We lost our beautiful young Jessy W.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/jessyw/

I don't know what happened.  Her mom posted on her FB.  I loved this young lady and I feel so damned sad.  She was wise beyond her years and just beautiful.

She was 17 when she had her DS in Brazil.

RIP Sweet Jessy

I read on another forum that she died of liver failure.  She was indeed a sweet girl and I will miss her posts.

I saw someone post they thought that too.  Ugh, that is interesting.  She said she was having some health issues but had them under control.

Glad you are still here Val!

I didn't know Jessy but I had a RNY in 1998 and converted to a DS in 2009.  Worst decision I have ever made.  I am a Registered Nurse so I am fully aware of what's happening with my body right now.  My surgeon has left the US.  I have had to rely on my PCP (changed 3 times in 2 years) to help me.  Every one of them put me off as a mental case.  I was dizzy, chronically fatigued, muscle weakness and wasting, couldn't eat a bite due to no appetite, N/V, cannot stop losing weight.  The weight loss for some reason started again in January of this year.  Finally, I gathered all my medical records, left the hospital system I work for, and went to Emory University in Atlanta.  My new PCP did 25 lab test and discovered that I am severely malnourished.  He said people that get in this situation, go into organ failure, sometimes multi-organ failure and have to be put on ventilators and some die.  So tomorrow I start infusions to start replacing the trace minerals, electrolytes, proteins that because my surgeon took my reu limb so far near the end of my small bowel that I have almost nothing left to absorb calories or nutrients.  He said I would have been in organ failure in the next 2 weeks if that long.  Thank God I sought other help.  The surgeon that did my surgery apparently has a lot of patients in this shape.  I am shocked to say the least.  What makes me the most angry is the doctors through the past 4-5 years who have been putting me off as just tired, need more sleep, need to watch my diet, etc, -----not one of them ever checked my prealbumin (protein level).  On the morning of July 14, I passed out 3 times in my home with no one here.  The ambulance came and my speech was slurred, so they thought I had a stroke.  My blood pressure was 80/40 and pulse was 39, so naturally the ER doctor says I have postural hypotension.  I begged for blood work and tried to explain all the symptoms I've been living with, to no avail.  And I am a RN at this hospital!!!!  So if you are not following up with your surgeon for monitoring regularly, you are taking your life in your hands and it may not turn out so good.  Please make an appointment and get checked out.  I weigh `180 lbs right now, so big people can be malnourished too.

I'm glad you're out here.  Also check out DS groups on 'other social media', for nutritional health is a hot topic and even the WLS surgeons don't give the right information, and there are many vets out here and there that learned for ourselves what our bodies need and help others.  It sounds like you fell into the same predicament, which can definitely be deadly.  Even nutritionists give little more than RNY recommendations to DS patients and our needs are very different.  When you get to the point that you can take care of things yourself, please reach out for help getting you in the right direction.

Thanks Valerie for your reply.  The most frustrating part for me is that I am a registered nurse and was completely blindsided by the symptoms being completely related to my DS.  We were all looking at Adrenal Failure or Insufficiency.  I believe everything happens for a reason.  Now I have another way that I can help my patients and friends to get past these hurdles.  It definitely has been a learning experience.  I am just thankful to my Heavenly Father that He put me in the right path to get the help I needed.  Great results from your surgery!  Congratulations!

I don't really blame the DS for your problems, though, for it's malabsorbing as designed.  What I do blame, though, is the lack of information you had access to so you can keep yourself healthy and properly nourished.  Even as a nurse (or surgeon for that matter), there is much that we do that is way off the charts for regular practice (like taking 150,000 iu of water-soluble vitamin D for some....daily!).  My levels plummeted my first year as I followed my surgeon's advice.  It wasn't until I plugged into a group of DSers that were a little ahead of me and sharing information that I learned what exactly I needed, how to read and analyze my own labs, and from there I paid it forward with others.  it's going to be some serious work to get yourself into a good state of health again, but I'm confident that you'll be able to maintain it once you know what your body needs.  Throw away nutrition books and any appts you have with a nutritionist.  They are useless to us, along with our surgeons that got maybe a semester of nutrition class.  This is a whole new ball of wax.  Find a doc who is young and curious and lacking the God complex.  You'll get it figured out.

Amen.  Very good info Val.  I also got an education from older vets, and I'm forever grateful because all the professional medical info I was given was so off the mark it is scary.

Jessy was a bright, intelligent, talented young woman and she will be missed.  RIP Jessy. 

So very sad. She was so smart and strong. So many obstacles but she faced them head on.

--g