What to do, what to do?

Last month, my spinal surgeon told me that I needed to consider gastric bypass surgery before he would schedule the revision to my spinal fusion. (The original surgery in 6/2005 resulted in broken implants this past January, and the fusion needs to be re-worked and extended.) Well, I did my research and decided that WLS might be the right thing for me. I've even scheduled an appointment for the initial consult on July 6th. I'm pretty excited about it, too! Then came yesterday. At an appointment with my spinal surgeon, he told me that they could go ahead and do the revision surgery whether or not I lost the weight or got the WLS. In a way, this was comforting - I wasn't looking forwards to having to spend 2 years or so in a wheelchair waiting for my back to be fixed. The spinal revision is to be done through the front, and my spinal surgeon wants to work with a vascular surgeon and a plastic/reconstructive surgeon to have my panniculus removed at the same time, as it is throwing off my lumbar spine and causing the titanium implants to break. The procedure will be scheduled as soon as I have seen the vascular and plastic/reconstructive surgeons. Now I don't know what to do about the gastric bypass. I still would like to have it. My spinal surgeon says that I can still have it as soon as three months or so after my back is fixed, if all goes well and I don't get another staph infection. Anybody else have a similar experience?

If insurance pays for the WLS consultation...go and discuss this. Depending on what your BMI is, the less weight you are carrying will probably only be a positive step toward healing the injury to your back. I have heard that back pain is one of the worse you can experience....My father suffered from three ruptured disks, and two unsuccessful surgeries in the 1970's. He was not overweight, but if he was, I don't believe he could have dealt with it....Good luck with both endeavours. -karen-

I've already had the WLS consult approved by the insurance company, so I've decided to go ahead with that. I guess the best thing to do would be to explain the situation to my WLS surgeon and let him advise me on which way to go. The back pain has been a real problem for the past three years. In 2002, I fell backwards down a staircase and ruptured two lumbar discs. I had a couple of non-invasive procedures done to try and get rid of the pain, but had to finish my college degree before I had fusion surgery last year. In January, I fell again and broke the implants and that is why I'm having to have the revision surgery. I have several other co-morbidities as well. Carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, thallasemia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, psoriasis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and fibrocystic breast disease. Add that to the morbid obesity (BMI of 53), and you have a miserable human being.