Weight Loss Surgery - The Untold Stories

Often times you see weight loss surgery commercials and you see fit and trim individuals, enjoying life, enjoying their kids or grandkids and their talking about how they've shrunk from a size "double digit" to a size "single digit". Well there are other stories that are never told. The following is just a few stories that will never be in a weight loss surgery commercial. All names will be changed to protect the innocent:
Story #1 - At Bobby's highest weight, he was almost 450lbs. Bobby had Roux-En-Y and came home with some seriously adverse affects. Bobby couldn't hold any food down, so his main diet was Ensure...morning, noon and night. He would often "dump" the Ensure for what seemed like no reason. Bobby began to loose the weight but was miserable for most of the time. Fast forward 4 years later and Bobby is still wavering between real food and Ensure. Suddenly a quarter size lump appears on Bobby's side. Doesn't seem to be anything to worry about until suddenly a month later the quarter has grown to a softball. A strange tumor from no where suddenly appeared with the appetite of a leech. The tumor thrived on a nearby blood supply. Any progress Bobby made with eating was lost again. On top of all that, Bobby suffers from Degenerative Disk Disease. Are the tumor and DDD a result of the weight loss surgery? Who knows? Better yet, will any of Bobby's physicians investigate to find out? Doubtful.
Story #2 - Cindy and I had Roux-En-Y the exact same day. It wasn't until the next day when a physical therapist came in to check on me that I realized something went wrong with Cindy's surgery. The therapist said, "That lady that had surgery the same day as you isn't doing so well. You're up and moving but she's still laying in bed with an oxygen mask on. I don't think her Roux-En-Y was successful. Something prevented them from completing her surgery."
I saw Cindy at the 5 day check up and she didn't look like someone who had just had the surgery...she looked like a candidate, as she huffed and puffed and strained to breathe through her oxygen mask.
Story #3 - Judy had surgery almost a year before I did. Suddenly one day a colleague says, "Judy was taken to emergency. She almost died." I never thought her trip to emergency had anything to do with her weight loss surgery until details were given. Apparently Judy was still taking the Flintstone chewables she took right after her surgery a year ago. She didn't bother to tell her physician, nor did he ask about what "kind" of vitamins she was taking. Judy almost died of anemia.
Story #4 - Tina had Roux-En-Y and so did her Mother-in-law, Gladys. Gladys' weight loss surgery was a little too successful. Suddenly her children began to worry about her because she began to quickly look like a skeleton with skin. People began to think she had cancer. Come to find out Gladys had a gastro-intestinal problem, and was slowly starving to death. Long story short, Gladys had to have her Roux-En-Y reversed.
Story #5 - A friend told me another friend had Roux-En-Y and 6 months later, she suddenly died in her sleep. Was it natural causes? Well...that's what they told her family.
Story #6 is my own. In 1999, I weighed 435lbs. My weight was a combination of poor eating, stationery living and PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). The Roux-En-Y helped me change my eating habits and water aerobics ceased the stationery living but no one factored in the PCOS (which also has obesity as a symptom). At the informational Gastric Bypass meeting, we were told we had a "golden year" to eat right, exercise and lose weight or..."Cinderella's chariot turned back into a pumpkin". I can remember the physician saying, "You will turn back into a normal person with a weight loss problem." Who would have known my "golden year" would be plagued with foot pain, orthopaedic appointments and a series of non-functioning orthotics to wear in my shoes. I spent that "golden year" running from orthopaedic specialist to orthopaedic specialist only to find out (at the end of that golden year), I had a torn tendon in my left foot that needed to be re-attached. So almost one year to the date of my Roux-En-Y, I had the tendon attached and was bedridden for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks I began to walk around with a walking cast. Four weeks later, while walking to the church office, I suddenly (and might I add gracefully) fell. No tripping...no suddenly loss of footing, it was as if I just...fell. When I hit the soft grass I heard a "snap, snap". Before I felt any pain, I remember thinking, "What was that?". After reaching the hospital via ambulance, x-rays showed a BROKEN right ankle (remember...I just had surgery on the left) and fractured right tibia. I immediately started to cry. I had just gotten back to work and was attempting to finish my classes so I could graduate two months later.
Emergency surgery and 4 weeks later, I was being wheeled to class. Four weeks after that, we had to rent a scooter for two months ($2200.00) so I could maneuver around my job and NO my insurance WOULD NOT PAY FOR IT! After 8 weeks, I had to return to surgery to get the hardware out of my ankle, so that would account for a total of 4 months of being bedridden.
I'm now 6 years post Roux-En-Y and 20 lbs heavier. The following year I spent on narcotics due to the pain from the tendon repair. I spent the first 4 months of the following year getting weaned off of the narcotics! The year after that I had a slow but consistent weight loss. The year after THAT was started with pep, courage and a commitment to exercise with my best friend. We faithfully went to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30am to do water aerobics. We lost inches everywhere...we were SO excited! Suddenly...almost simultaneously, she needed knee surgery and I had a pinched nerve that left me dragging my right leg Quasimodo-style. What a kick in the teeth! I was on medical leave for 4 months, diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease (yeah, same thing as Bobby in Story #1)...bedridden because I couldn't sit. The result...after decompression therapy, I got back on my feet... with an added 10-15 lbs. Okay...so...back to work I go for only 4 months and I start feeling horrible pain in my neck. Lo and behold, MRI results come back and every single disk in my cervical spine is either bulging or herniated, not to mention I'm still suffering from the herniations in my lumbar area that caused the pinched nerve earlier in the year. Three months of therapy and I'm still in pain but back to work. Oh yeah...and another 10-15 lbs heavier because I couldn't do anything but lay around.
As I look in mirrors with a bit of disappointment, I can only focus on the current attempts to eat healthier because aerobics of any kind is out of the question right now. So, there you have it...the untold weight loss surgery stories.