I have not visited here in a while, and only posted a few times.  Life has become a pain - pun intended.

Not sure exactly WHEN I first posted, but I believe it was before my husband left me.  AND he left me with the house,  all the bills, responsibilities and maintenance, which I can do very little of.

Other than the fact I am seriously overweight, I DESPERATELY need joint replacement surgeries (both hips, left knee, right knee was done in '04), every ortho surgeon I consulted said they would NOT touch me unless I lost at the very least 100 pounds.  One even said he wouldn't do surgery unless I had weight loss surgery.

I had always been against weight loss surgery, mostly because I was never this much overweight, I didn't have other ailments made worse by weight AND it just plain made me nervous.  But the more years I have behind me, and the fewer years I have ahead of me, the less worrisome I am.  I am currently working to get Medicaid on the advice of the CPN I see.  First time she saw me she ask me WHY I wasn't on disability.  I guess I just never thought about it, but at this point I'm working on that as well.  Two of my professors have also suggested I go on disability, like all I have to do is WANT IT and voila, it's mine!  But the reality is, I have more than enough ailments to warrant it, at least for a while.  The one professor who was insistent in my filing is my Administrative Litigation Professor, so he does know about Social Security.  So I'm filing for disability, filing for medicaid and filing for SSI.  I need any and all help I can get.

Too many more weeks like this one and I'm just gonna crawl in a hole and pull a rock in after me.  And now, my therapist wants to check into medication for ADHD as I have all but two or three symptoms.  I've had enough of taking pills and having "new" labels and things to worry about.  And I've read a bit about some of the different surgeries and some will not allow you to take certain medications??  Aside from Obesity and OA, I also have Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain, Lumbar Stenosis, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Separation Anxiety, depression, Lymph edema, Shingles and now ADHD (I think I forgot a few, its tough to remember them all.  

My only real hope for weight loss surgery is Medicaid.  According to their requirements, they WILL authorize it IF it is necessary to aid another serious medical condition.  The woman I spoke with at our Jobs and Family Services Department after asking me for my laundry list of maladies told me I should have more than enough reason and health conditions to qualify. I just want to feel better.  The pain from the OA is unbearable most days, despite narcotics.  My fear is if I have weight loss surgery, but cannot take pain meds until I can have my joints replaced, I'm going to be in misery.  I've tried going off of them, and I feel like death warmed over.  Someone PLEASE tell me taking pain meds isn't a big deal?

I've also been studying and researching the different surgeries, and have absolutely no idea what criteria is used to decide what one to have.  I am a total novice with this, and have no idea what is good, bad or other.  I am throwing myself on your mercy, those of you with experience in these things.  I truly have no idea what to expect.  I just know I'm tired of being in pain, I'm tired of NOT being able to walk, or sleep lying down.  I can't even remember what it felt like to be pain-free.  

And this may sound like a crappy reason for wanting to lose weight and have my joints fixed, but I am almost 54 years old, and I am in my last year of college for my Paralegal degree.  I WANT TO WALK ACROSS THAT STAGE AND GET MY DIPLOMA.  It's something I've worked so hard for, and something I'm doing for ME.  Using my walker, or a wheel chair to get it, would be very sad graduation for me.  I just worry I don't have enough time.....

Any and all advice, words of wisdom, or just a friendly post would make my day!

I  so understand what you are going through.  My weight was at 415 lbs.  Both knees were shot!  I also did the Cortisone injections every 4 months and Supartz a few times.  Guess I did this for almost 2 yrs before finally deciding on WLS.  ( my ortho wouldn't even consider surgery till I lost weight).  Anyways, I did do WLS in Nov 2009 started losing the weight.  Had my first knee replacement in June 2011 and 2nd one done in Aug 2011.  Losing the weight help the pain a "little" but not enough.  It's so much better now!  Oh, I think I had lost about 120 lbs when we scheduled the 1st knee.  Lost about 40-50 more by time I actually had the surgery.  My total weight lost is 220 lbs. 

Brenda

You can still lose a substantial amount of weight without exercise, and there are several posters *****ached goal with almost no exercise.  However, it will be harder to maintain the loss.  Also, you will recover better from joint replacement if you can strengthen the muscles around the joint before surgery.  Do you have a physical therapist to help you find exercises to help get you ready for surgery?  Not anything intense or weight bearing,or probably even aerobic, but targeted strengthening?  There are exercise programs for people who are chair bound.  I'd worry about muscle atrophy and having a much longer post-surgical recovery if you go from now until late fall with no activity.

I have psoriatic arthritis in my spine (it is similar to rheumatoid).  I've had it since my late teens.  But no one would take my pain seriously because they all said "You just need to lose weight."  Eventually I ended up in a wheelchair - in my mid-20s.  At that point, I was like "I'm not living the rest of my life like this!" and decided to have RNY.  On the day of surgery, I was 430 lbs.  About 2 months after my surgery, my derm put me on Enbrel for my psoriasis (skin).  After about a month or 2 of that, I was out of the wheelchair.  But then I had a stomach perforation and had to have emergency surgery to repair it (complication from the RNY).  So I couldn't take my Enbrel until I was healed since it lowers the immune system.  The intense pain returned.  That is when my derm and I got lightbulbs above our heads and realized that in addition to the psoriasis, I also had psoriatic arthritis!  Pain got better after I went back on the Enbrel.  I ended up losing 200 lbs, too.  I am sure that the reduced weight helped some, but it was really the Enbrel that eliminated the pain.  

Unfortunately, the Enbrel stopped being effective, so she switched me to Humira.  It keeps my psoriasis completely gone, but the back pain has returned.  So I saw all sorts of doctors trying to find a solution.  I tried all sorts of injections in my back with no luck.  The only thing that I have found that helps is narcotics.  I do okay (not pain free, but better) when I take 10/325 hydrocodone 4x a day along with muscle relaxers (I was on Soma, but my new doc won't prescribe it, so I am now on Flexeril).  The pain mgmt docs are always trying to push the extended release drugs on me, and I wish I could take them, but I can't.  I have to fight the doctors every time.  I'd also love to be able to take NSAIDs, but since I already had a stomach perf, I really don't want to go through that again.  It was easily 100 times more painful and difficult than the RNY.  I really miss NSAIDs when I have a terrible headache.  Tylenol doesn't touch them.

I hope and hope that the medical world will develop a drug that acts like an NSAID but won't hurt us.  Because it is going to become a huge issue as there are more and more people have WLS, and we'll live longer since we are healthier, but I am sure that we'll also be in pain as older folks typically are.

I have Arthritis and Scraratic A.  so I take meds weekly for this to keep my joints from swelling .,  I choose the sleeve becuase of this reason and love it .  I have no problems or issues with it other than some reflux that I didnt have before and I take a pill in the am with my vitamins with it.    I couldnt do this on my own I yo yo dieted for many many years till I got up to my hieghest wieght of 338 .   I could always loose 50 lbs but hten gain back 60.  this limits the amount of food I can consume and I am not hungry that is another major point of this surgery.  I have to make sure to eat on a schedule because if I am working or busy I may skip a meal.   have surgery only when you are ready,  this is not a cure all and it takes lots of work and dedication.   I work out 3 x a week with a trainer and just added 3 x a week of zumba.    my wieght when stated 338   I have lost 117 lbs in 10 months and have about 57 to go !!