsewhere earlier this year, that there seem to be a

creeping impression by some that it is not high risk. I have seen it relayed

to pre-ops in this manner. I wanted to try to respond. I still can't spell ;

I thought gb was supposed to fix stuff (grin)

love,

ceep

This is just in response to comments about gastric bypass surgery maybe not

really being 'high risk. " These are just my two cent's worth only: Gastric

Bypass surgery IS high risk. I know there are pre-ops who lurk here; And I

just want to say, again, only my opinion: Let no one lead you astray. Get all

the information you can, mainly from docs who have done thousands of these

surgeries, and from post-ops who are more than two years out. They are the

ones who will have the most current and useful info, the former, about the

surgery itself and its predicted outcomes; the latter, about the ACTUAL

outcomes, and how to truly take care of yourself after the initial honeymoon

period, when it is less " happy dance time " and far more gritty, day to day

life striving--

I might add, having a community of others who understand and care about the

long term issues of the post-bypass life is invaluable. In my humble opinion,

you do not have this surgery and then go on your merry way. You belong to a

group now of brave souls, an inner circle that strives to understand in ways

those who have not undergone this kind of life, both pre and post op, often

cannot quite appreciate the same way. So, if you are on your way, do not be

afraid, as much as INFORMED. That will see you through to the best possible

outcome for yourself.

Gastric Bypass surgery is high risk, make no mistake about it. Culturally,

one of the most unfortunate and cheapening ways of referring to gastric

bypass surgery is as 'weight loss surgery.' Over the last three years, this

moniker has proved to stir up all kinds of psychological fears, fantasies and

tensions in all directions. These are hard to quell once they start up— one

of the most egregious being that if one has " weight loss surgery " and does

not " lose all their weight according to whomever's standards, " that the

patient is somehow inferior, (again, and as usual). This is not what this

surgery is about. That would be a sad addendum to a life-giving procedure.

This surgery is about giving the body back its life.

As you can see as you look about in media, " Weight Lost surgery, or WLS " has

become a flat-out marketing phrase. It has caused the media to think this

surgery is all about being thin.... Rather than healthy. A person will become

" slender-er " as a result, but, RNY gastric bypass has definite bounceback,

10-20 pounds for most everyone. Read the fine print and believe it. I hope

you will realize going in what the REAL quality is. Lurk on gradlist (on

yahoo) and listen to those 3 and 4 years out. IT IS and remains a surgery to

give people much more health and it gives them a tool that if they sweat over

and with it, it will work for them. But, it takes work to maintain the tool.

I hope you will read these words off the page: after the first 12 to 18

months out, then vigilance to one's DAILY eating habits is required by MOST,

and must be constant. It is in the fine print. Read it and believe it.

Gastric bypass surgery does not give a person a new metabolism, a new brain,

or a new way of dealing with tensions. If there are issues here before, they

will be there after. They call the first 18 mos to 24 months 'the honey moon

period,' because 'hunger' has not yet returned for some, (although for others

it has been there from day one, and especially after first 12 months) and it

FEELS like a ride on auto-pilot; not real hungry, can't eat much anyway,

weight keeps dropping.

But THEN, the day comes when normal hunger returns, and one can eat a good

deal more than before, especially non-dense foods, and well, the honeymoon

period when you felt everything was magic--and in a way-- it was.... but now

that time is over. NOW vigilance and work are the order of the day---just

like other healthy people who want to stay healthy as they can--they have to

work at it. Just like other people who watch their weight and pull back and

go forward with food at intervals--they have to work at it. There is a

honeymoon period for many patients, but when it is over, it is OVER. This is

in the fine print, read it and believe it. This is part of being a

responsible person, to know what lies ahead and to prepare for it so you

don't waste too much energy in whining and regretting. Just in getting on

with life, LIVING...that was the point of the surgery, wasn't it?

It is high-risk surgery: This surgery is properly called gastric bypass

surgery. It is SURGERY. It is, for many, a life-extending surgery. It also

interferes with proper digestion of calcium, B12, iron and other vitamins and

minerals that the body must have in order for its bone and tissues and

internal organs not to die and/or be compromised. Listen in on grad list

(you must be one year post-op to post, but you are free to lurk and thereby

have access to all messages, archives, photos, etc.) and hear about those who

did not take this seriously at first, who thought a couple Tums or a chewy

Viactiv or a Carnation Instant Breakfast drink a day was going to do it.

I think you ought listen to your doc, but also listen to those who have been

post-op for a long time and whose blood tests and dexascans are in good

ranges. Hear what they do IN ADDITION to what docs and nutritionists have

said, and what they do that is CONTRARY to what docs and nutritionists have

guessed about. And believe, there are a ton of guesses and conflicting

directives out there. The idea is just this; when you are as fully informed

as you can possibly be, you will do much better. Everyone in the community

of post-ops wants people to do their very best they can, and with as much

info as possible. Because so many of the early patients took these risks with

little or no dependable info, everyone wants to make sure that people are

supported AND INFORMED beforehand and AFTER as well.

More than one in 200 have severe complications from this surgery. On grad

list, we just received word of another woman's death --she was over one year

out from surgery. It sounded as if she may have died from malnutrition. On

Yahoo, there is a memorial site that was set up by one of the original

post-ops listing some of the patients who lost their lives on the OR table.

Patients have had embolisms and died in their family's arms and on the

basement floor and at the wheel of their cars, in the weeks after surgery.

Many have had massive staph infections that nearly killed them. Some have had

severe complications that have stolen their health in a whole other way than

obesity alone would ever have. The surgery is not surgery-lite. The fact that

it sometimes can be done laproscopically, that it may take only 90 minutes,

all these may make it seem like it's like having minor surgery. It isn't.

Most post-op people I have read and hear from, regardless of pain, and even

complications, afterward, are so grateful for having recovered a good deal of

their health, to be able to think in terms of the long run rather than how

they will die in a wheelchair. There is no harm to liking clothes and being

handsome or pretty in whatever way you have thought about for a long time.

But that is a side-effect of the surgery. The primary effect is that you have

a chance, a one-time chance, to release your body from the hell that extreme

overweight has put on every single part of you one precious and wild body.

People who take the risk of having this surgery who are 100 and many more

pounds over a healthy weight, are in my opinion, heroes and heroines. Every

time I hear of ANYONE, but especially those over 300, 400, 500, 600 pounds,

knowing as I do the huge risks that surgery and anesthesia pose for anyone,

let alone them... I just want to embrace them. They stepped up to a very

scary line, they were desperate for their lives, they thought they may have

lost their minds to be contemplating all this, they leapt off a mountain

believing somewhere down below, outside their sight, there was a net at the

bottom. For most, they were brought back safe and sound. The net held. It

would be a sin to diminish anyone's bravery for taking such a high risk to

gain their health. It would be a travesty to those who risked but died, to

say anything less.

This again, is just my opinion, and it comes with love and peace,

ceep