Miss M

Just want to know if any melbournians want to meet up on a monthly or fortnightly basis for support, a chat and a coffee?

Does anyone experience lower intestinal burning? and or a burning and acidic taste in mouth in morning after waking

are you able to get a reversal of some kind? I'm going to see my surgeon in july to see what he can do for me, like you I'm sick of being sick and wish I never had weightloss surgery to begin with. I don't follow the trend of being sick and thankful for surgery as I'd only be kidding myself. if only I could turn back time.

Hi Brandy, just wanting to quickly point out an excerpt from this link for you to read http://suethsayings.blogspot.com.au/2008/03/if-rny-is-so-risky-why-do-they-keep.html Your second question: have you ever assisted a patient who had complications due to the RNY surgery? And if yes, were these complications caused just because of the procedure itself or did the patients have some previous condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure or high cholesterol level? Yes, I have assisted many ill longer term patients and in most cases, their problems were strictly due to the repercussions of their weight loss surgery. Things like "Leaky gut" causing auto immune disorder, bowel obstructions and ulcers in the small bowel due from the leakage of stomach acid (the small bowel does not have a protective covering against acid from the stomach) and those Vitamins like Calcium which cannot be successfully supplemented resulting in maladies such as osteoporosis etc. Problems like this are predictable because of the nature of the surgery and are not unknown in the medical profession because there is a long history with a similar surgery done to treat ulcers in the first segment of small bowel. This surgery upon which the RNY was based, is called the "Billroth II" and the mere mention of this procedure causes many medical providers to pale due to the various illnesses resulting from it, however, the surgery was considered preferable to the death which an ulcer in the small bowel would have caused. It's a no brainer that when a major organ system is so greatly re-arranged as done in the RNY, that there will be serious repercussions from the surgery itself. Those who claim "no repercussions" are never the medical providers but rather those early term patients who are still somewhat concepting the surgery as a "magic bullet".

Hi Brandy, I originally had the lapband but it prolapsed three times before I gave up on the idea of having a forth surgery to have another lap band done so my doc sent me to a friend of his who does DS. with the DS I ended up having a lot of Vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as bile reflux and gastroparesis as the surgeon severed my vegus nerve and the food was staying stagnant in my sleeve also the sleeve formed what they call an hourglass figure where the centre of the sleeve was very narrow and wouldn't allow the food to go through so I had to have yet another surgery which was the rny, I have since long suspected leaky guy syndrome as im experiencing fevers, hot and cold flushes, feeling ill when eating, no energy bloating, gassy, rashes, vomiting, dizziness and a host of other ailments. also my ferritin has been sitting very high in the 600 mark and the surgeon doesn't know why this is so but it is an indication of inflammation somewhere in the body. now leaky gut syndrome is associated with celiac, thyroid, colitis crohns and other diseases. I know am sensitive to foods and my thyroid is hypo mind you there is no one in our family who have either of these diseases and i have only been diagnosed since the RNY I have also gone to a naturopathic doctor who did some blood testes and diagnosed me with leaky gut. she even showed me on the slide machine how the contents of my stomach is seeping through the intestines and is going into the blood steam. at the moment I am taking zinc supplement 500mg a day along with glutamine powder mixed in Water to strengthen the intestines so as the food etc doesn't leak through into the blood stream to cause anymore immune responses. I am also waiting an appointment with my current surgeon to see what can be done as far as my ailments but have to wait till july to see him I don't think that my intestines can be lengthened in any way as the previouse surgeon removed and threw them away(which angers me because now should anything major happen I don't have anything to fall back on as far as reversals. in the below article it describes how rny patents develop bacterial overgrowth due to lack of stomach acid basically it is this that turns into leaky gut from my understanding from what the naturopath has told me which in turn has caused the other issues http://www.news-medical.net/health/Gastric-Bypass-Complications.aspx Many patients then experience a condition known as achlorhydia. Achlorhydia is a condition where there is not enough acid in stomach. Patients can develop an overgrowth of bacteria as a result of the low acidity levels in the stomach. A study conducted on 43 post operative patients revealed that almost all of the patients tested positive for a hydrogen breath test, which determined an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. The overgrowth of bacteria will cause the gut ecology to change and will induce nausea and vomiting. Recurring nausea and vomiting will change the absorbance rate of food which contributes to the vitamin and nutrition deficiencies common in post operative gastric bypass patients. and here is another link on bacterial overgrowth http://digestivehealthinstitute.org/2012/08/17/sibo-diet-and-digestive-health/ here is a link about another rny patent who had problems and leaky gut syndrome sorry I don't have much time now to provide all my links for you but will try later http://arkansasunshine.tripod.com/testimony/testimony.html

Hi Brandy, my understanding of auto immune disorders begin with the gut, it happens when the intestinal wall becomes weaken and allows food particle and the like to seep through and go into the blood. then our immune system tries to invade the foreign particles but then ends up fighting/turning on it's self. I have a gastric bypass this is my third revisional surgery I started off with lap band then DS now bypass. I now have what has been described as short bowel syndrome with leaky gut. it is now becoming more and more evident in the medical mainstream that the intestines should not be tampered with as it is this tampering that causes auto immune disorders like celiac, colitis, crohns, leaky gut thyroid and many more. If you have the time read up on leaky guy and auto immune or even leaky guy and thyroid, celiac and crohns , it's all out there. Regards M

Brandy, Have you eliminated hypoglycimea?

You are really looking great, and you're staring to get that sparkle back in your eyes, that zest for life once more. I would love to hear more about your reversal and what they did like if they put your stomach back together or just extended the intestines alone and how the recovery for you went? I also believe that we need more people who have had the take down to help others who are in the same boat who are scared and have many questions. life is not all about being over weight or being skinny its about being healthy and being able to live a life without any ill health or complications. I don't believe the medical system is geared to help us overweight people especially after we undergo the surgery we are not taught how to eat sensibly we are just given guidelines to work with. they you have the isolation from family and friends who alienate us for wanting to improve our health then on the other end of the spectrum you have the people who have had the surgery having a go at you for what ever side effects you have had re said surgery telling you that it's all your fault. personally I don't understand any of it if a person is having complications its not their fault, if a person doesn't loose weight again its not their fault as 9 out of 10 times its a mechanical fault with the surgery and not the person. just my views anyway like I said you look so much better now and I would dearly love to know more about how you are going post reversal. Take care and keep well, Regards M

MBrock, I know it's been a while now since your reversal/take down, but just wanting to know how you're doing? have you at least gotten some of your energy and health back? here's to hoping that you have and that you are now starting to enjoy life once again. All the best M

Yes a lot of issues, I had Gastric bypass revision from DS back in 09 and requested for my intestines to be reconnected to eliminate the foul smell that came along with the DS as well as the malabsorbtion and have been experiencing a lot of bile reflux since. so back in june of last year my new surgeon went in to operate on the bile aspect of things and because he moved the intestines 35cm further down my anatomy I am now experiencing so much of the foul gas and stool that I had experienced way back with the DS, I also ended up with gastroparesis of the stomach and intestines due to the DS as well as other health problems and vitamin deficiencies and now since last june I'm re experiencing those same health issues again. I had a look at my results for the gastroparesis test and it indicated that my intestines are very small in length which to me indicates that the surgeon didn't lengthen them in the beginning and must have thrown them away his operating report couldn't be found by my current surgeon as he needed it to operate this time around but ended up operating without the report and finally told me that I actually have a gastrectomy rather than an RNY.

Lisa, I think you guys call it sodium bicarbonate in America, and it's normally purchased at the supermarket here in Australia so I'm guessing it's the same over there.

Brandy here's a link you might like to look at http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/blog/short-bowel-syndrome.html it's about short bowel syndrome which all RNY patients have to some degree depending on how much small intestines were bypassed.

Hi Brandy, sadly my surgeon has left me for dead and I'm now seeing another surgeon who cannot help me much as my original Surgeon (Mr Simon Woods) had not only removed a good length of my intestines but the SOB also threw the remaining intestines out so there is nothing for me to reverse. I tried to have intestinal reversal back in june of last year and the current surgeon advised me after surgery (opening me up) that there was nothing left for him to reverse and that I also had a gastrectomy which means no stomach pouch. so you could imagine how I'm feeling right now.

I'm sorry that you guys are going through all this, I too have been having major problems post RNY and so far it seems that leaky gut, celiac, crohns, ulcerative colitis, GERD and hypothyroid are all associated with RNY due to malabsoption of nutrients, fermentation of food in the intestines due to intestinal paralysis and loss of intestinal length. we end up having what they call intestinal permeability. had I known all this and the post health issues maybe I would never have looked into weightloss surgery. so much for trying to gain a healthy life style by trying to lose weight added by surgery. especially when the surgeons don't know how to treat us after when we do have complications post surgery.

Music, has your issue resolved? did you find out what the cause of the problem was?

brandy try drinking half a tea spoon of bicarb soda in a cup of water everyday it will get rid of the gerd with no adverse side effects. it's working for me.

the pain could also be adhesion pain from all the surgeries.

what type of surgery are you having?

Apart from adding in probiotics to replenish your good gut bacteria i'm not sure what else to suggest to you.

What sort of surgery are you inquiring about?

Tina, I'm afraid that you doctor is wrong when he said that the sleeve is non-invasive it may not be as complicated as the bypass as far as re-routing the intestines but it is invasive none the less as three quarters of your stomach is completely removed and then stapled to form the sleeve. Personally I've had all three and there is not one surgery that is better than the other, they all have their good and bad sides.

can i ask you a question, with the bathroom issues do you experience any foul smelling odors? and do you also experience foul smelling gas? initially i never used to but since i've had to go back in to have more surgery due to bile reflux and since the surgeon moved and lowered my "y" limb further down 35cm i've been experiencing the dreaded foul smells. also masive constipation issues too.

try cooking all your food till they're really soft then putting them into a blender and just eat it like baby food else within the six months time you will end up being malnourished, even the bananas can be blended up too. i know what you mean about the teeth thing i just got my new crown put in on Wednesday and it was very hard to eat with the temp one that they put in for three weeks. the thing that i find so funny about all of this is that we are spending more money than before to try and gain some of our health back. ( i honestly believe this thing about being fat and unhealthy is a farce and believe that society just wants a sick nation dependent on pharmaceuticals and surgeries)

Do I regret every having surgery......Yes I do very much but there is nothing that i can do now. I'm somewhat independent and like you try to get my exercise in daily. the symptoms of low thyroid for me are brain fog, tiredness, weakness and weight gain i've gained 6kgs in just two months and am sitting at 70kgs right now which with your pounds conversion is 154 also my immune system is out of wack at the moment and i'm just getting over a 5 week old cold/flu in summer mind you. Don't forget too that the cramps could also mean a deficiency in magnesium and potassium. If i remember correctly you should notice a difference in three months unless of course the doctors decide to give you the calcium intravenously in which case the results would be instant.

have you tried melatonin for sleep?