Hello, new to the forum. I am 54 years old and on day 4 of my 2 week pre op Clear luquid diet. Not too bad so far. I was wondering if there are others who have autoimmune diseases and what was your experiences with weightloss surgery?

Lifelong chronic illness and disability as well as metabolic disorders and inability to exercise, I’m grateful to have been able to have the tool of gastric bypass surgery to finally truly be able to manage my weight and reach a goal I never could with it. It was a challenge with my long list of medical conditions but I don’t regret the decision since there is 106lbs less burden for me to carry around every day. And a tool to hopefully help keep it that way. Since I don’t plan to change away from my new way of eating. Besides making adjustments to maintenance. For me it’s immunodeficiency but similar as i develop many medical conditions over time and my health gets worse. But this was necessary to ease the burdens on my body.

I have an autoimmune disorder called Eosinophilic Esophagitis where the white cells in my esophagus think my body is under attack so they multiply which causes narrowing in my esophagus and leads to choking. I end up having to have my throat stretched every 1-2 years. It's been a little over 2 so I'm definitely due to have it stretched again soon since I've been having more and more choking issues. The disorder causes acid issues at night and those were always really bad, but since my surgery it's actually been better. I now only take 1 acid reducer a night instead of 2.

Different autoimmune diseases respond differently to weight loss surgery. I'd consult your bariatric surgeon and whatever specialist you see for your disease (in my case it's the gastroenterologist) to get an idea of what to expect, if anything, on how it'll effect your disease or disorder. I was just told it'll be a pain in the ass to do an EGD and a pain in the ass when I have my throat stretched. My gastroenterologist actually pouted when he found out I was having bariatric surgery! x'D

To tell you the truth, it's awful when the crisis comes, so you start to search for every non-traditional or functional medicines you may buy. However, not long ago I discovered an article on melbournefunctionalmedicine.com.au discussing how functional medicine affects crisis of a chronic disease. It is a huge article describing this topic as the info is really useful. I'm really conservative so I hope for the best coming and my chronic diseases seem to be not that important, even though I know that it's not right.

Edited October 4, 20205 yr by BlakeParsons

I had a ton of flare ups after my surgery for some of my autoimmune issues. I blamed it on the added stress to my body. Ended up on steroids. Definitely some rocky times after surgery, but it ended up OK. As others have said, it all depends on which autoimmune disease. Make sure your doctors talk to each other if needed. My rheumatologist told me he didn't know much about bariatric surgery (and he's head of his department in a major hospital).