Something else the surgeon never told me before WLS

Maria...drink prune juice and mix it with SF applesauce...it will make you poop every time!
Oh also another addiction...LAXATIVES! Like you I refuse to take more meds so I do the prune juice and applesauce.

 Maria,
My skinny Girlfriend who didnt have weight loss surgery had her gallbladder out after she had her son, developed stones and still does and had to have them removed. has that problem!!!!! So it isnt weight loss related. Normal people get it too. I had my gallbladder out way before I had my rny and I am one of the lucky ones I havent developed stones yet. but I do get the kidney stones. Go figure. Carla

Maria, yes my guardian angel was watching over me. It was my Momma. I knew I had gallstones and was gonna wait to have it taken care of when I turned 65 and Medicare and my med sup would pay for it. Then doctors discovered my Mom had small cell lung cancer. From the time of her diagnosis to her passing was only 21 days. She left my Sis and I some money. I decided to use part of mine to have my gallbladder out. After they found cancer they took out part of my liver to see if it had spread. The cancer had been growing for about a year, it hadn't gone through the gallbladder yet. If I had waited til I was 65, it would have been too late! So we feel that Momma died to save me!
I know what you are talking about with the transfer addictions. Everytime I saw my oncologist the first thing they asked was if I was in pain. I could have had enough Vicoden an/or Percocet to fill a bath tub! Two years later, I am still asked that at each visit! I decline each time.
I had a Grandfather and an aunt who were alcoholics. I won't ever go there! Plus I don't like the taste of alcohol. There are only 2 drinks I think taste decent. When I go on a business trip with my daughter, I generally have one of each. My DH's Dad was also an alcoholic and died because of it. We don't have alcohol in our house.
I did the whole psych eval before my WLS and none of those possabilities were mentioned.
I agree, not everyone has these side effects, but we should all be warned of them, so we can be aware!

Grammy,

Your mom saved you!  What a beautiful story.

My dad and his brother were 'heavy drinkers,'  which is my family's code for 'raging alcoholics.'  My son had a horrific relationship with marijuana and alcohol until he went to NA in 1999 and has been clean and sober ever since.  I've always felt that food was my drug of choice, so the addictive gene is very much alive and kicking inside me.

Hugs,

Maria

Hi Maria and Carolyn,

Oh, this is such an interesting discussion.  I have to jump in here. 

When I had my first WLS back in 1993, I had a Molina Band (which was a forerunner of the lap band).  Dr. Molina would not operate on a patient until you had a scan done of your gall bladder.  If there was any indication of gall stones, he removed the gall bladder at the same time he did the band.  So I had mine removed then.  The only side effect I had from the gall bladder surgery was to cut out most fried foods from my diet. 

I did lose 140 lbs with the band, and I'm sure I suffered the effects of malnutrition, since there was virtually no education with that procedure, and I didn't even take a daily multi-vitamin!   But I didn't know any better and I was happy with the weight loss.

Flash forward 15 years and I had regained almost all the weight I had lost, but I didn't know why.  When I finally worked up the nerve to address the issue, I discovered that the band had failed.  It had migrated from the outside of my stomach completely THROUGH the stomach wall and was inside my stomach.  Turns out that about 90% of Molina bands failed spectacularly, but since Dr. Molina died in 2005, nothing was really ever done about it.  If he knew his band was a failure, he sure didn't notify his former patients!  There was almost no information given to us before surgery about possible post-surgery complications, or even how to take care of ourselves.

So this time around, with the RNY, I have received massive amounts of education, psych evaluations, regular bi-annual testing, nutritional information, etc.  It's amazing how dumb I was the first time I had WLS.  I haven't had as dramatic a WL this time, but I sure am a lot healthier! 

As far as transfer addictions, Maria, I too come from a family of "heavy drinkers".  My dad was an alcoholic, although no one ever called him that.  As a result, like you and Carolyn, I don't drink very much.  Never have.  I'm afraid to go there.  I also have never abused drugs--prescription or otherwise.  And I don't smoke. 

But sugar is another story!  I just can't handle it!  If I take one bite, I want the whole thing.  I can't control my sugar addiction.  It's especially bad with chocolate.  People will tell me to just have a bite of dark chocolate to "satisfy" my chocolate craving.  Are they serious?  This is the gal who can eat an entire block of semi-sweet baking chocolate in one sitting.  And it's not even good chocolate.  You give me some Hersheys, or Lindts, or Dove, and I go crazy.

I've had a little bit of sweets since surgery.  Enough to realize that "dumping" is not going to be a big problem for me.  That scare the sh*t out of me, no pun intended!  I just have to keep it out of the house.  I've already pushed the envelope by allowing sugared nuts back into my diet, using the excuse that nuts are protein!  If I start back on sweets, I'm sunk, you know?

Anyway, Maria, I'm sorry that your cousin has to have her gall bladder out, but she will feel 100% better without it.  And she might not even notice many side effects at all.  Her diet probably won't have to change much.  She probably doesn't even eat most of the worst offenders anyway. 

Carolyn, I'm sorry that you're so unhappy with your VS.  I keep hoping that things will get better for you with it.  I sitll think that maybe that doctor didn't do it quite right, although I know you have every confidence in him.  I will tell you that I, too, have noticed a significant difference in the amount of food I can eat with the RNY as opposed to the Molina band.  It's a very different experience, that's for sure.  I often worry that I'm eating too much (quantity-wise), and it's a little scary.  I think it comes down to food choices.  No junk, no sweets, no baked goods.  Not always easy to do.

I'd better scoot.  It's almost time to take Butch to the airport. 

Vic

Gall bladder stones and possible surgery are the common result of any fast weight loss, regardless of whether RnY or WLS induced....People have had to have their gallbladders removed after following a weightloss clinic's proprietary diet, basically a starvation diet augmented by injected vitamins...not going to mention the name of the WL clinics but it a franchise business which has now extended into the USA and advertises "Yes you can.... lose up to 20 lbs per month....".

You could go on a low cal- low fat diet yourself ( following a supposedly balanced diet taken from the internet) and get the gallstones as a result.  I figure I didn't get any problems post starvation diets because my weight has always come off much slower than anyone else, frustratingly so and it has been likewise with WLS over 4 years ago..

I do know I have one large stone over 16mm ( now that would be a nice sized pearl!!!) which wanders around in my gallbladder, hasn't caused any problems so far but could at any time....other people have hundreds of tiny ones that manage to block ducts and get into a liver duct...Mine's too big to pass but was warned by my doctor "it can be mischievous"  ( she's a lovely lady from India, and sometimes explains things differently)...so am waiting  for my  large "mischievous stone" to act up some time and have been lucky so far...I figure it's all the yo-yo dieting I have done all my life...as to post RnY sequellae, I had found most of the possible problems in my 2 year research before I was operated on, so knew what the post surgery problems might be...The one I didn't think I'd get was iron deficiency as am post menopausal, and blow me down, but have become iron deficient, noticeably in the past year...(I'm pushing 67)...

There use to be a saying the doctors used in the ER when women came in with abodominal or shoulder pain: 4 Fs.   Fat, female, forty, and fair.  The truth is, most women have galstones bad enough to require surgery. I had my gallbladder removed years before my RNY.  

It is true that I cannot eat rice or pasta, but who cares…I wear a size 4.   And, I cannot eat a lot of beef or pork..I don't care about that either.   And, I am glad that I cannot eat bread or sugary desserts.   I can, though, eat celery and other raw vegetables.  

My surgeon was very thorough telling me the possibilities and what I would have to give up.  My ulcers, though, were a result of the RNY and I did have about a year or so when I was not able to eat a lot of food by mouth and they did give me a feeding tube that they put through my abdominal wall.  But, I would still have the surgery done again.  I weighed over 300 pounds and at one time was close to 500 pounds, and I would never, ever want to have to deal with that again.  Rice and pasta are foods that are not really good for us anyway.  

I don't think about what I cannot eat or what I miss; I think in terms of what I can do now that I couldn't do before surgey.  I would do it all again.  

 

Maria, gall bladder surgery usually happens around 5 years post op. All surgeons know this in fact some even take the gall bladder out during WLS if indicated.

Okay I'm the true guinea pig here. I had a gastroplasty in 1980 (stomach stapling) and yes everyone of us had to have our gall bladder out around year 5.
Your cousin will be able to eat anything later on. Our bodies adapt.

Transfer Addictions. Oh how true that is. What is going to replace our eating? Shopping? Sex? Alcohol? Exercise? (which I chose before I even had my revision to RNY)...and now that I have more adhesion's from open surgeries exercise has taken a back seat for me right now.

I don't drink alcohol much (yes I'm a social drinker once in awhile...) I'm much more fun sober and drinking just makes me sleepy.

What you have posted Maria is very important indeed. We don't know what the future brings for any of us but...we can stay mindful of what path we decide to walk down. Some of us have to take many detours to get where we want to be. Hugs Debbie

Vickie, sugar is my addiction of choice, too. And when I start, I can't stop! One bite? Who are we kidding, no can do.
I have even heard of aromatherapy where you smell food you crave and it satisfies you? Again, who are they kiddin'. If I smelled apple pie I would tear this house apart trying to find it.
The one very good thing left over from my band days.....I still hate the taste of chocolate. It tastes like dust to me.
I'll just plug along with my sleeve and my will power.

Sorry you (in this case your cousin) did not have information to aid you. . .  where I had surgery, they did tell us about those possibilites, as well as in my pre-surgery research, I read about such things.  I also learned alot via regular attendance at support groups.  Sadly, there are many things that can happen, even knowing as do now, as you said, most of us would have made the same choice, before I was wheeled into surgery, they told me the possibilities like you I choose to take my chances.   I've known others who have faced serious life threatening issues after WLS, they lived to say that even with those experiences they would gladly do it again. . .  their lives are still much more livable than the life they led pre-surgery.

Wishing you continued good health and for your cousin, the hope that she has no regrets regardless of this situation, wishing her an uncomplicated recovery.

Laureen