Hair loss

 Hi! I am in the process of getting approved for RNY. I am just about ready to submit the request to the insurance company for the first time. I wonder...and perhaps it is superficial...about post surgical hair loss. Is it significant? Is it avoidable? Is the loss temporary?  I have a little hereditary thinning of my hair in the front. It is minor enough that I can hide it with the way i style my hair and  a product called Toppik that I apply to a small area. Anyone have any experiences or advice to share? This won't keep me from having my surgery, but I wanted to be prepared. I did start taking some B vitamins and Biotin.

In my experience, it is not unavoidable but it is very common.  I had my surgery 12/28/2009 and I am really happy with the results.  I lost a good portion of my hair and, being a woman, it was very difficult to be "thin on top."  After talking with my surgeon, Dr. Baker (I LOVE HIM!), I was able to realize that the problem  was me.  I have kidney disease that I have suffered from for the last five years and I was used to eating my vegetables first and keeping my protein levels low.  However, with the limited amount of food that I was consuming, proten levels were way too low whenever I saved the protein until last.  Really monitor your protein and keep a close eye on your diet.  One little tool that helped me was an application I downloaded for my android phone called My Fitness Pal.  It was free.  I put in my supplements and the amount of calories I want to consume during the day and it keeps up with my food diary for me.  I put in my activity and my meals and it tracks everything.  I put in that I wanted to consume 60 gms of protein a day and I can look at any time of day and check how much I have consumed and how much I need to consume.  I love it.  Being very dilligent to your diet and nutrietional plan that your doctor will give you and keeping up your labs so your doctor can see what is going on is the key to success with the surgery.  I have went from 353 lbs. to 213 at my one year checkup.  This morning I weighed 209.  My goal is to be down to my goal weight (160) by my birthday.  If I make it, I will be elated.  If not, I will not give up.  I will set another goal for me.  Be dilligent and keep working at it.  It is definitely worth it in the long run.  I am preparing for my 3rd 5K and I am thinking seriously about a half marathon.  At this time last year, it took me over 1 hour to walk a mile.  The surgery and the dilligence with following the program has saved my life.