I just figured it out...

I thought this was for people who were 50+ years old... oops.  All this time this group was for me. I am having surgery on Friday the 14th (3 more days!) and I am so excited.  My BMI is currently 58.  According to my scale, I have lost 12 pounds since the 3rd when my BMI was 60  :o(  I didn't think it would be me in this position... but here I am, and I am ready to leave this behind me.  I would love to hear about other people's experiences that can relate to being as overweight as I am and having Lap RNY.  Thanks!

I started out with a BMI of 65... it's down to 36.....  because I was so big and I had a hernia too, my surgery was open.... my only regret is that I didn't do this years and years and years ago!

I hear ya, the doctor mentioned that I could have a hernia and not even know it because of my excess belly fat :o(  I would hope that there would be other symptoms, but I guess time will tell... I sure hope I don't. who wants one of those?? BMI of 36, that is fantastic!  You are doing great!  I have heard so many people say they wish they had done this years ago.  My aunt had hers done 3 years ago and wishes she could have done it at my age (I am 30).  I don't wanna wait another 25 years to be healthy, so here I go!

Better late than never in terms of figuring out who haunts this board!  This is a super-friendly and supportive forum - one of my favorites.   Good luck on your upcoming surgery - wow, the 14th is soon.  You will do fine.  Please come back here with questions, concerns, thoughts, worries, etc.  We've seen or heard almost everything.  Also, for those of us who started out with much higher BMIs, our journey can be a lot longer.  So it's good to have feedback from folks who understand what you are going through.   Anyway, welcome to our little corner of the internet -  Kellie

Actually, some of us are over 50 or close to. But this is probably one of the nicest group of people on OH.  I think my BMI started at almost 57 it is now around 33. I had RNY Lap on 01/17/07, almost a year ago. The only regret I ever have is that I didn't do it sooner. I have loss 146 lbs and I feel better than I have ever felt. I have alot of hanging skin on my arms and thighs. I plan on having it removed when I can afford it. Hopefully sometime in 2009. My clothes size has gone from a size tight 32 to a 16 and some tight 14. I work out 5x a week for 45 minutes during lunch at work. Overall I am real happy.   This is not an easy ride but it is a ride I would take again in a minute. BTW I dump on anything with sugar in it.....anything. Everybody is different. Some don't dump at all. Good luck on your journey. Come back soon and often. We have weigh in on Mondays led by Marge and sometimes Kix

Wow, you are doing FANTASTIC!  What an inspiration!  I am right there with you.  My BMI as of this morning is 57, and I too wear a 32 (some loose, some VERY tight) and I would sure love to see a size 14 next year, or even the year after!  LOL, I plan to need a tummy tuck and secretly hope to get the boob job I have always wanted. LOL Pre-op, I really only dump on Pizza Hut.... so I just don't eat it.  I anticipate that list will grow exponentially after surgery.  :o)

Hello, welcome to the board!  The people above me are right, this is a fantastic informative supportive and often funny messageboard.  Feel free to post ANY questions - I know I've posted a ton in the past few months.   I started with a BMI over 80, and lost about 40 lbs before surgery (Aug 6).  I am 4 months out and over 100 lbs lost (70 since surgery).  I had some complications afterwards, but the actual surgery was very smooth and I'd go through all of it again in a heartbeat.   Congratulations on your upcoming surgery, only 2 days away!  Best Wishes for a smooth, uneventful hospital stay and recovery.   Jenn

Hey, you are really cute!  If you don't mind me asking, what are the complications that you are having? Sounds like your weight loss is good, and I am so glad that your surgery went smoothly (2 days after my birthday)  Thank you for the well wishes. :o)

Well Thank you!  My complications were a little bit unusual.  I tend to over-do it on the scarring, with big ugly keloid scars.  Its not a bad characteristic to have generally, my body knits itself back up nice and tight after any injury, but it got a little out of hand.   Any kind of surgery you have, but especially abdominal surgery, can, and usually does. cause some adhesions.  These are interal scars basically, and they start out soft and slowly harden.  Most of the time they don't cause any problems, but they can.  Surgeons really should make people more aware of adhesions, I believe.  It should be included on the list of possible side effects of any surgery.   In my case, I went on adhesion overload.  About a week after surgery I began having some pain, but I thought it was normal because I'd just had surgery.  It wasn't terrible, just uncomfortable.  I also started not keeping things down.  At first it was just now and again, and then by two weeks it was happening all the time.  It quickly got to the point that even water came right back up.  By that night, I was having constant body wracking dry heaves whether I swallowed anything or not.  Drinking something to throw it back up was easier than just dry heaves, so I did that all night.  We talked to my surgeon several times and he felt that it was just a stomach flu.  I went to the hospital that morning for fluids and they still were bent on the stomach flu thing.  By then I was retching up some really nasty tasting stuff.  I stayed at the hospital all day on fluids, dry heaving and waiting for the surgeon.  I kept insisting something was really wrong and it wasn't a stomach flu.  He finally saw me at about 6 that night.  Usually, when you can't keep anything down after surgery its because of a stricture, but I was way too early out for a stricture so that was the main reason he thought it was a virus.  He'd also seen someone a week earlier with a virus.  Once he saw me though, he decided to go ahead and do an endoscope for a possible balloon dilation for a stricture.  I had the endoscope that night and no stricture.  He could see that something wasn't right though, so I was scheduled for an exploratory surgery immdiately after.   Once he got in there, apparently it was a bit of a horror show.  He said he's never seen anything like the amount of scarring I already had at two weeks out.  I had no adhesions when I had RNY, but now my abdomen was full of scar tissue.  And he said it was hardened like cement already, and that doesn't usually happen for months to years after surgery.  Lovely.  On top of that, the scar tissue was holding my bowel to my body wall, so I had a bowel blockage.  That's why I was throwing up.  Finally, all the heavy duty retching (I cannot express how strong my dry heaves had been for 24 hours at that point) I had given myself two internal hernias, which were very tightly packed.  So I had multiple complications.   To put it in perspective, 1% of people end up with an internal hernia at one site after RNY.  Something like .001% end up with an internal hernia at both possible sites after RNY.  Another small percentage <1% have a bowel blockage after RNY.  I had all 3.. and a boatload of scar tissue.  So I don't want to scare you, my results ARE NOT typical.   I was in surgery for a while, he lysed the adhesions (broke them apart) and repaired the hernias and loosened the bowel.  I was then in the hospital for a week with nothing by mouth.  He sent pictures to, and talked to several of his colleagues about my complications.  Four RNY surgeons with over 6000 surgeries between them had never seen anything like that.   The scary part is, I could have scarred up again from the second surgery, it could still be happening right now.  I kind of figured I'd have a stricture from the stoma scarring shut, but it hasn't happened thank goodness.  Hopefully I'm done with complications.  I felt really great after the original surgery, but very very bad after the second one.  Its taken a long time to get my energy back and I still don't think I'm 100%.  BUT, I would do it again because I feel good now.  Immeidately after the second surgery I had a lot of doubts and probably would not have recommended it to anyone, not even my worst enemy.  But the trauma always fades from your memory and the good things that are happening now are worth it.   Take care of yourself,  Jenn

Well said!  I know the first two days after I had Lasik I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!  It was pretty uncomfortable and gross to smell my own eyeball cells being burned off with a laser... but being able to see clearly without glasses that same night, and feeling great again just 2 days later and Lasik is my best friend!  LOL  It was such a small amount of time to be uncomfortable and a long time to reap the benefits. I truly hope you are all done with your complications.  I am relieved to hear that they are far from typical, and I am so sorry to hear that you experienced all of them!  Glad to know that your doctor is staying on top of it though.