I had the sleeve back in December 2011. I'm 56, was on Metformin and Byetta for diabetes, and on meds for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Plus, had problems with very low Vitamin D and arthritis.
Been off all the meds since the day of surgery. Been able to exercise, which helps with the arthritis. Still have lots of aches and pains and hope that will improve as the weight comes off. If not, then I'll look into other options but for now I'm enjoying being med free.

I chose the sleeve to avoid the malabsorption problems too. Three months out and I couldn't be happier. Feel better than I have in years.

 Hi,

I am too late as you have already had your surgery but I will share my GB experience.  I am over one year out and I have severe RA.  I am glad that you caught your RA early, wish I had.  However, I have lost 140 pounds from my highest weight and am now able to exercise and this has vastly improved my condition.  Losing weight will not cure RA but it will go a long way in helping you feel your best.  Hope you are doing well.

I feel for you and everyone else suffering with RA. I was diagnosed at 28. I had a healthy 2 yr old at the time and I was devasted. I was able to endure the pain and changing treatments for years. I have three more children. Pregnancy and hormones always made the pain disappear. I enjoyed many months during the past 20 years in remission. I am on Methotrexate and Prednisone and it works most of the time. I'm 8 wks post-op (RNY 1-11-12) and dropped almost 50 lbs. I can only hope that the symptoms will diminish with continued weight loss. I never wanted to become a burden to my children...but more importantly I don't want to be a BIG, FAT, IMPOSSIBLE to LIFT burden to my family as I get older. I try to accept the bad days with this simple thought..."so many people in this world have so much more pain and suffering to deal with than myself". God Bless you!

I am so sorry to hear that you went through that.  Just so you know for the future, you have to add one more cause to the list - pepto bismol - it is also an NSAID - most people dont know this and surgeons dont tell us this.  My NUT did tell me and I also found out when I was having kidney stone surgery- my Uroloigst gave me the most comprehensive lilst of NSAIDS I have ever seen, I wish I had saved it.

I had ulcers years ago preop from NSAIDS on 3 separate occasions - many people think that it is just post op but it isnt - I took prescription Ibuprofen for months and got an Ulcer, then I took prescription Soma Compound - Ulcer = then I took Indocin with a stomach protectant Cytotect that was supposed to stop ulcers - NOT  - ULCER - and a bleeding ulcers to boot.  So, when they try to give me anything, I run.  I even got an ulcer from Mobic and that was supposed to be so safe.  when my cardiologist wanted me to take 81 mg aspirin to prevent heart attack adn stroke - I refused - I take plavix instead.  Years ago, I took preop, I took the aspirin for 1 day and felt the burning already.

People think these drugs are saft, they aren't.  So many surgeons try to give post ops IV toradol and even the IV form will give us ulcers so be careful  -- even IV's, gels and creams - all of them. To be safe, put on your medical records that you are allergic to NSAIDS, that is the only way you wont get them inthe future - that is what I did

The following may be a bit graphic but I share it because its such an important lesson for post-ops who also suffer with arthritis. 

I'm sure I must be a poster child for the dire consequences of Nsaid use after RNY surgery. Had my surgery six years ago and never had a problem post-surgery or years afterward. Used to brag I could eat rocks. Only problem was all the years of being overweight had left me with bone on bone arthritic knees and annually worsening daily pain despite the weight loss. Synvisc injections helped for awhile but lost effectiveness after a few months. Before the surgery, my primary had me on Celebrex for the arthritis for awhile but I found that Alleve worked pretty much as well (hey, don't the TV commercials say so!). The knee pain lessened a great deal after the post-op weight loss and for awhile, I had little need for pain meds. That didn't last though.

Here's when things started to go awry and I have only myself to blame. Somewhere along the way, either in the post-op support group seminars or the info they gave post -ops, I knew that Nsaids were verboten for gastric bypass patients. Perhaps I knew it, but (I thought) if I take the Alleve with food or milk (to coat the stomach) how bad could it be? Then my cardiologist suggested I go on a routine baby aspirin regimen (81mg) daily. Hey, he's a doctor, right? Must be OK. The killer Nsaid ,however,  turned out to be another med, Meloxicam,  prescribed for my arthritis by another physician (who perhaps should have known better). Admittedly, I should have been more diligent about just what this new "arthritis" med actually was. I wasn't, for almost a year of daily use. To make things worse, on bad days, I'd pop an Alleve (with milk!) thinking that made it OK. 

I never really had any early symptoms of the impending GI bleed that made me pass out on the floor of the bathroom and could have killed me. The day before, I some bad agita, belching, etc. and took some Pepto Bismal. When I noticed the dark stool in the bowl next morning, i thought it was just the antacid at work. That night, I felt extremely light-headed (my bp was crashing) and, almost, made it to the bathroom before I hit the floor emptying my blood -filled bowel in the process. The EMT's arrived and somehow managed to get me into the ambulance (I couldn't move) and when I first got to the hospital ER, my bp was 69/39.  When they pumped me up with fluids and replacement unitts of blood, as soon as my bp became elevated, I would have another huge bleed. They knew it was probably an ulcer but they didn't know where.

In the next few days, I was to learn that diagnosing the location of a GI bleed in a RNY post-op is very difficult indeed. First, an endoscopy, which can only see as far down as the pouch left by the gastric bypass surgery. Then a colonoscopy, which can only see up so far and not nearly as far as the residual stomach left by the surgery. There was no choice but to operate and I was fortunate enough to have  the surgeon who did my gastric bypass surgery six years previously do the procedure. Good thing he knew the territory and, I suspect, he knew what he was looking for. Ten days in ICU, fourteen units of blood, and after some scary episodes of heart arythmia later, I was on the way home.

I  refer to my new scar as a "zipper belly" because the staple pattern resembles the teeth of a zipper so much. It starts just under my sternum and goes all the way down making a nice semicircle around and ending just below my belly button. The source of all that blood and trauma; a bleeding duodenal ulcer, one of the worst the surgeon had ever seen and in an area impossible to see and diagnose in a post-op RNY patient. The cause; Nsaids
The probable culprit: Meloxicam, Alleve, aspirin. I subsequently tested H. Pylori negative, the other cause of gastric ulcers. 

In retrospect, I don't think I would consider what led up to this life-threatening crisis, Nsaid abuse. I didn't "pop" a lot of Aleve, only when I needed it.  The baby aspirin and Meloxicam I ingested daily were prescribed by my doctors. Admittedly, I should have never blindly taken any medication (Meloxicam) without knowing exactly what it was and I was fooling myself thinking a little milk would counteract the effect of even one daily Alleve on the lining of the stomach.

So what do I do about the pain in my knees??  One thing I will NEVER do again is get near another NSaid. Acetominophen #3 helps a bit (not much) but mostly I'm looking to lose another 30 lbs and get ready for knee replacement surgery.