HIV+ and RNY

Hello everyone, I have never posted to this group before. I didn't know there was a gay and lesbian group. Me and my partnerare going to have the RNY done this year. My Partner is HIV+ and has been since 1985. He is one of the lucky ones.  His blood cell counts are all normal, so he is considered to be undetectable unless you do an actual HIV test. On a side note to that, I am negitive and we do practice safe sex to keep me that way.

So here is my question, since after RNY you can have malaborbtion issuses, do yall think his status might ccause him problems after the surgurey? I am sure our surgen will discuss that with us on our first visit. Just thought I would see what yalls thoughts are on the subject.

Thanks,
David

I have no clue but I just wanted to welcome you to the group.

Sorry, but even the RN side of me has no answer for that one - will be interesting to hear what you find out.  Like our other member I wanted to say welcome to the board.

Mike

Welcome to the board!  I wish I had an answer for you but am clueless.  I assume though that the surgery might be helpful for a lot of health issues. Good luck!

Welcome David. I'm glad you found us. I'm so happy to hear about your partner's health. To be HIV positive for over 20 years and be healthy means he and you are doing all the right things. Congratulations! I don't know the impact of HIV status on RNY surgery but I'm sure the research is out there somewhere and most definitely I will be interested to hear what your surgeon has to say about it. HIV is never a contraindication for surgery. All surgery patients are treated as if they are positive (universal precautions, etc) but I understand your concerns for the malabsorption issue. The only way I could see it be an issue is if he ever had to start medication (or if he's taking meds now, continuing them). My understanding is that if something is hard on the stomach (like aspirin ) or needs stomach acid to break it down, then it's not going to be allowed or work after RNY... otherwise it should be okay. I've been told that all forms of antibiotics are okay and my understanding of HIV antiviral drugs is that they are similar in how they are absorbed. Pills can be taken with no problem within a few weeks after surgery and before then can be crushed (if allowed by the drug) or an oral suspension can usually be found. But this is all speculating on my part... thinking out loud. I would not only talk to the surgeon but talk to his HIV primary care physician as well.

Keep us updated on this for sure. We can all learn more about it. And good luck on your journey over to the losers bench.

I think it would be EXTREMELY important to keep vitamins and protein and other levels up. If resistance would go down it may be an issue I think.

Thanks for posting. Welcome! And yes, congratulations to your partner for his excellent disease management.

He might want to consider a gastric sleeve/ sleeve gastrectomy/ VSG instead of a bypass. This is a restrictive only proceedure without all the issues that the lap band has. No restrictions on pill size, no malabsorption. That way, if there comes a time where he is having malabsorption due to disease process, it is not compounded by the bypass malabsorption.

..

My partner Randy went to see his HIV doc today. al his levels are still showing good. :)

 Has he considered the band? In case he gets sick and needs to let it out?  That's what worries me most about surgery - getting sick and not being able to eat.