For Sherrie and Bambi

[Guest guest]

I'm not quoting either of your messages, since I'm trying to respond

to both of you in one message. And like , I want to make it

clear that I'm pre-op, so you'll know where I fit in this journey.

I'm also a librarian and do research for a living, so my natural

inclination when I see something like this is to go search for more

information.

Here's what I found out:

One of the studies that came out in the Journal of the American

Medical Assn. on Monday was a survey of Medicare patients who have

had WLS. That one reported a much higher risk of death than most

previous studies. A different study, with over 60,000 California

patients (avg. age 42) found that people who had WLS were twice as

likely to be admitted to the hospital during the year after surgery.

However, the post-surgical death rate reported in that study was MUCH

lower than the Medicare study (tho' still somewhat higher than the

most optimistic figures that you find on results, which generally say

0.5% mortality for the first year).

So what does it all mean? Well, first, remember that a study done of

Medicare patients is probably going to include a much higher

percentage of people who are poorer, older, and sicker to start

with. . . the very people who have the worst chances of coming

through surgery successfully in the first place. On top of that, as

several people have pointed out, the risk goes up a LOT if your

surgeon hasn't done enough of these operations. I don't have figures

on the Drs. at the various Kaiser centers, but it sounds to me as if

they're all well over the number needed to put them into

the " superstar " category. (None of them are the type of doctor who's

learned how to do a R-en-Y in a weekend seminar and then come back to

operate!)

Then you also have to consider the risks of having surgery against

the risks of NOT having surgery. If you're over 65 WLS is riskier.

But if you have something like diabetes, and you're over 65, you also

face a huge risk of dying. In fact, obesity at the level we're all

at put us at 50-100% greater risk of dying from ALL CAUSES. If

you're a woman with a BMI of 40 or more, you have a 62% higher rate

of death from CANCER than if you were normal weight!

http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/index.htm#other>

Yes, it's a relatively high-risk surgery. But all of us pre-ops are

living relatively high-risk lives just by being the weights we are.

It's a matter of choosing which risks you're willing to take. I'll

be honest - I'm scared of surgery. But over the past several years

I've come to realize that I'm more scared of being totally disabled

or dying of something that I could have done something to avoid. My

dad died at 63, officially of cancer - but he was diabetic, had a bad

heart, and had had a stroke. He wasn't as overweight as I am by a

long shot (although he did smoke like a chimney). I want to be around

to play with my kids' children someday.

Cathy C.