Looking to the future

Hey everyone,

I am currently working on meeting requirements to get my VSG done and it seems the harder I work towards this the more and more resistance I meet. Originally I thought that the insurance companies were going to be the difficult ones. It turns out my family (specifically my mother and grandmother) have turned against me. My mother (an RN of nearly 20 years) keeps trying to convince me that the problems long term are not worth the short term success. She keeps telling me that there are severe health problems that come from VSG (hair loss, mortality, malnutrition, the list goes on) and my grandmother did undergo a RNY about 5 years ago but she very quickly fell off the wagon and started eating like she did pre-op. She did loose 200+ lbs but she is very non-compliant with the post-op lifestyle and as a result is fatigued and required B12 and other injections monthly.

I have researched as much as I can. I have spoken to the physician at my WLC and even the surgeon but none of them can give me good information regarding long-term. While I recognize that VSG is relatively new here in the US there has to be someone that can give me a good honest opinion or account of their experience. 

I've even turned to Youtube and found some of the WLS "celebs" there and while their information is good about short term, there is very little information about what happens years out.

I know it is a stretch to ask here but I'm hoping that someone can give me some kind of idea. I hate to be up against my family on this but I need someone who has been there and done it.

Thank You,

Andrew

25 Years old, 300 lbs, BMI 43, 5'10"

Thanks Laurie for the support and good luck with your loss :-)

You might get more responses if you post this question on the VSG forum.  There's quite a few vets on there but they don't necessarily come over to this board.  

There is a forum for VSG, yes. If you're considering vsg, does your surgeon do this procedure a lot? I was sure to pick someone who had done a lot of these procedures.

As for the family, well, I have been right where you are. My relatives had a lot of worries, too. If you find a surgeon who does VSG's a lot, do you think your family could go in with you to talk to said surgeon, or attend a seminar perhaps, and learn more about VSG from the horse's mouth, and be able to voice their questions and concerns?

I personally can't give you any long term success stories because I just had my VSG this month. I can say that it was a pretty easy surgery from my perspective, and that I've had MUCH worse pain. Restriction is awesome, and weight loss has been good so far - of course, I'm early out, so that doesn't mean a whole lot yet! The REAL work is yet to come.

I'm confident in my selection of surgeons. He performs nearly 60 WLS a month and over half are VSGs. Although he's a "young" doc he was selected by his preceptor to perform surgery on him so that's comforting. He also has had no leaks in any of his VSG and a very low complication rate. Although I can't quote his stats for his other surgeries exactly I do know he has a similar outcome all around.

Also thanks for the insight to new post-op pain. I have heard its moderate but not unbearable as you had said which is comforting.

Sounds like my surgeon! My surgeon has a very low leak and complication rate, too. His work tends to have a great outcome, and all his patients report having very little pain or complications. I picked him over several other surgeons and am glad I did my research first.

Pain wise: In my experience, pain was generally at a 1 or a 2 the first day. I may have peaked at around a 4 when the pain meds first started wearing off and I was switched over to oral meds, which knocked it back down to 1 or 2. At home I may have gotten up to a 3 at the most, on the third day. The only lasting pain I've had is some muscle spasm around one of the incisions, which comes on at odd moments. Surgery is never really fun, but this was such an easy surgery for me. I feel so incredibly fortunate that it was and that I sailed through so easily. I hope that whatever your choice is regarding surgery, you are able to have peace with your decision and that your family will support you.

Since VSG hasn't been widely done until recently, how does your mom have information regarding serious long term complications?  Maybe you could ask her to point you towards some studies, published in peer reviewed medical journals, so that you could read up on these yourself?

She has no specific sources for VSG. I have directed here to the document published by the NIH regarding all WLS and pointed out the various statistics concerning laparoscopic procedures and mortality, PE, and DVT.

I will be honest she is projecting other peoples problems onto me. One of her coworkers went and had RNY with her husband, they went through the whole process together, and he died 2 weeks after due to a PE. Since then (almost a year ago) her coworker has been struggling with malnutrition and hair loss and many other problems. But that was a different surgery and at a different clinic with another surgeon, whose reputation I do not know.

if you have any direction as to where to find more valid info please pass it along. I am more the. Willing to continue to read into this.

thank you

Your surgeon should be able to direct you toward whatever info is currently available.

But your mom doesn't have any actual evidence to back up what she's saying because there is none.  And there is none because it's just not correct.

Some people do die from WLS.  People can die from any surgery - a nose job, having your tonsils removed, your gall bladder, etc.  It's possible.  The risk of death and serious complications from WLS is supposed to be about the same as from any other major abdominal surgery - so again, having your gall bladder removed or something like that.  All surgeries are riskier in morbidly obese people.  Since only morbidly obese people have WLS, the overall rate of death from WLS is higher than the overall rate of death from gall bladder removal.  That's because many people that have their gall bladders removed are not morbidly obese.  But the risk to you from WLS should be about the same as your risk from any other abdominal operation.

A lot of what your mom is telling you sounds like she only has half the information.  For instance, RNY patients very rarely suffer from malnutrition unless they just don't eat properly and don't take the proper supplements.  I had RNY more than five years ago and when I had labs done six months ago, my protein level was great, my vitamin D level, my iron level, my thiamine level, my B12 level, my vitamin A level, my zinc level, my copper level, my folate level, my B6 level, my selenium level, all were excellent.  So is my cholesterol and my blood glucose.  Now, I eat about 80 grams of protein a day, I take multivitamins and calcium citrate and iron and vitamin C and vitamin D3 and vitamin A and zinc and B12.  If I didn't, I bet my labs would look at lot worse.

I have a normal head of hair, too.