Troubling Bloodwork

[thtrmgr 3]

Sooooo.... it's been 9 months since my sleeve. I'm down just over 100 lbs (slow loser) and I'm 48YO female. For my whole adult life, although morbidly (and then super) obese, my lipids have been pretty darned good... low total cholesterol numbers, high HDLs, low LDLs, low triglycerides, good ratios, etc. Each new doctor I would see would be almost shocked when seeing them, like I defied everything thing they had been taught--as in, how in the world could someone so big be so "healthy" on paper, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I got my first lipids panel done since surgery on Friday and the results are back. I'm in the normal range on everything, so my doc will probably be fine w/the results, but for me, they're seriously alarming since they're obviously headed in the wrong direction. My ratio went from 2.32 to 4.14; total chol from 143 to 174; HDL from 62 to 42; LDL from 69 to 119; triglycerides from 37 to 64.

Has anyone else seen this w/their own bloodwork? If so, did it ever stabilize without medications? One of the reasons I had the surgery was to supposedly make it less likely I'd get heart disease--now it's looking like not so much. Thoughts?

Michelle

[Berry78 4,259]

I don't have experience with this, but wanted to say don't panic. Things are going to fluxuate for a while as your body stops losing and gets to maintenance.

What does your diet look like?

[Layma 30]

I had this problem the second time I went for my blood work. Basically the fat and cholesterol from our body gets dissolved and that's what we use to live on. It's showing higher than before if not present in an alarming amount because the body is using it rather than storing it. Don't be scared, it will be gone soon.

[Introversion 1,876]

It is called transient hyperlipidemia, a.k.a. transient hypercholesterolemia. Do not worry...

During the weight loss phase, our bodies are burning off masses of molecules of stored fatty acids. For some people, this results in a temporary rise in blood cholesterol levels. The same thing happened to me. Click on the link below to read more about this phenomenon.

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/06/i-lost-weight-and-my-cholesterol-went-up/

[Introversion 1,876]

43 minutes ago, thtrmgr said:

Sooooo.... it's been 9 months since my sleeve. I'm down just over 100 lbs (slow loser) and I'm 48YO female.

Slow loser? Ha, ha! You lost 100 pounds in 9 months. I am considerably younger than you (age 34 when sleeved) and it took me approximately 18 months to lose 100 pounds. You are doing beautifully.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

On what planet is 100 pounds in 9 months slow?

I watched 2 episodes of 600 pound life the other day and those people both had surgery when they were over 500 pounds and they lost 30 pounds the first month. I'm not sure why people that start in the 200s or 300s think they are going to hit goal in 4 months.

Edited May 1, 2017 by OutsideMatchInside

[thtrmgr 3]

Thanks everyone for the responses... especially you, Introversion--makes me feel a little better knowing that it's possibly temporary... I gotta tell ya, I have been fretting over this pretty much all weekend.

And for everyone commenting on the "rate" comment--maybe it's not slow, but it feels slow, and the odd thing is, I'm not in any hurry at all. It's just that I look at posts online that folks starting at weights similar to mine seems to lose at such a rapid pace and a friend had a RNY on literally the same day as my sleeve and he's lost almost 140lbs (I know, it's also a malabsorptive procedure too). And before anyone mentions it, I know it's not a race, and I seriously am not treating it as a competition in ANY way--I'm just plugging away and not even getting on the scale that often; it just feels slow---plus my med team mentioned that I was going a little slower than many do at my first follow-up. And, it really only equates to just over 10lbs/month which can theoretically be done w/regular diet and exercise w/o surgery for those folks for whom that would work (and I don't count myself among those). Plus I've been at the same weight for about two months now so that contributes to how I feel about the pace too.

I guess I'm also saying it's slow because to me it doesn't seem like a very dramatic loss... I don't see it, but I didn't see myself (then or now) at my actual size anyway... I don't see myself as thin by any means, but if I were to see a lineup of folks at various weights and my height, I'd probably "match" my size to someone who weighs a lot less than I do. My pre-op therapist told me that it's actually a fairly common phenomenon; I read somewhere it's called fatorexia or something like that, where the image you see in the mirror is thinner than in reality. I really wasn't unhappy at my previous weight either; it's not like I was loving being at 340lbs, but I didn't dislike myself at that size either (I spent way too many years hating my fat and blaming it in truth or in fiction for every ill that befell me before I turned a corner a started liking me for me no matter what size I was). It took a lot of years to get my head on straight about that, I tell you.

Anyway, I'm not unhappy w/my loss so far, and technically, my primary goal in getting surgery was to get to a point where I could have my knees fixed (whether it's right or wrong, the ortho surgical team wouldn't think about doing it until my BMI dropped to a certain point) and I'm there now and the first replacement is now (finally) scheduled so I'm pleased w/that at least. I've just had a rough time of it and I'm not an acolyte as almost everyone else on these boards seems to be so I don't want to be the Debbie Downer. But I'm very glad you're here, especially for learning stuff like "transient hyperlipidemia," so thanks for being an ear and a much-needed source of information for folks for whom the surgery goes like clockwork, and for those with the occasional complication too.

Michelle