Went to the local support group this evening...

I enjoyed myself for the most part.  We are so blessed in the Modesto area to have the local WLS surgeons come and answer questions.  Dr. Coates came this evening (many times the surgeons walk in with their scrubs still on from surgery earlier in the afternoon).  A few highlights from his Q & A:  He said strictures have been reduced (RNY) greatly over the past few years.  In our book (that they gave me 3 years ago for surgery), it was stated that the percent of strictures was about 10%.  Now it is about 2% he said.  He said most strictures occur at about 3 weeks, but they can occur at anytime post WLS.  I asked him about RNY and the gallbladder...taking them out at the same time.  He said he doesn't like to do that unless it presents a problem at the same time the WLS is occuring.  He said about 15% of RNY patients will have problems with their gallbladder post WLS.  He said as a surgeon if RNY and Gallbladder are taken care of at the same time it becomes difficult for the surgeon to diagnose post WLS problems that can occur.  Was it an organ that was nicked or other problems...It becomes harder for the surgeon to spot the problems doing both at the same time.  Concerning hairloss...he said between 4-7 months is when the hair will start to drop out.  But it was because of the shock of the first few weeks of surgery that caused it to occur...lack of enough protein in the diet.  Anyways...those were some of the highlights of the evening.  Brian

Brain,
Thanks for the info. Thats good stuff.

Is the loss of hair a "guarantee"?  i.e. does it happen to everyone?

thanks

The hairloss happens to some.  It usually comes in the form of thinning of the hair.  The women are really concermed about this.  The men are more concerned that they are thinning already, and that this will accelerate the problem...and it won't grow back.  You may want to do a thread here on the Men's forum concerning the hairloss.  For me I don't know if I lost more hair on top because of nature (or God's way of keeping me humble) or from the lack of protein.  Brian

On hair loss.  Three decades ago when I was about 20 years old.. . I had a nice full head of hair. In one of my many battles against weight... I read a book called "Rational Fasting".  The premise of the book was that protein is bad.  So I tried to eliminate protein from my diet for a few months.

I lost a lot of weight... But I also lost a lot of muscle tone.. And I also lost a lot of  hair. The hair loss stopped when I resumed eating protein.