Questions for Long Term RNYers....

I am 4 years out and 47 year old female with osteoarthritis in my knees.

1. Tramadol. Yes it helps.

2. Depends. Sorry there really is no better answer to that one. I lost some. Lasted about 3 months.

3. Not the same way I did prior to surgery. Most of the time it's an "empty feeling". Hard to describe.

4. I have some blood sugar issues so I have to eat every 3 hours or so. Small items, not full meals.

5. Yes. I have to take Miralax (generic version) every day. Every. Day.

6. Not all of it. Sweet was intensified greatly in the first 6 months or so. Tuna now has a metallic taste to me so I can't eat it. I did develop a love for apples that I never had before. I do still enjoy flavors. You aren't losing your taste buds.

7. I was out 4 weeks. Desk job. I could have gone back in 3. Maybe 2 if I absolutely had to.

8. You will probably feel like you just had major surgery. Tired. Some gas pain perhaps. Surgery related pain. But I have had several surgeries so that could have made a significant difference for me because it wasn't that bad.

I give everyone a heads up about the hormonal issues. I was in menopause when I had the surgery. They told me the estrogen that pours into your system because it's stored in your fat they said it was like "bad PMS". Well if that means total ranting angry loon, then yea. I told my boss she didn't like opinions because she couldn't control them. Luckily I work in social services so I still have a job.

And you get better every day. You might not notice it but one day you turn around and your realize you just took a vitamin without effort that you have struggled to get down or something rather small like that but it makes you realize that you are doing much better than you were last week.  

If you're really concerned about pain relief for your arthritis post-op, then maybe you should consider one of the procedures which doesn't remove the pyloric valve (such as DS or Sleeve).  Otherwise, you might want to take the chance that the weightloss of RNY will help by removing the excess weight on the joints.  Even then, you'll probably have to deal with knee pain--I know I have and not being able to use oral NSAIDs is the pits.  I have used a topical application called Voltaren which seems to help somewhat, but I'm still having a TKR in one week.

It's definitely a coin-toss situation.