Weight Loss Surgeries

I remember being impressed watching the TV program, '60 minutes,' in 2008 in which they interviewed 8-10 patients who'd had bariatric surgery who claimed, that even before they lost one pound of their weight, they were able to leave the hospital without their diabetic medication and, a few years later, claimed they'd never needed to go back onto it again.

That sure sounded like improved health to me.

There were two things about this program though, that triggered a few questions too. Why, if weight is blamed as a primary cause of diabetes, could these morbidly obese patients leave the hospital diabetes-free without losing even a single pound?

And how come, even 3-5 years later, when, even though they had lost some weight, in reality they were still -what would be termed- morbidly obese hadn't their diabetes returned?

(I still don't know the answer to this - but it does make me question if once again weight isn't being blamed for simply all our health problems, when there are maybe other factors that deserve investigation).

P.S. It really surprised me that not one of the people on this TV show were thin - don't the brochures show how former fatties become skinnies?

Searching for images of before and after pictures related to weight loss surgery on the web, I didn't find a single (nope not one!) picture of someone morbidly obese who, although they had lost considerable weight) was still very obese - yet not a single of the people on this TV program were thin.

I found this curious given that this program claimed that most patients don't lose more than 30% of their body weight after weight loss surgery. So if you started out weighting 400 pounds, at best you'd probably still weigh 266 pounds. But not according to the pics I found on the web!

This was far more the typical picture to be seen - which um... makes me just a tad suspicious.

Firstly, they're very typical of what you see in weight loss photos, and secondly, I suppose it wouldn't do for a surgeon to show pics that don't show massive weight loss - would it now?

I'd really have expected patients that has gone through such extreme weight loss surgeries to have been skinnier given the lives of extreme restriction and deprivation that stomach stapling and other weight loss surgery dictates.

I mean it's not like you have weight loss surgery and then you can go back to your old eating habits - your eating becomes severely restricted. So let's investigate a bit further.

A recent TV program in South Africa showed a morbidly obese lady in the States (she weighed over 400 pounds) of 29 who was told she was unlikely to live to beyond 30 without bariatric surgery. But only a couple days after her weight loss surgery she died of a heart attack.

The surgery didn't save her, and for all we know she might have lived longer without the trauma induced by undergoing surgery.

But then it seems her story isn't unusual. A study from Washington State University says ONE IN FIFTY patients who have had weight loss surgeries die within THIRTY days.

As one moderator for a 'gone wrong weight loss surgery group' (with a membership of between 14000 and 1600 members), says: "I don't think there is a reliable study to find out how many die after the thirty first day from complications. Doctors do NOT really know how many die as people move, go onto other doctors, get reversals....and so on."

This same moderator says she's been watching stories around weight loss surgeries since the late 1970's and that she personally knows of nine women and two men who have died. She claims that the commercials on tv make it look like it's all fun, games and happy family reunions. When the reality is that people who have had any form of weight loss surgery live the rest of their lives in bed, a wheel chair, house bound.

Even 'banding' which appears to be less radical, less invasive and safer (as the whole stomach remains intact, so malnutrition and embarrasing side effects apparently don't occur) isn't without it's problems. One UK women has her band slip off a year after surgery and then couldn't afford the surgery to find the floating bank and have the surgery redone.

Of course those we're unlikely hear about the complications of weight loss surgeries on commercials on tv, in magazines or weight loss surgery surgeon's pamphlets, that what really seems to happen in reality. If anything, any complications come up in a highly speeded up audio or in the tiniest of small print.

She claims many patients start having complications right away. Some become malnourished. Some starve to death. Some never quit vomiting. Others have to have blood transfusions, iron transfusion, live on protein so-called shakes. Vitamins, minerals are NOT absorbed. People's hair, teeth fall out. Their teeth de-mineralize.

Bev, the fabulous moderator for our Mind over Fatter online group, decided to join a support group for weight loss surgery to check out the positive aspects of it. After about 6 weeks with this group, her conclusion was: "And now I know that I'll NEVER do this to myself!!! I want to LIVE my life - not make everything revolve around my - chopped-up - stomach!!"

• Members who tend to stay with the group are the 'successful' ones - i.e the ones that have not had severe post-op issues.... and are still alive 3-4 years post-op. The vast majority of members were not sorry that they had the surgery, and have lost weight. However, this is probably a very unbalanced view as those folks who start gaining back weight or voice problems are quickly ostracised and then tend not to mail again (or maybe they left the group).
• Members are not encouraged to discuss problems - only successes. Only once in the last 6 weeks have the group discussed a possible post-op problem ( known as Mesenteric Hernia ) - and they only discussed this because someone somebody knew died from it.
• Having any kind of weight loss surgery does NOT mean that you can eat what you like afterwards : even after the wounds have healed, the change in anatomical structure of the gut means that you cannot tolerate things like fatty foods and refined starches, and many also cannot eat dairy otherwise they have embarrassing problems with explosive and smelly diarrhoea.
• Because of the Malabsorbtion, all of them have to supplement (LOTS of) vitamins and proteins wherever and however they can - they spend an absolute fortune on these. Getting sufficient nutrition is often very difficult because of the small volumes of food/drink that they are able to consume : the average post-operative stomach size has about 150mls (half a cup) stretched capacity. Any more than that just comes straight back!!!
• The ones who are 'successful' are EXTREMELY obsessed with food, and are VERY disciplined about their vitamin and food regimes. These regimes get so involved, that I would hazard to say that they consume their entire lives.
• Their main focus seems to be their diets and what they can eat - 90% of the group posts are about this : so - in effect - the 'diet-head' and it's related obsessions actually get WORSE and not better after the operation. They are also extrememly paranoid of gaining the weight back. Psychologically they actually deteriorate from their pre-op position.

Weight loss surgeries are not the cure-all the medical profession would like obese people to think it is. It doesn't address the mind issue for the weight, which in my experience is where it all starts!! And it seems that very few weight loss surgeries come with built-in counseling.

As one member from the Mind over Fatter online group said: "All the stories I've read on people who have had the bariatric or gastric band surgery, all say that in hindsight they should have lost the weight through following a healthy diet and exercising."

This is the true life story of one women who had weight loss surgery. Please read this before you have weight loss surgery done.









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