First meeting with surgeon tomorrow. Need advice

[Rasor 0]

Greetings everyone!

I am 5’11” and 315lbs. I also have high blood pressure.

My wife had the gastric sleeve surgery about a year ago and is doing wonderful! I have always struggled with weight and after seeing her success with it, I started researching online as well.

I was EXTREMELY excited at first. I was reading all the positive reviews and how much it has cured different issues related to being obese.

Then one night, randomly, I asked my wife what happens to the staples? Do they stay in? Do they dissolve? Turns out they are titanium and they remain inside.

For some reason, this started me down a rabbit trail of research. “how long do people live after getting sleeved?” “Do the staples ever cause complications?” “Are there any long term issues? From what I could find there isn’t much long term research on this surgery as it was first performed in the late 1980’s (according to online sources).

So now I’m kinda freaked out. I understand there are risks. It there are also risks with staying obese. I am at the stage where I was 100% invested, but for some reason I started to research everything more and more. Now I still feel like it’s the right thing to do, but I am afraid of the complications and possibility of death.

Did any of you experience the same anxiety about getting the sleeve?

I go in tomorrow afternoon for my first initial appointment. I’m assuming they will get my vitals, draw blood, etc.

Any advice?

[ChaosUnlimited 559]

Ask lots of questions. I think it's normal to have concerns and second thoughts. Discuss it with your doc and make sure the research you are doing is from legitimate sources.

[Seahawks Fan 771]

1 hour ago, Rasor said:

Greetings everyone!

I am 5’11” and 315lbs. I also have high blood pressure.

My wife had the gastric sleeve surgery about a year ago and is doing wonderful! I have always struggled with weight and after seeing her success with it, I started researching online as well.

I was EXTREMELY excited at first. I was reading all the positive reviews and how much it has cured different issues related to being obese.

Then one night, randomly, I asked my wife what happens to the staples? Do they stay in? Do they dissolve? Turns out they are titanium and they remain inside.

For some reason, this started me down a rabbit trail of research. “how long do people live after getting sleeved?” “Do the staples ever cause complications?” “Are there any long term issues? From what I could find there isn’t much long term research on this surgery as it was first performed in the late 1980’s (according to online sources).

So now I’m kinda freaked out. I understand there are risks. It there are also risks with staying obese. I am at the stage where I was 100% invested, but for some reason I started to research everything more and more. Now I still feel like it’s the right thing to do, but I am afraid of the complications and possibility of death.

Did any of you experience the same anxiety about getting the sleeve?

I go in tomorrow afternoon for my first initial appointment. I’m assuming they will get my vitals, draw blood, etc.

Any advice?

I backed out of surgery in the hospital with my IV in at the last second on May 30, 2017 & regret it. I’m rescheduled now for January 18. I researched & had certain doubts/fears as well but I’m ready now. I went back to old habits & my lifestyle/addiction to food was realized. This surgery beats the alternative hands down! I want to run & breathe. Address all of your questions/concerns at every opportunity.

[Down South Aussie 65]

I think the other thing you need to consider is if one of these complications is possible, what is the rate at which it happens. Most surgeons and practices will tell you their stats, mine has it presented in a video that you need to watch before your first appointment so that you can understand that yes there are possible complications, but they are very very rare.

[orionburn 1,024]

The way my doc explained is is that as your stomach heals it basically heals "over" the staples. Something about the way the scar tissue forms it does so around the staples. Yes, there is risk of developing a leak down the road, but it's not a common thing.

As with any surgery there are risks. With WLS you have to carefully weigh out the pros & cons (no pun intended). For many of us it was the risks that other health issues could cause by continuing to be overweight. It's good that you're already looking at it that way.

Keep in mind that forums such as this can sometimes skew your perception of things. Lot of people may only post when they're having issues. In my experience however it's safe to say those that are happy with their choice to have WLS greatly outnumbers those that regret it. It's easy for me to say how happy I am with my choice when I haven't had the struggles that others have, and my heart goes out to them. Despite having some initial bumps in my road with a few complications it was worth it for me, and I'd do it all over again now that I've seen the results.

This is a bigger mental challenge/battle than most people expect so it's good to be cautious and think things through completely.

[Losebig 508]

I had a similar concern with the staples given the sleeve is a newer procedure. It turns out they use the same staples in the bypass as well, which is a much older procedure. As for other complications you can talk to your surgeon about them, most centers will keep their own stats on complication rates. In my case the surgeon has been doing bariatric procedures for 17 years and his own info was extremely helpful. I asked how many people he had die and why (turned out it as only a few in that entire time). I also talked about life expectancy after the procedure and we talked about a couple studies that were done (weirdly your risk of accidental death is higher after surgery according to one study for some unknown reason - but generally it's far less than doing nothing). Staples and other things from surgery are used in other procedures as well, so you may be able to do some research on that avenue if you want.

The one thing that was totally clear to me was that the risk of staying as I was, was far greater than any risk imposed by the surgery long or short term. The risks of obesity are well researched and proven, so that part of the analysis is unfortunately very easy.

[Seahawks Fan 771]

39 minutes ago, Losebig said:

I had a similar concern with the staples given the sleeve is a newer procedure. It turns out they use the same staples in the bypass as well, which is a much older procedure. As for other complications you can talk to your surgeon about them, most centers will keep their own stats on complication rates. In my case the surgeon has been doing bariatric procedures for 17 years and his own info was extremely helpful. I asked how many people he had die and why (turned out it as only a few in that entire time). I also talked about life expectancy after the procedure and we talked about a couple studies that were done (weirdly your risk of accidental death is higher after surgery according to one study for some unknown reason - but generally it's far less than doing nothing). Staples and other things from surgery are used in other procedures as well, so you may be able to do some research on that avenue if you want.

The one thing that was totally clear to me was that the risk of staying as I was, was far greater than any risk imposed by the surgery long or short term. The risks of obesity are well researched and proven, so that part of the analysis is unfortunately very easy.

The risk of accidental deaths is due to that fact that after surgery people simply become more active & therefore die sometimes doing things that would not have been doing had they not had surgery.

[Losebig 508]

26 minutes ago, SEAHAWKS FAN! said:

The risk of accidental deaths is due to that fact that after surgery people simply become more active & therefore die sometimes doing things that would not have been doing had they not had surgery.

They're measuring their risks VS a randomized sample of people from DMV records (i.e. a control group that should mirror their demographics). Those folks are definitely going to be less active due to their elevated BMI, so am sure that's part of it. The accident category includes a lot of things that aren't activity related (suicide, car accidents, etc). They made a note of suicide risk due to underlying psychological disorders being a potential problem. (I imagine that's why most programs include a psych portion).

Here's a link to the study, which is definitely worth a read: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa066603#t=article

Edited January 9, 2018 by Losebig
added study link and some text from study