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i have had hypothyroidism for almost 15 years...I had my surgery 13 months ago and I am down 148 pounds. My low acting thyroid has not slowed my weightloss down so far. I have 32 left to lose to reach my goal. I hope that it doesn't decide to kick in now! Have faith...I am one success story of someone with hypo!

CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF THEY ARE HAVING THIS PROBLEM? MY HAIR IS THINNING AND FALLING OUT. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT? I AM GETTING MY RECOMMENDED AMT. OF PROTEIN SO I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING. I AM HYPO THYROID THOUGH. ANY SIGNIFICANCE? I TAKE MEDS FOR IT. I DO NOT LIKE THIS AT ALL!!!!!!!!

I just love this thread! I am pre band and also have hypothyroidism. I have lost almost 40 lbs over the past year just trying to get approved for the band and it has been incredibly hard, but I haven't given up. I always come here and read all these posts from the "hypo bandster" and y'all keep me going! I just wanted to say THANK YOU ALL for sharing.

This is just my recommendation; when I very first had a sugary treat, I felt horrific. Not true dumping syndrome, but I did get the clammy, flushed feeling. Reactive hypoglycemia is common for some patients especially if you are low carbing, sugar free eating and then all of a sudden you throw some (all be it a small bite) of yummy buttercream frosting/cake into your system. I would suggest you having a couple of bites of sugary something the week before your wedding to make sure your body doesn't completely freak out. At 2 years out, even though I don't restrict any foods, and do not restrict carbs or sugar, I do not eat these things on a regular basis, and if I decide to indulge in cake, I feel pretty crappy. Cheesecake, candybars, Starbursts candies, pie, donuts do NOT have this effect on me, but buttercream or cream cheese frosting both make me feel weird. I'm assuming it's the fat content that does me in on the frosting. Many congrats on your upcoming nuptials and getting your sleeve date! ! !

I just went to my 6 month post op, and the NUT talked about reactive hypoglycemia. She said is is common among sleevers, and the symptoms are similar to dumping syndrome. What happens is that we eat more sugar/carbs than we are used to, and then our bodies respond by releasing extra insulin. For some reason, the body will release way more than needed, and then low blood suger happens. shakes, sweating, diarrhea, and light-headedness are some of the symptoms. Sounds like that's what happened.

thank you guys very much. i am very nervous. but i cant take another minute. i was always thick. but when i had my last daughter i gained alot of wait and began to have thyroid problems. i am hypo active and no matter what i do i cant lose anymore weight. @ sweetheart what is bandster hell. i havent heard of that one. lol

So ever since Friday i haven't been feeling all that great. I was feeling a bit swimmy in the head and my insides actually felt sore. It almost felt like I was coming down with something. Last week I found out my thyroid was way out of whack so instead of hypo i was hyper. My Doc changed my dosage and the swimmy feelings went away. I still felt sore inside and it hurt mildly to take a deep breath. I was thinking because I started taking Iron may be I was constipated, I took some miralax. Friday I felt so full and couldn't eat anything after my attempt at lunch. Well it doesn't appear as though I am constipated and I still feel sore inside and randomly without warning I get a pain in my left abdomen that makes me cringe. It really has me baffled. I don't feel full anymore and am able to eat normally. I am not one to freak out but I can't imagine what it could be. I will be calling the surgeon's office tomorrow. I am 11 weeks out. Does anyone have a similar experience? Just looking for clues.

Go Shirley, you are doing great with your weight loss! Hang in there hypo bandsters!

Just tried the calcium chewable from Bariatric Advantage today. It was raspberry flavored - SO YUMMY!!! It looked like a Starburst and tasted like one too!! I really like the liquid stuff I have now (Reviva) but these might be great to have for traveling or times when I have to leave home before I can take the first dose of Calcium. I take thyroid medicine (hypo) and can't take the Calcium for 2 hours after....so these might be good for my morning dose and I could stick with the liquid for my evening dose.

Oh thank you for mentioning that. I am actually hypo-thyroid and I am not taking any other antidepressants. I have in the past but they really started messing me up after a while. I started looking for whatever I could find to improve it naturally. I knew I was Vitamin or mineral or something deficient because my diet for many years consisted of doritos and Mt. Dew. You don't get very many nutrients that way but it sure was good while it lasted. I'm just paying for it now............giggle.

Hi Everyone, Love the posts, I too have hypo and am on levothyroxine. I am very curious about the Armour and will ask my doctor. I'm scheduled for my surgery on the 26th, can't wait. Finally, some help! It's comforting to hear other's stories ... Serifa

I'm on Synthroid .075 daily. I got diagnosed officially about 5 months ago, although my level has been elevated for years but hadn't tipped over into the danger zone until recently. I take it every morning and literally count the minutes down until I can eat! I wake up starving! Glad to find a thread with hypo folks.

In the first couple of months, I had an aversion to anything sweet. If I had a little something with real sugar in it, I was instantly queasy and it tasted terrible. OK, so I have been having terrible cravings for the last couple of days (hormones?) and I had 2 peices of smores candy. It went down OK, tasted pretty good. Then it hit me. First, I nearly passed out and had to lay on the couch for 2 hours. Then the shaking started. My hands were shaking terribly. My best guess is some sort of hypo-glycemic reaction I have never felt anything like it. I ate pure Protein after that - just chicken - and I started to feel better. Lesson learned: just because I can fit it in my stomach, and it tastes good, and it doesn't make me vomit DOES NOT MEAN that it is a free for all and I can eat it. I am not eating enough food to waste even one bite on something that isn't nutritious. Maybe later on, but not now. Living and learning...

Have your Thyroid checked.....ask for a TSH test! Could be underlying health issues! I was banded 12-7-10 and am only down 50 pounds! I have Hypo thyroid,stage 3 Adrenal Fatigue among other issues and it is harder to lose the weight compared to someone with out thyroid issues!

When I ran out of diets to try! I had been thru the gambit of diets (insert what ever name you like) twice and I was to the point that with extreme effort I could only lose 15 lbs. It used to be I would only gain back to my starting weight but the last few go rounds it gain back to start and pack on more. After being on Jenny Craig all of last year and losing only 14lbs I gave up. I could not afford to keep spending my money on failed diets. So I decided to just not worry about my weight anymore. Well, that lasted about 3 months and I could not stand it anymore and reseached wls. I was to the point that I did not want to participate in anything cuz I was so tired all the time. I have Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, hypo thyroid, and high blood pressure. It was time. Started out thinking lapband and then found out about all the problems and switched to sleeve. Hoping to surgery in 6 weeks. Good luck!

I'm the crazy one who actually gives people radioactive iodine for a living . Its not as bad as it sounds. A lot of times the "anti" thyroid medicines don't cut it and eventually the thyroid will work so hard it actually goes hypo, sometimes inactive. So, by giving the radioactive iodine, we just speed up the process and it typically makes people feel a whole lot better, sooner. I'm a thyroid patient myself. YES, the stereotypical hyperthyroid patients are skinny, but we see many many people with the opposite. One iodine treatment isn't going to impact fertility. Especially for hyperthyroid. Our cancer patients get 15-20 times the amount and there still isn't much of a risk. There's ALWAYS a slight risk with any kind of medical procedure. Its just radiation sounds so terrible, people are usually afraid of it. Most people don't think twice about traveling on an airplane, going to the mountains, spending a day out in the sun, etc. You get more radiation doing some of those things than what you would get with a treatment. I'm thinking the doctor wants it under control before surgery because the thyroid controls so many things. Its probably best this way, even though it puts your surgery off, which stinks!!!

I'm 18.5 weeks pregnant. I won't have any issues losing the pregnancy weight. I'll just low carb it again until I get the weight off. I gained a few pounds over the holidays and dropped those pounds in a little over a week just by cutting alcohol and carb consumption. As for the breakdown of weight gain with a pregnancy, this is what they've outlined for my weight gain: Maternal Fat- 7lbs Baby- 6-8lbs (average is 7.5lbs) Increases Fluid (blood volume)-2-4 ( a mother's blood volume typically doubles during pregnancy) Amniotic Fluid- 1-1.5lbs Placenta- 2lbs Breast tissue/mammary system weight increase - 1-2lbs Watch out for the ROSE procedure, it has an 85% failure rate. This is also discussed heavily on the obesityhelp.com Revision forum. ERNY (extended RNY, where they remove more intestine to start malabsorption again since intestinal adaptation has taken over at this point for you) is also an option. They will shorten your common channel by another 50-100cm. You definitely want to know before you agree to a revision if you have a pouch or stoma dilation because if you have actual mechanical failure with your RNY even a band over the pouch isn't going to do much because once the food passes through the band pouch into your RNY pouch, you will still be able to more food, and your malabsorption is gone. As for Jerusalem clinic, honestly, out of over 3 years on weight loss forums, I have never read of one patient having a RNY take down and revision to the VSG being performed there and honestly that is possibly why they are recommending the band over the bypass pouch to give you restriction again. Seriously, I can name 4 surgeons worldwide that are experienced with these surgeries, and with self-pay patients the cost just for the surgeon run upwards of 20-30k because it is such a complicated and exhausting surgery to take down an old RNY. I promise I researched revisions for months once I knew my band had to come out. The risks for complications especially leaks from scar tissue and adhesions literally quadruples with revisions vs. a virgin, unaltered stomach/intestinal tract. I had a leak with a band revision to VSG after only having the band for 8 months, and actually lost more stomach tissue because of the damage the band had done. My surgeon was experienced with revisions, and I happen to be a statistic of his that I'd like to take back. I was his first and only VSG leak so it can happen even with really experienced surgeons. I'm not slamming Jerusalem Clinic, but revisions are super tricky, complicated, and I would hate to see you fork out the money, get a surgery that is as high maintenance as the BOB procedure and then continue to struggle with your weight and be looking at or for another surgery. There have been RNY to VSG revisions performed due to reactive hypoglycemia symptoms and diagnosis after RNY, but again, it's a very complicated surgery with high risks. Just choose carefully, and continue to research your options.

I have hypo-thyroidism, too, and have lost about 26 lbs since surgery 8 weeks go. I can't complain a bit. I haven't started truly working out yet either, so I don't even think about my thyroid slowing things down at all. My surgery group explained that this surgery would help rev everything up!

I am getting sleeved on June 22. I am 51, strong family history of heart disease (my mom has had triple bypass, two uncles have had quadruple bypass, aunt had double bypass, two uncles have died of heart attacks, my grandmother had a few heart attacks), currently take daily 81 mg of aspirin per my cardiologist for prevention. I know you are not supposed to take NSAIDS once you have VSG. What does one do for prevention? I will be seeing my surgeon for my 2 week pre op on Thursday the 9th, I will ask him. Anyone else with this problem? I have had blood tests for C-reactive protein which is an indicator of future heart attack and my level was fairly high. This is one the my reasons for this surgery, to get rid of excess weight and changing eating habits and exercise to prevent heart disease. My cardiologist happily cleared me for this surgery. I did a 10 month weight management program through my cardiologist, and I lost 8-10 lbs. I did not think about this until this morning when I decided not to take the aspirin since I want to reduce bleeding risk from surgery. Any answers will be helpful for when I talk to my surgeon and cardiologist.

I'm also Hypo-thyroid... I'm glad I found this post. I realized that I am not alone. Few people really understand the challenges and frustrations we face.

I found the post you were talking about and read it, it is so nice to hear other hypo-thyroid people having positive things to share with us. Thanks for sharing the information. I am like you when I see the huge losses in the same time when I am following my doctors orders exactly and am losing so slowly, but like you I am thankful for what I have lost. Good luck on your journey!

I had a post-op appointment today and my doc decided I was ready for a small fill. He seemed please with my 12pd weight loss in the last 8 weeks and commented his hypo-thyroid patients are slower in weight loss. It has been so hot here in Eastern, NC these last few days. Heat index has been 110 degrees this week and to be honest, I have not felt much like eating nor riding my bike or walking. Have any of you noticed weather affects the band? Just realized what the word Diet stands for, "Do I Eat Today?" Just kidding!

Fessie, I am hypo-thyroid also and I definitely feel your pain in how slow our weight loss can be. I have lost abt the same amount as you and am 8 weeks post op. I am just thankful to finally be losing weight. What was getting me was seeing people post 25-35 pds lost that were banded around the same time as myself. These same people were posting about eating oreo Cookies and pizza, while I was staying strictly to the band diet, portion sizes and excersing. Even in the early stages on a liquid diet I lost very little. I am over being bothered by that now and will just be thankful for my pound here and there. I started a post last week for hypothyroid bandsters you should read. Shirley54 had some very encouraging things to say and shared her slow weight loss as well.