Test Results

Hi everyone! I finally got a call back from my WLS surgeon who said all my labs were perfect! I couldn't believe it because all I take is a Daily Multivitamin and Calcium chew. He was so happy but still couldn't explain what is causing me to be so lightheaded and dizzy everytime I stand up. I have to go have my blood pressure taken lying and standing tomorrow to see if that is it. He was amazed when I told him I have always had low blood pressure (120/80) even when I was 260 pounds. He seems to think now that I have lost all this weight, that my pressure may be too low to handle quick movement. We'll see. Oh, BTW, I have gone down six more pounds in the last 11 days and am now only 6 pounds from the Century Club!!!!!!! I can't wait.... Hopefully by August 1st. Four more days till I'm back in summer school. I got my cap and gown yesterday, so I am getting excited that I will finally graduate in August! Have a great rest of the week. Staci

Thats great to hear that your labs were perfect! As for the light headedness, you may need more potassium. My friend had her WLS in August of 2003 and at about 6 mos out, she started experiencing lightheadedness all the time. he added more bananas to her diet and sure enough she started feeling better. Good luck figuring it out. Congratulations on the upcoming graduation!!!! Shawna 360/244/190

Hey Shawna, Come to think of it, the last time I was having this type problem, it was my potassium and phosphorus. I have some medicine/herbs for this. I will try those, thanks for the advice. Staci

Hi Shawna, I started potassium tablets but went on to my dr. appt only to find out I have an inner ear infection and didn't even know it. Guess that explains the dizziness and nausea. That would definitely do it. I had no pain or symptoms (other than those 2) so I thought that was weird. They checked me for orthostatic hypotension and my bp sitting was 110/60 and standing was 104/70 so they said not a significant enough change for that diagnosis. Hopefully the antibiotics and meds he gave me will do the trick. Staci

Staci - what labs did he run? Did you get a copy? Are you tracking your trends? I have a page on my web site that provides a list of suggested labs from WLS people who have been through the surgery over the years. It might help give you an idea of the types of tests that possibly should be run. acdlady.com/WLS_Labtests just add the www. in front to get there. I also have a page up with the vitamins that I am currently taking and some general vitamin information at acdlady.com/WLS_Vitamins. I have been having problem with being light headed and basically it is apparantly coming down to a couple things: 1) my blood pressure meds were making me go too low 2) my ferritin levels are at the bottom of the range (12) and that is an important test to know what your iron is doing. There could be other issues too. What I have noticed since my surgery is that most doctors do not order enough tests and sometimes they leave out an important test as part of the diagnostic process for a particular thing. Anyway, I encourage you to obtain copies all your pre-surgery labs and all labs since then so you can track your own trends. There is an excellent Yahoo based group called OSSG-Protein that has many experiences long timers on it and just many people who have encountered a variety of problems. I highly recommend the group for quality of information. Sandra