Did your comorbidities go away after surgery?

[ClareLynn 153]

Every single one of my doctors encouraged me to get bariatric surgery because they said that it would cure all my comorbidities. I have type 2 diabetes, idiopathic intercranial hypertension, Migraine, GERD, and hypertension all of which they said would go away. I think I should have realized that was super optimistic. These are the same doctors that said if I lost 10% of my body weight, all of these would get better and they didn't.

Well I've had the surgery. I've lost 93lbs so far and ... I still have every single one of those problems. I feel a bit mislead or maybe just broken. I have other medical problems besides those, they were just the ones they blamed on my weight. I like losing weight but had gotten my hopes up about being less impacted by these other diseases and it didn't pan out.

Did it work out for anyone else and they actually had other medical problems resolve after surgery?

Edited January 23, 2022 by ClareLynn

[ShoppGirl 5,073]

My only issue was joint pain and that has eased up quite a bit with the weight loss. I wouldn’t lose hope quite yet though, you still have a little ways to go until goal so you may still see relief from some of those conditions. Hopefully all. I do see a lot of people on here saying that those types of things did resolve with post surgery. I just don’t know how close to goal they were when it happened.

[FutureSylph 377]

If your listed BMI of 38 is current, it's way too early to lose hope. Congrats on your great work so far, and best of luck reaching your goal.

[SummerTimeGirl 582]

I had always been in the pre-diabetic stage for YEARS when it came to my A1C and in fact, right before surgery it went above and into that dreaded Diabetic stage (6.7). That was in March 2021. May 19th 2021 was my surgery. Well in September 2021 my A1C had dropped to 5.8. I was also taken off my one BP med and the second BP med has been cut in half. Also had my Metformin (which I was taking for PCOS and Insulin Resistance) dose cut in half too. I am hopeful that come March, when I go back to my doc, I will be taken off those meds completely or at least have them cut down once again. The goal is to come off them completely if I can.

So, far things have been moving in the right direction. I have been monitoring my BP at home and, even though I only take one 20mg Lisinopril at night, my BP is normally around 108-117/73-85 all throughout the day/night.

Otherwise I didn't really have any other issues. My cholesterol has also been improving as has my glucose numbers in general.

If I were you I'd stick to the plan and see what happens. There is still plenty of time for things to improve and they most likely will.

[GradyCat 3,697]

10 hours ago, ClareLynn said:

Every single one of my doctors encouraged me to get bariatric surgery because they said that it would cure all my comorbidities. I have type 2 diabetes, idiopathic intercranial hypertension, Migraine, GERD, and hypertension all of which they said would go away. I think I should have realized that was super optimistic. These are the same doctors that said if I lost 10% of my body weight, all of these would get better and they didn't.

Well I've had the surgery. I've lost 93lbs so far and ... I still have every single one of those problems. I feel a bit mislead or maybe just broken. I have other medical problems besides those, they were just the ones they blamed on my weight. I like losing weight but had gotten my hopes up about being less impacted by these other diseases and it didn't pan out.

Did it work out for anyone else and they actually had other medical problems resolve after surgery?

It worked out for me. I used to have 2 Migraines a week. Haven't had one in two years. I used to have GERD, it's gone. I used to have sleep apnea. No longer have it. I used to have borderline high blood pressure. Now my BP is normal.

[Mz D 25]

14 hours ago, ClareLynn said:

Every single one of my doctors encouraged me to get bariatric surgery because they said that it would cure all my comorbidities. I have type 2 diabetes, idiopathic intercranial hypertension, Migraine, GERD, and hypertension all of which they said would go away. I think I should have realized that was super optimistic. These are the same doctors that said if I lost 10% of my body weight, all of these would get better and they didn't.

Well I've had the surgery. I've lost 93lbs so far and ... I still have every single one of those problems. I feel a bit mislead or maybe just broken. I have other medical problems besides those, they were just the ones they blamed on my weight. I like losing weight but had gotten my hopes up about being less impacted by these other diseases and it didn't pan out.

Did it work out for anyone else and they actually had other medical problems resolve after surgery? 

I've only lost around 40lbs and it reversed my type 2 and has bettered my hypertension. I'm thrilled with the diabetes result because I wasn't taking anything for it; it was pretty much the final straw that pushed me to get surgery because I already have enough health issues to deal with. I was just controlling my diabetes via diet and that resolved in the first two months after surgery. I also was able to get off one of my hypertension meds, but I've had that over a decade and I'm not surprised it hasn't gone away. I'm not expecting it to improve my joint pain because that's due to a childhood disease and it hasn't lessened any. I think if any of your problems are more recently diagnosed, you'll see a quicker bounce back from those issues.

I'm not sure why they'd expect weight loss to resolve your idiopathic intercranial hypertension or Migraine. That doesn't even seem optimistic, they aren't really related. I don't expect it to cure my macular degeneration; we don't store fat in our eyeballs, so it's not going to impact that problem. Push your doctor to try new meds for the Migraines since you still have them. Are you on ajovy? It has helped my mom with hers but nothing has gotten rid of them entirely.

[Wahinebythesea 49]

Weight loss (75 lb) resolved my hypertension (which I expected) but it also has drastically improved my Migraines w/aura (which I wasn't expecting).

[Queen ApisM 427]

I still have a long way to go weight loss wise, but after 70 lbs I had to cut two of my blood pressure meds in half as my BPs were too low. Having said that, I don't expect my hypertension to resolve even if I get to a healthy weight range. Some people will have hypertension regardless of weight, and with my family history, I will be one of those people. I'll be happy with lower amounts of medication and will consider that a win. I also have a heart issue that my doctor is convinced will improve with weight loss, but again, given family history I think he is overoptimistic. Still even if it doesn't improve the issue it certainly will be better for my heart in the long run so either way it will be a win.

The fact that doctors sometimes insist losing weight will fix everything is over simplistic and a cop out (in my opinion). Fit, thin people have diabetes, hypertension, and many other health issues associated with being overweight; case in point, my fit, thin cousin has worse blood pressure than I do that doesn't respond well to medications. Of course losing weight can help with many things, but not always and I think doctors should be honest about that being the case.

[ClareLynn 153]

Yeah, I guess that’s what is bothering me. It doesn’t feel very good to keep pushing back the goal posts on how much I have to lose to make any difference.

Thanks it helps to hear that it did resolve for some people after a while and otherwise hey even normal weight people have these problems too.

I had really believed the “losing weight will fix everything” and with no improvement after 93 lbs lost, was feeling real bad about myself.

[Arabesque 7,604]

On 1/24/2022 at 7:55 AM, Wahinebythesea said:

Weight loss (75 lb) resolved my hypertension (which I expected) but it also has drastically improved my Migraines w/aura (which I wasn't expecting).

Your Migraines may have improved because of your reduced blood pressure &/or the hormonal changes. Some migraines are triggered by certain foods like pickled or fermented foods, chocolate & caffeine so the changes you’ve made to your diet may also have helped. Whatever the reason why, the fact the attacks have improved is fantastic & a great win.

Congrats on your weight loss so far.

[Summermoose 195]

There is so much fatphobia and anti-fat bias in healthcare. So many doctors default to seeing us as obese only, and can’t see past our weight so they end up prescribing weight loss as the cure to anything and everything. So your story doesn’t surprise me one bit ☹️
They’ve done that to me so many times, to my fat friends, to many fat influencers I follow on social media.. it’s one of the reasons I got surgery in the first place. It’s so dehumanising to realise you will never really be treated like a person if you’re fat, be that in healthcare or out and about by strangers.
Wishing you well and I truly hope that you end up getting relief for your symptoms, be that through continued weight loss or doctors who finally listen instead of judge. 🤗

[kristieshannon 1,682]

My sleep apnea, pre diabetes, and hypertension completely resolved with my weight loss. I was off my blood pressure med by month 2, off my CPAP by month 5, and my A1C was below 6 by my 6 month post op labs.

[Orinskye 165]

I’m no longer pre diabetic.

i can walk now (I was wheelchair bound practically and walked with a cane prior to surgery along with a huge plastic leg brace).

my kidneys are functioning better than they every did.

migraines: I still get these. Nothing changes there.

high blood pressure: I now have the opposite problem. My blood pressure tends to be really low.

Hyperparathyroidism: still a problem.

gout: I had a flare right after surgery but my uric acid levels are almost within normal range now (I will have to take meds for this forever. This is a family thing and won’t go away no matter what weight I am)

All in all my doctors have all told me how I have saved my own life by making the decision I did. They refer to me as the poster child of success for the reversal of my conditions and the fact that I went from being in a wheelchair to walking without problems.

[lizonaplane 1,613]

My asthma is better, but it was better just from losing the weight I lost prior to surgery. My Migraines have almost disappeared, but I think that is from being off birth control pills.

But even people whose diabetes goes into remission after surgery often have it come back again in a few years, especially with sleeve.

And like others here have said, it's often just fat bias that docs assume all of our problems are related to our weight despite many thin people having the exact same problems.

[STLoser 1,099]

I had NASH (fatty liver disease), newly diagnosed high blood pressure and I've had Migraines since I was 10. I'm 50. Everything went away except the migraines, but I'm also going through menopause I think and they have increased. [emoji2370]

The thing is, anyone can have these conditions, so I do take issue with doctors acting like weight loss will cure everything. I knew it was the only way to improve my fatty liver, and it did, so I'm happy about that, but I wish doctors would let people know that there is no guarantee it will make all thr comorbidities go away.

Sent from my Pixel 5a using BariatricPal mobile app