Hi all! I'm new here. I was just approved for bypass this week and scheduled today for March 2! I couldn't be more excited. I begin my pre-op diet tomorrow. (And yes, I did have a celebratory dinner last night- shrimp!) I'm wondering- I know many of us have co-factors. My biggest one is the fact that I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is indirectly what got me here in the first place. 8 years of high doses of prednisone, lack of activity from pain and general malaise, and I gained over 100 pounds. Now, I have absolutely no metabolism to speak of since the prednisone basically burned out my adrenal glands. There has been wonderful research on bypass and RA. My doctors are hopeful this will jumpstart things for me, and allow me better movement. I'm 5'4- 260 lbs.