Myths about RNY
Which of the following myths have you heard from your surgeon, dietician or other health care provider?
Drink carbonated beverages will stretch your pouch.
Drinking with a straw will stretch your pouch.
NSAIDS damage the pouch when they touch it, so taking them by IV or injection is OK.
We can only absorb about 30 grams of protein at a time.
Most or all RNY patients dump on sugar.
Don’t drink for 30 minutes before you eat or it will somehow wash food out of your pouch (even though there is no food in your pouch yet).
WLS will cure depression and you won’t need antidepressant meds anymore.
Your arthritis is guaranteed to go away after you lose weight.
You will never feel hungry again after RNY or at least won’t feel hungry for a very long time.
Getting enough protein means you won’t lose any hair.
Taking lots of biotin means you won’t lose any hair.
If you exercise a lot, you won’t have much extra skin.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
Here are my answers:
Which of the following myths have you heard from your surgeon, dietician or other health care provider?
Drink carbonated beverages will stretch your pouch.
Yep, my original surgeon insisted this was the case.
Drinking with a straw will stretch your pouch.
Nope, I was just told it would give me gas. But it doesn’t.
NSAIDS damage the pouch when they touch it, so taking them by IV or injection is OK.
Nope, my surgeon explained how NSAIDS cause ulcers.
We can only absorb about 30 grams of protein at a time.
My original surgeon and dietician insisted on this one, too, but my current dietician knows better.
Most or all RNY patients dump on sugar.
Yes, my surgeon gave me this impression, at least.
Don’t drink for 30 minutes before you eat or it will somehow wash food out of your pouch (even though there is no food in your pouch yet).
My surgeon insisted we should not drink for 30 minutes before eating and I followed his advice for quite a while until I finally thought about it logically and realized it made no sense at all.
WLS will cure depression and you won’t need antidepressant meds anymore.
Thank goodness no one told me that.
Your arthritis is guaranteed to go away after you lose weight.
No one told me that but I hoped it was true.
You will never feel hungry again after RNY or at least won’t feel hungry for a very long time.
Nope, no one said that to me.
Getting enough protein means you won’t lose any hair.
Yes, my surgeon and dietician both told me that.
Taking lots of biotin means you won’t lose any hair.
No, and in fact my surgeon said taking extra biotin was useless.
If you exercise a lot, you won’t have much extra skin.
No, my surgeon explained that there was no way to exercise away extra skin.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
I was told not to drink 30 min prior to eating but because if you drink a bunch then eat you'll feel full more quickly and won't get as much protein in as normal, and because if you feel hungry, drink, and then wait a little bit you may discover you weren't really hungry in the first place. I try not to eat right after drinking, but meh, sometimes it's within like 10 minutes.
Drink carbonated beverages will stretch your pouch. yup
Drinking with a straw will stretch your pouch. We were told it would cause uncomfortable gas, can't remember if this was then related back to causing your pouch to stretch
NSAIDS damage the pouch when they touch it, so taking them by IV or injection is OK. I don't think this was said, I'm pretty sure it was a blanket statement of "no NSAIDS" .... with non-oral NSAIDS not even mentioned (I say this while wearing an NSAID patch!)
We can only absorb about 30 grams of protein at a time. Yup, I think they told us this
Most or all RNY patients dump on sugar. They were pretty clear on this as a POSSIBLE side effect.
Don’t drink for 30 minutes before you eat or it will somehow wash food out of your pouch (even though there is no food in your pouch yet). This was the rule, but no logical explanatino (or illogical one) was offered, and because it made no sense, this is the only rule I blatantly ignored from the first day onwards.
WLS will cure depression and you won’t need antidepressant meds anymore. This was not addressed, or because I didn't have an issue with depression, I ignored the information.
Your arthritis is guaranteed to go away after you lose weight. I did not know I had arthritis at the time and did not hear this but might have tuned out as it didn't apply to me.
You will never feel hungry again after RNY or at least won’t feel hungry for a very long time. They were ambiguous about this, and a lot of their stuff seemed to assume hunger rather than lack of hunger.
Getting enough protein means you won’t lose any hair. They did not address this (or I'd be mad because it isn't true!)
Taking lots of biotin means you won’t lose any hair. Biotin wasn't mentioned
If you exercise a lot, you won’t have much extra skin While stated with a caveat that exercise won't eliminate ALL excess skin, there was a bit of an implication that exercise would take care of most of the problem. I was too uptight at Mr. and Mrs. PerfectBody they had there to really pay attention. Always felt looked down upon by people like those, and they gave that impression in spades.
~Lady Lithia~ 200 lbs lost!
March 9, 2011 - Coccygectomy!
I chased my dreams, and my dreams, they caught me!
Drink carbonated beverages will stretch your pouch.
No but no carbonated beverages because of the gas
Drinking with a straw will stretch your pouch.
Again, gas related.
NSAIDS damage the pouch when they touch it, so taking them by IV or injection is OK.
No
We can only absorb about 30 grams of protein at a time.
No
Most or all RNY patients dump on sugar.
No, 30%
Don’t drink for 30 minutes before you eat or it will somehow wash food out of your pouch (even though there is no food in your pouch yet).
15 min, filling up, not washing out.
WLS will cure depression and you won’t need antidepressant meds anymore.
No
Your arthritis is guaranteed to go away after you lose weight.
No
You will never feel hungry again after RNY or at least won’t feel hungry for a very long time.
NO
Getting enough protein means you won’t lose any hair.
NO, but will help lose less
Taking lots of biotin means you won’t lose any hair.
No
If you exercise a lot, you won’t have much extra skin.
No
66 yrs young, 4'11" hw 220, goal 120 met at 12 months, cw 129 learning Maintainance
Between 35-40 BMI? join us on the Lightweight board. the Lightweight Board
I was told to shoot for 20-30g of protein per meal, but was never told not to exceed 30.
I love these polls about our surgeons. It shows me how good my surgeon was (is) in terms of information, expectations, etc. (whihc is good because I am still a little frustrated that she wants me to just "live with" this intermittent, severe belly pain that is likely adhesions).
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
Which of the following myths have you heard from your surgeon, dietician or other health care provider?
Drink carbonated beverages will stretch your pouch. No, but they said it could cause gas
Drinking with a straw will stretch your pouch. No, gas though
NSAIDS damage the pouch when they touch it, so taking them by IV or injection is OK. No NSAID's ever
We can only absorb about 30 grams of protein at a time. No
Most or all RNY patients dump on sugar. No, they told us about 30%
Don’t drink for 30 minutes before you eat or it will somehow wash food out of your pouch (even though there is no food in your pouch yet). Yes we were told this one.
WLS will cure depression and you won’t need antidepressant meds anymore. This never came up with me.
Your arthritis is guaranteed to go away after you lose weight. Never had this conversation either maybe because I am only 34?
You will never feel hungry again after RNY or at least won’t feel hungry for a very long time. I was told that you wouldnt for the first 6 months.
Getting enough protein means you won’t lose any hair. I wasnt told this either, They said you will loose hair and what seems like lots but it will come back.
Taking lots of biotin means you won’t lose any hair. We were told that people take Biotin but it wouldnt effect the initial hair loss.
If you exercise a lot, you won’t have much extra skin. LOL, this one is funny. No we weren't told this I would hope people would know better..
Example: I was told to avoid carbonated beverages and drinking from a straw because of all the air that can get into the pouch that way. Not everyone who has RNY can burp well, especially not like they could before surgery, so this needs to be done with caution and not right after surgery.
I was informed that RNY could help a lot of medical conditions such as depression and arthritis. Some people will see their depression decrease or go away, and others wont. Arthritis will not go away from the surgery, but could improve due to it because of the weight loss and less presure being placed on the joints.
to avoid high sugar though
that drinking thru a straw would cause excess air to possibly be drawn in
dumping is in only less than 30% of folks
to not drink after cause it washes food out
THANK GOODNESS, I was told the truth about skin. My bariatrician's plastic surgeon is in the same suite so he was honest from the beginning and said that NO amount of exercising will firm up skin that's stretched that long as well as as quickly as most lose weight there is NO WAY to prevent the extra skin
She's from 339 to 200 as of 6/14/2012.. SOO proud of my bigbabygirl 
