Anyone 5+,10+,20+ Years out?

Can anyone tell me how things are going for them that long out?... and how here life is?... any medical issues?... I'm 20 and I know it's a life style change, but what about when I'm 30, 40, or 50 and a grandmother?... Has anyone asked this question?... I want to live until I'm 70+, and don't want this surgery to put a raod block to me living my full lifes potiental. Any information would be great.

hi lindsey.
i know someone who had surgery 10 years ago and she is doing great. i know that ther is people over 20 that is doing great to. remembre that this surgery is used also for cancer patiens. with a great quality of life after.
i was also afraid of this surgery for the same as you, but my father told me, mariana, tomorrow you can die from an accident and you`ll live miserable for years `cuz you don´t wanna take a chance to be healthy. if you have not try dieting. you better try that is much better than surgery. i would not recomend it if you don´t have try everything is ther e to lose the weigth.
i`ve been fat all my life i`m 23 years old now. and i wanna be as healty as i can to be able enjoy my 20`s. i`m taking the chance, and I'm willing to live with the consequences. that was my decition.
and also you can not base your decition from how other people is doing `cuz everyone is diferent. so this is a decition of a life time ,so you think very well about this.
good look. if you need anything let me know.
sincerely
mariana.

Hey Lindsey,

You probably won't find anybody in this forum that can offer that type of perspective beyond five or so years, but a good place to try would be the WLS Grads Forum hear on Obesity Help.

I can tell you from my perspective at about a year and a half out that the life-style changes do need to stay permanent. The extent that you make them permanent will kind of dictate how well you do at keeping the weight off. I won't lie to you, I still have to make a very concious effort every day to follow "the program" and not revert to my old style of eating or grazing all day long (a.k.a. still eating small amounts but so frequently that at the end of the day you've still far exceeded the amount of caloric intake your body needs).

Every individual is different though, so of course your results may vary.

As far as the surgery being a road block to living your full life's potential. I don't have a bunch of statistics to quote but it's fair to say that in terms of quantity life expectancy certainly increases versus staying morbidly obese. Five year mortality rates for RNY for example are something like ninety percent lower then those for morbidly obese individuals who do not undergo surgical intervention. However, anybody could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so in my opinion it's more about the quality then the quantity of our lives. And from a quality standpoint, continued morbid obesity tends to be the huge roadblock and weight loss surgery goes a long way towards removing that roadblock and allowing you to start living life to it's fullest....just my opinion...hope this helps...

My friend is over 6 years out - no medical issues so far.

The way I look at it is this - its about QUALITY of life not quanitity of life... would you rather live to, lets say, 60 and have 40 healthy happy years, or live to 70 and have 50 obese, medical issue riddled years? The long term effects are not known so you really cant worry about the 'what ifs'... you could get hit by a bus tomorrow and die ya know? Life is short so you have to make the best of each and every day as it comes. I think the most important thing is to keep up with the vits/supps and follow ups no matter how far out you are - its super important to remember you are ALWAYS a WLS patient no matter how far out you are and how much weight you lose!

I'm almost 3 years out (will be 3 years post-op in November) and I think tthat I'm about as far out as you're going to find on the 20's board (there are a couple of posters on this board who, if I remember right, had their surgeries in '04, so that would make them 4ish years out by now....).  It isn't as if all the 20-somethings don't live to see 5+ years out, people just "age out" of the 20's board and a lot of surgeon's have only begun in recent years doing surgery on patients younger than 25 (I was my surgeon's youngest, at 19) and, as I have found to be the case myself, life beacons to be lived so people stop dropping by the boards because they are busy living healthy, happy and productive post-op lives. 

I'm with Jennifer for sure - quality of life is definately important.  No guarantees about how long anyone will live, so you should be living it up every day and WLS has allowed me to do that after more than a decade stuck in a body that held me back. 

But I also understand that you don't want to sign up for a procedure that is going to decrease lifespan unnecessarily  - so let this statistic from a 2007 study done byThe New England Journal of Medicine put your mind at ease: "Obese individuals who underwent gastric bypass decreased their chance of dying within the following decade by 40%."