1/29/13 - Update/Edit:

As several have inquired about the timeline and were confused when i said her surgery was in May but she's been on a feeding tube for two years. The surgery was May of 2010. I was specifying the month only as a point of reference for the point at which the issue became critical (July 2010) and how long she was in the hospital that first time (into October 2010). She was also hospitalized for a few months in January 2011 when the stomache leak/infection spread through the diaphragm and into her lungs, and again the following spring and summer of 2011 for the same issues. Sorry for the confusion.

Also - I agree that the bulk of the issues centered around follow up care - which is why I was so specific about where and by whom she was being treated. But I quickly learned that such leaks and subsequent fistulas are NOT uncommon with this type of surgery - I never said they were the majority. Additionally Physicians who are now caring for her have previously cared for individuals who suffered similar, though not quite as critical, issues after having this type of surgery. So that is legitimate.

Good point on the Hipaa item - but I'm not sure that applies to family or friends sharing information they are aware of. I have no professional or legal obligation to her or her care and am not a POA or medical care provider.

Thanks to all who have read and responded - I'm still reading through them all.

****************************************************************

Original post:

I have not had gastric sleeve, but my sister has and this is her horror story. In the month after her May surgery, by Dr. Chua of Aurora Sinai in Milwaukee, my sister (Jane) came down with flu like symptoms. Although she contacted her primary physician, who was aware of the recent surgery, and I believe she had an office visit with Dr. Chua, nobody showed any concern about infection. This is despite the fact that EVERYBODY knows that infection mimics flu like symptoms and it was nowhere near flu season. Nobody ever did any scans post surgery to determine of there was any issue with the healing of the internal surgery area - even though I have since learned that other patients had experienced similar issues to what my sister was about to go through.

It turned out (after three ER visits in three days, despite the fact that I said I was worried about infection from the very first visit) that a staple hadn't held and that food/fluid had been leaking into her abdomen from the stomach causing a MASSIVE infection. By the time Aurora Lakeland in Elkhorn paid any attention to this she was almost dead. She barely made it through and it was literally touch and go for WEEKS!! AND that hospital wouldn't even treat her because they don't do bariatric surgeries - she had to be airlifted to Milwaukee.

What followed were numerous surgeries, months in ICU and then regular hospital (from July 4th weekend into October), an induced coma with her hands strapped to the bed so she wouldn't inadvertantly pull out tubes and wires, being intubated for breathing assistance, additional infections, memory loss of that entire time, and leaving on a feeding tube. She has been on that feeding tube for over two years now.

Oh she's thin alright. woohoo. But she gets her food from a bag hanging on an iv rack and has to grind her meds and flush them through the feeding tube line, as well as a drain that collects Fluid from her abdomen and open wounds that need daily care. She has NO muscles left. She probably couldn't walk a block if she was allowed to.

She came home from that hospital stay with a GIANT open wound the length of her abdomen - I mean it was big enough for me to stick both my hands into - and a wound vac installed in it to constantly vacuum up the fluid and goop that goes along with healing. That fluid drained into a plastic container that hung from tube(s) coming out of her abdomen - which she had to have with her always. It was all very painful and really gross.

That was just the first hospitalization. By January she was back in the hospital with another massive infection that had burned through her diaphragm and into her lungs. This time she spent her time in pulmonary ICU. You see they told her to start trying to eat - that they thought the holes in her stomach had closed, but they didn't do regular scans to verify this....again! They were wrong. Again.

Only this time her primary physician, Dr. Rosol of Aurora Lake Geneva, had diagnosed her with pneumonia over the phone and had given her a prescription not even strong enough to deal with pneumonia. So when she didn't get better, by the time the Aurora ER took her seriously she was again near death. This time they had to do lung surgery AND abdominal surgery to clear out and treat the raging infection caused by fluid and matter leaking from the stomach into everywhere.

So apparently this type of thing isn't that uncommon with this surgery, nor are the "fistulas" that develop as a result of this complication from this type of surgery. If the tissue around this fistula isn't so damaged that it can heal on its own it could take years. If it's damaged - as hers was from all that infection - there is no sewing it closed and it doesn't heal on its own. Imagine being on a feeding tube for the rest of your life - never tasting food, never enjoying a meal or a drink or a dessert or a holiday with your family again. Never a chocolate bar, or a bowl of Cereal, or a salad, or a glass of juice. NOTHING. All because someone convinced you that gastric sleeve surgery was the answer.

So if you are considering this surgery, don't. It's just not worth the risk. I know, if my sister could go back, she would choose fat over this lack of a life any day of the week. I grew up thin and am now fat and I would NEVER EVER EVER have a surgery to reduce my weight. Although I haven't been able to be disciplined enough to do it I know the only solution is eat less, move more. Two steps. The only solution.

There is a body of evidence that refutes the idea that fat people are fat due to lack of willpower but due to genetics and physiological change s its nearly impossible to lose weight permanently because the body fights it all the c way.

You are 100% right it's scientifically proven ....please click on the link incase any one have any doubts

For years, studies of obesity have found that soon after fat people lost weight, their metabolism slowed and they experienced hormonal changes that increased their appetites. Scientists hypothesized that these biological changes could explain why most obese dieters quickly gained back much of what they had so painfully lost.

But now a group of Australian researchers have taken those investigations a step further to see if the changes persist over a longer time frame. They recruited healthy people who were either overweight or obese and put them on a highly restricted diet that led them to lose at least 10 percent of their body weight. They then kept them on a diet to maintain that weight loss. A year later, the researchers found that the participants’ metabolism and hormone levels had not returned to the levels before the study started.

The study, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, is small and far from perfect, but confirms their convictions about why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off, say obesity researchers who were not involved the study.

They cautioned that the study had only 50 subjects, and 16 of them quit or did not lose the required 10 percent of body weight. And while the hormones studied have a logical connection with weight gain, the researchers did not show that the hormones were causing the subjects to gain back their weight.

Nonetheless, said Dr. Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia, while it is no surprise that hormone levels changed shortly after the participants lost weight, “what is impressive is that these changes don’t go away.”

Dr. Stephen Bloom, an obesity researcher at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the study needed to be repeated under more rigorous conditions, but added, “It is showing something I believe in deeply — it is very hard to lose weight.” And the reason, he said, is that “your hormones work against you.”

In the study, Joseph Proietto and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne recruited people who weighed an average of 209 pounds. At the start of the study, his team measured the participants’ hormone levels and assessed their hunger and appetites after they ate a boiled egg, toast, margarine, orange juice and crackers for Breakfast. The dieters then spent 10 weeks on a very low calorie regimen of 500 to 550 calories a day intended to makes them lose 10 percent of their body weight. In fact, their weight loss averaged 14 percent, or 29 pounds. As expected, their hormone levels changed in a way that increased their appetites, and indeed they were hungrier than when they started the study.

They were then given diets intended to maintain their weight loss. A year after the subjects had lost the weight, the researchers repeated their measurements. The subjects were gaining the weight back despite the maintenance diet — on average, gaining back half of what they had lost — and the hormone levels offered a possible explanation.

One hormone, leptin, which tells the brain how much body fat is present, fell by two-thirds immediately after the subjects lost weight. When leptin falls, appetite increases and metabolism slows. A year after the weight loss diet, leptin levels were still one-third lower than they were at the start of the study, and leptin levels increased as subjects regained their weight.

Other hormones that stimulate hunger, in particular ghrelin, whose levels increased, and peptide YY, whose levels decreased, were also changed a year later in a way that made the subjects’ appetites stronger than at the start of the study.

The results show, once again, Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” he said. “You are, in a sense, more metabolically normal when you are at a higher body weight.”

A solution might be to restore hormones to normal levels by giving drugs after dieters lose weight. But it is also possible, said Dr. Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University, that researchers just do not know enough about obesity to prescribe solutions.

One thing is clear, he said: “A vast effort to persuade the public to change its habits just hasn’t prevented or cured obesity.”

“We need more knowledge,” Dr. Hirsch said. “Condemning the public for their uncontrollable hedonism and the food industry for its inequities just doesn’t seem to be turning the tide.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weight-loss-efforts-study-finds.html?_r=1&

Sent from my iPhone 5 using VST

You are 100% right it's scientifically proven ....please click on the link incase any one have any doubts

For years' date=' studies of obesity have found that soon after fat people lost weight, their metabolism slowed and they experienced hormonal changes that increased their appetites. Scientists hypothesized that these biological changes could explain why most obese dieters quickly gained back much of what they had so painfully lost.

But now a group of Australian researchers have taken those investigations a step further to see if the changes persist over a longer time frame. They recruited healthy people who were either overweight or obese and put them on a highly restricted diet that led them to lose at least 10 percent of their body weight. They then kept them on a diet to maintain that weight loss. A year later, the researchers found that the participants’ metabolism and hormone levels had not returned to the levels before the study started.

The study, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, is small and far from perfect, but confirms their convictions about why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off, say obesity researchers who were not involved the study.

They cautioned that the study had only 50 subjects, and 16 of them quit or did not lose the required 10 percent of body weight. And while the hormones studied have a logical connection with weight gain, the researchers did not show that the hormones were causing the subjects to gain back their weight.

Nonetheless, said Dr. Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia, while it is no surprise that hormone levels changed shortly after the participants lost weight, “what is impressive is that these changes don’t go away.”

Dr. Stephen Bloom, an obesity researcher at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the study needed to be repeated under more rigorous conditions, but added, “It is showing something I believe in deeply — it is very hard to lose weight.” And the reason, he said, is that “your hormones work against you.”

In the study, Joseph Proietto and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne recruited people who weighed an average of 209 pounds. At the start of the study, his team measured the participants’ hormone levels and assessed their hunger and appetites after they ate a boiled egg, toast, margarine, orange juice and crackers for breakfast. The dieters then spent 10 weeks on a very low calorie regimen of 500 to 550 calories a day intended to makes them lose 10 percent of their body weight. In fact, their weight loss averaged 14 percent, or 29 pounds. As expected, their hormone levels changed in a way that increased their appetites, and indeed they were hungrier than when they started the study.

They were then given diets intended to maintain their weight loss. A year after the subjects had lost the weight, the researchers repeated their measurements. The subjects were gaining the weight back despite the maintenance diet — on average, gaining back half of what they had lost — and the hormone levels offered a possible explanation.

One hormone, leptin, which tells the brain how much body fat is present, fell by two-thirds immediately after the subjects lost weight. When leptin falls, appetite increases and metabolism slows. A year after the weight loss diet, leptin levels were still one-third lower than they were at the start of the study, and leptin levels increased as subjects regained their weight.

Other hormones that stimulate hunger, in particular ghrelin, whose levels increased, and peptide YY, whose levels decreased, were also changed a year later in a way that made the subjects’ appetites stronger than at the start of the study.

The results show, once again, Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” he said. “You are, in a sense, more metabolically normal when you are at a higher body weight.”

A solution might be to restore hormones to normal levels by giving drugs after dieters lose weight. But it is also possible, said Dr. Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University, that researchers just do not know enough about obesity to prescribe solutions.

One thing is clear, he said: “A vast effort to persuade the public to change its habits just hasn’t prevented or cured obesity.”

“We need more knowledge,” Dr. Hirsch said. “Condemning the public for their uncontrollable hedonism and the food industry for its inequities just doesn’t seem to be turning the tide.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weight-loss-efforts-study-finds.html?_r=1&

Sent from my iPhone 5 using VST[/quote']

I read that study. It was quite an eye opener.

Amanda Rae

I read that study. It was quite an eye opener.

Amanda Rae

Sent from my iPhone 5 using VST

Guys being obese is a disease its a constant struggle my insurance paid 100 % for the surgery cause they know its a proven tool I think its more of a perception of people to think that we can lose weight on our own I wish it was that simple. I used to cry when I was a kid my cousins who r super skinny used to eat so much and I used to be chubby while eating much less and much healthier food. So this disease is as serious as heart disease after only 9 days of surgery my doctor told me to immediately stop using insulin, high BP medicine and metmorphine First time in 6 years I don't have to inject in my stomach anymore twice a day to me it's the best thing any obese person can do.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using VST

I don't think comparing a WLS patient to a cardiac patient is really a good comparison. Being overweight is something that can be reversed' date=' whereas heart blockages & other damage to the heart is most often irreversible. One surgery is a medical necessity, whereas the thre is elective.

The reason for most of our surgeries is because most of us lack the willpower to make a lasting lifestyle change without it. And, yes, WLS is the "easy" way out. That doesn't mean that it isn't without it's challenges, but for us, it is obviously easier than diet & exercise. We've proven over & over that that route is not within our ability it stick to.

I really don't understand why "the easy way" is perceived as a bad thing. I mean really, dont we all seek the path of least resistance in almost everything we do?[/quote']

Nobody wants to say that OTR But you are so right.

I don't think comparing a WLS patient to a cardiac patient is is really a good comparison. Being overweight is something that can be reversed, whereas heart blockages & other damage to the heart is most often irreversible. One surgery is a medical necessity, whereas the thre is elective.

The reason for most of our surgeries is because most of us lack the willpower to make a lasting lifestyle change without it. And, yes, WLS is the "easy" way out. That doesn't mean that it isn't without it's challenges, but for us, it is obviously easier than diet & exercise. We've proven over & over that that route is not within our ability it stick to.

I really don't understand why "the easy way" is perceived as a bad thing. I mean really, dont we all seek the path of least resistance in almost everything we do?

You're right.

Nobody can say it isn't easier. But I've spent 30 years yoyo dieting, at times losing up to 70 kilos. I've tried every other way. So easy way out, maybe. Last way out, probably.

I don't mind people calling it the easy way out. I certainly don't take it personally, because they haven't walked in my shoes.

Deano

There is a body of evidence that refutes the idea that fat people are fat due to lack of willpower but due to genetics and physiological change s its nearly impossible to lose weight permanently because the body fights it all the c way.

I would respectfully have to dissagree. I believe the study to be inherently flawed. The simple fact that a surgery that does nothing except limit ones ability to consume food in the quantities that we once did yet produces the weight loss that we seek proves that it truly is a simple calories in vs calories burned equation.

I'm fat ... rathers its genetics or an obsession/addiction... lack of willpower... I'm having surgery... get the f*ck over it.

Whew, What a mess. It surprises me that so many people are up in arms about this post. What we experience is our reality. If you are of the same experience or mindset you can find support in the other people that post here. If not, continue to scroll down and you will find someone different that you can relate to.

I personally appreciate members that are supportive of each other regardless of their point of view. Iggy, Deano, OTR, Butterbean and some others can have their opinions and are respectful to others when posting or replying. I appreciate all of your input and class.

I would respectfully have to dissagree. I believe the study to be inherently flawed. The simple fact that a surgery that does nothing except limit ones ability to consume food in the quantities that we once did yet produces the weight loss that we seek proves that it truly is a simple calories in vs calories burned equation.

My gastroenterologist told me the sleeve surgery is very different as the majority of the stomach--where lots of those hormones are made-- is removed. He said my metabolism will basically be reset, so long as I follow the post surgical directions. As someone who was on weight watchers for three years, lost 40 lbs in the first year, then lost zero in second and third years, my metabolism needs a reset.

This surgery, according to my Gastro, will allow me to change my life.

My gastroenterologist told me the sleeve surgery is very different as the majority of the stomach--where lots of those hormones are made-- is removed. He said my metabolism will basically be reset' date=' so long as I follow the post surgical directions. As someone who was on weight watchers for three years, lost 40 lbs in the first year, then lost zero in second and third years, my metabolism needs a reset.

This surgery, according to my Gastro, will allow me to change my life.[/quote']

I'm sorry to say this, but I believe your Dr. is overselling you on this surgery. Don't get me wrong, the surgery absolutely works, but it is not because it changes tge way your body works, it is because of the lifestyle changes that come along with the surgery.

1. The hormone he is referring to is ghrelin. The hormone is a major component in triggering the hunger sensation. No, the sleeve does not eliminate this hormone, it does dramatically reduce its production temporarily.

2. The sleeve does not "reset" your metabolism. In fact as you lose weight your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) will actually slow.

Please understand. This is NOT a magic surgery that changes how your body processes food. It is a restrictive procedure that encourages and eases lifestyle change. Nothing more.

I'm sorry to say this' date=' but I believe your Dr. is overselling you on this surgery. Don't get me wrong, the surgery absolutely works, but it is not because it changes tge way your body works, it is because of the lifestyle changes that come along with the surgery.

1. The hormone he is referring to is ghrelin. The hormone is a major component in triggering the hunger sensation. No, the sleeve does not eliminate this hormone, it does dramatically reduce its production temporarily.

2. The sleeve does not "reset" your metabolism. In fact as you lose weight your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) will actually slow.

Please understand. This is NOT a magic surgery that changes how your body processes food. It is a restrictive procedure that encourages and eases lifestyle change. Nothing more.[/quote']

You are correct in that you have to follow the rules. However, I have followed rules and did not lose weight. My doc, who is very well respected and who saved my life some years ago, assures me that the tool of surgery alters more than stomach size, enabling rule followers like me to lose weight. It's not magic, but it creates real biological change allowing diets to work.

2. The sleeve does not "reset" your metabolism. In fact as you lose weight your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) will actually slow.

I've heard this too....many times. But I've yet to see any documentation of how it works. If there is some change taking place at the metabolic level due to hormonal changes after surgery, some one please put up a link to that information because I've never found it. I do think that the change in behavior makes for success. What the sleeve does is give you a fighting chance by reducing the hunger that most of us have always given in to, and by reducing the capacity to eat long enough to learn new eating behaviors. It's also a fact that the post sleeve diet of lower carbs and higher protein helps tremendously in reducing appetite, and putting our bodies into a fat burning stage rather than a fat storing stage. Many of us ate way too many starches before surgery which only helped us store fat regardless of how many or how few calories we ate. There is very little room in the post surgical diet for those starches, which helps keep our blood sugar levels in check, which in turn promotes fat burning.

I've heard this too....many times. But I've yet to see any documentation of how it works. If there is some change taking place at the metabolic level due to hormonal changes after surgery' date=' some one please put up a link to that information because I've never found it. I do think that the change in behavior makes for success. What the sleeve does is give you a fighting chance by reducing the hunger that most of us have always given in to, and by reducing the capacity to eat long enough to learn new eating behaviors. It's also a fact that the post sleeve diet of lower carbs and higher protein helps tremendously in reducing appetite, and putting our bodies into a fat burning stage rather than a fat storing stage. Many of us ate way too many starches before surgery which only helped us store fat regardless of how many or how few calories we ate. There is very little room in the post surgical diet for those starches, which helps keep our blood sugar levels in check, which in turn promotes fat burning.[/quote']

A quick google search found this study, which is essentially what my doc said : http://doctorsofweightloss.com/can-the-sleeve-be-a-metabolic-procedure-5645

I make no assertions as to its validity, but I like it! And I will continue to do some research.

A quick google search found this study' date=' which is essentially what my doc said : http://doctorsofweightloss.com/can-the-sleeve-be-a-metabolic-procedure-5645

I make no assertions as to its validity, but I like it! And I will continue to do some research.[/quote']

So they sleeved RATS???? I find that hilarious. Thanks for that link. I'm gonna have to study it a bit further.