Biliopancreatic Diversion?

January 27, 2004

I have a co-worker that needed to lose @ 80 to 100 lbs and had a

biliopancreatic diversion? I am probably butchering the name of the

surgery but someone out there will probably know what I am talking

about. She had it @ 18 months ago and is an absolute disaster. She

can't stop losing weight and looks like a ghost. Supposedly with

this surgery her stomach was removed entirely?? which would explain

why she is in the bathroom constantly. She did NO (and I mean NO)

research prior to the surgery and picked the surgeon because she

liked the hospital where he did the surgery at. She had no clue they

removed her stomach entirely and wanted to lose weight because her

boyfriend told her to. She has nothing but fuzz on her head and has

lost pretty much all her hair.

She comes up today to show me her bloodwork results (the first she

has ever had done since surgery) and her ferritin is 1.9 and her

hermatocrit and hemoglobin are in the tank. She did not even have a

clue what they were or what the readings meant. She is now taking

ferrous sulfate which I don't think is going to help her. She has

never taken B12 in any form and just started taking an over the

counter generic multi-vitamin a few weeks ago. I had to really suck

in my anger because she is doing NOTHING to help herself and acts

like the big victim. I am going to have a frank talk with her that

she has got to pick up the slack and take care of herself or she is

liable to ruin her health permanently or possibly die of

malnutrition. She is pursuing a revision where they are going to go

in and try and recreate some sort of stomach for her. I feel like I

need more info before I talk to her so I am turning to the experts.

Any help or info would be appreciated. I want to talk to her because

she walks around moaning about how this is terrible surgery, etc.

when really she did all of this to herself. Granted, the surgeon

should not have done this surgery on her (from what I understand) but

as we all know, we have to know what we are getting into. I have

people at work ask me all the time if I am having all the problems

with that risky, terrible surgery like she had and I am tired of it.

This surgery saved my life, my health and my sanity and I want people

to know it. Okay, off the soap box... Help me out here guys, anyone

know anything about this surgery?

R in Nashville

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