Any other longer term post-ops with low blood sugar problems?
I dont know... My blood sugar only drops on occassion... My editor brought me a story the other day that came accross the wire about post op patients suffering from low blood sugar. Here it is:
Obesity Surgery Patients Have Complication
By JEFF DONN
The Associated Press
BOSTON - A least six patients who underwent the most popular type of obesity surgery have developed an apparent complication - blood sugar so perilously low that it causes confusion, tunnel vision and blackouts, doctors say.
The condition was corrected with further surgery and no lasting effects, and the researchers and other experts said the problem is probably too rare to warrant cutting back on the weight-loss procedure.
In fact, the problem might suggest new ways of treating diabetics.
"If we can understand the molecular details here, we can bottle them," said Dr. David *******s, a hormone researcher at the University of Washington. He wrote an editorial accompanying the federally funded study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The possible complication stems from the stomach-bypass procedure known as the Roux-en-Y technique. A small pouch is stapled off from the rest of the stomach and then connected directly to the small intestine. The pouch can handle only small amounts of food.
This technique accounts for the vast majority of the roughly 140,000 gastric-bypass operations performed each year in the United States. The number has been rising at almost 50 percent a year in response to the obesity epidemic.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minn., focused on six Roux-en-Y patients who developed severe low blood sugar, or neuroglycopenia. They suffered temporary confusion, passed out or developed tunnel vision after eating.
"For people who have it, they basically have to be baby-sat: They cannot be left alone, they can't drive," said one of the researchers, Dr. F. John Service.
The researchers suspect the effect happens like this: Barely digested food rushes right into the intestine. Its hormones then overstimulate the insulin-oozing beta cells of the pancreas. The excess of insulin - the same hormone that fails in diabetics - removes too much sugar from the blood.
To correct the condition, doctors had to remove most of the pancreas from the patients. But that put the patients in danger of developing diabetes, an illness that is often cured by gastric bypass surgery.
Dr. Neil Hutcher, a stomach-bypass surgeon who is president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, said he has never seen the possible complication in his roughly 3,000 operations.
"Do I think it can be called a substantial complication of gastric bypass at this time? Absolutely not. Do I think it's a reason to modify gastric bypass at this time? Absolutely not," he said.
*******s said this insulin-boosting complication could explain why gastric bypass generally cures diabetes, and could also point the way to new treatments.
I know I'm a pre op'er but don't the bad carbs make one's blood sugar go high then crash? I had noticed with what u ate yesterday it was after the chicken *which i'm guessing was battered* mashed potato, biscut and fries that ur sugar went bye bye. I'll let Melissa chime in on this she knows all this stuff but I do think I *might* be remembering that right lol
Anyways just wanna help ya girly low blood sugar sucks.
Keli
That friend of mine that is about 6 years out that I told you about that was having the low blood sugar problems was told to eat small meals every three hours and eat complex carbohydrates. With this surgery, we have dumping syndrome which really is issues with how we break down sugars and fats which are simple carbohydrates. Some people dump on sugar, some on fats, sugar alcohols, white breads, etc. Basically what happens is our blood sugar peaks then crashes. So if your day consists of mostly processed or simple carbs coming from breads, starches and such then your blood sugar would be bottoming out at some point. So try the every three hour eating deal and eat only the good carbs and if you do eat some bad carbs make sure you have complex carbs and lots of protein with it thus lessening the effect it can have on your blood sugar.
I tell ya, the long term effects this can have on our bones and blood is kind of scary. My friends doctor just said that if we will be very diligent in our suppliments and stay away from processed foods and such that we should be fine. It is like she said she has to get back to remembering she does not have the same plumbing as the normal person. Hers has been tankered with, and she can't forget because she had gone slack in her supplements and protein and all that being so far out. She is doing better. The IV iron got her levels back up and she has been able to maintain them. She is doing better now. Hope this helped some.
Melissa
Yep, Once an RNYer, always an RNYer!
I remember your friend's struggles. Her story helps me feel better about all this. It's just an annoyance.
I can see the similarities with dumping. They may well be related. I can only say that for me it is a totally different group of sensations. I dump from sugars but typically within 15 minutes of eating them. I get primarily nausea and sleepiness.
With the sugar level drop, I have sensations of tingly around my mouth, hands shake, I can't think straight, I get this feeling of walking in a dream, I see little flashing lights in my peripheral vison. No nausea, no sleepiness. I may never figure it out but I'll be watching the simple carb connection.
Elesha
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