Anyone have heart arrhythmia prior to VSG?

Hi gang! Have a friend (John) who is a male at about 500 pounds. His heart beats erratically from all the extra stress from the weight. His heart doc says that he needs to lose weight the old fashioned way. Riiiiiggght. NOT going to happen. John lost 100 pounds two years ago over the course of a year on NOTHING but liquids. He's gained that back, plus some. I feel like I'm slowly watching my high school buddy die. If anyone had these symptoms prior to WLS and went on and had WLS, could you let me know? I really would like to get John to a surgical appointment. He has a wonderful little boy who's only 11. I want my friend to be around to watch his son grow up. I know he'd go to a bariatric surgery information session if he thought there was ANY chance that he's a candidate. Unfortunately, he doesn't believe he is.

Thanks everyone!!
Jeni

 I lost my last reply. It was really long too!

Anyway, here is what I think:

A cardiologist is not a specialist in bariatrics. Your friend needs to consult with a bariatric surgeon and the two doctors should then work together to come up with a viable treatment plan. 

It may very well be that the bariatric surgeon will require some weight loss until the heart arrhythmia goes away before he'll perform the surgery. But unlike the last time when he was on a liquid diet for a year, this time he'll get surgery at the end and then he won't  gain it back and he'll continue to lose more.

OTOH, it may be that bariatric surgery can be done much sooner.

But the bariatric surgeon is the one to decide this, NOT the cardiologist. After all, you wouldn't ask your cardiologist for advice on your Type II diabetes. So why should you listen to his opinion on nutrition and weight loss? It's not his area of expertise!

Also, with anything this big, you should always get a second opinion anyway.

Finally, you might want to post this on the main forum because you'll get a much bigger audience and its' more likely someone will have prior experience to help you.

I can relate to your friend. but i had the support of all of my Dr.s and specialists for WLS....just a matter of which surgery was the debate at the time.

I have atrial fib which is an irregular heart beat so i assume it's like or similar your friend. I take Coumadin and a Rx to slow down the heart rate (I take all kinds of meds to slow down my system...heart, metabolism, etc). Note that while weight is an aggravator, in my case, it is not the cause of my problem. There were/are other contributing factors.

i, too, did the 18 mons of liquids...lost a ton and regained it all plus....my last ditch effort before WLS.

Had a successful.....very easy surgery and recovery. I'm still in the losing process but basically happy with the journey.

You can PM me if would like to discuss further.

Elaine

Edited to add--my surgeon worked with my specialists (and me, of course) which was helpful in determining type of surgery and the prep required.

I was diagnosed with A-Fib after my VSG. The stress of the surgery and limited fluid intake after surgery excerbated the condition and I ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks due to the arrhythmia and another complication due to the procedure. Physical stress can exacerbate the heart arrhythmia and would need good follow-up post surgery. I didn't know about the problem, but I was placed on 2 baby aspirin and a medication to keep my heart rate down. I dodged the coumadin bullet, thank heavens!!!

Your friend has a problem that was mostly likely caused by his extreme obesity and will only get worse, if he isn't able to get some weight off. A malabsorption surgery may be the best bet for him, but the VSG was started for cases like your friend's. The VSG would help to get him down to a healthier BMI, when a malabsorption procedure could be performed, if he still needed it. He needs to consult with a bariatric surgeon and the two doctors would need to work together, to determine, which procedure would be the safest for your friend. At this point, he is a poor surgical risk, but that isn't going to improve without some type of intervention. He may need to go on a liquid diet, lose some weight, and then have the procedure, before he has time to regain the weight. Is he receiving any psychological care? If not, that may help to change some behavior.

gail

Thanks everyone! I'm going to try to get him to read this post next time he's over visiting.