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Can I ask what autoimmune disease you have? I have Systemic Lupus. My surgeon recommended the sleeve as well. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920AZ using the BariatricPal App

@@genn Thank you for the info: I still have to use Atenolol at times (beta blocker), not as often as pre RAI. Headaches got better with my Ear Daiths piercings in both ears, and no more migraines for me. These acupressure points work for apparently 50% of people, and I am the lucky one in the 50%. I was getting them daily before, awful! I was on very strong pain killers for my severe headaches and migraines. Now, I very rarely take them. These days, occasional headache I get is due to my hay fever, mostly. I have been using older styles anti-histamines, as the newer ones did not help me at all, with my constant runny nose, even cortisone did not help. No hair loss for me, thank goodness. My hair actually got healthier, so one plus here! No more periods for me, had an earlier menopause years ago, and it is now settled/gone! Funny though, after my WLS, I thought that my menopause came back! No, it didn't, those were due to my too high Thyroxine doses/levels. Yes to heart symptoms, they do get worse with too much Thyroxine (our name for Synthroid in OZ). Luckily my heart is OK, and Atenolol works, I only take it as needed these days, which is not that often. I have a Bp/pulse measuring device at home, and this helps to give my readings to my Endo, and to notice if there are any significant changes. My insomnia and irritability does get worse if Thyroxine is too high, together with heat intolerance. We just started a hot summer recently, here in OZ, and Queensland is bad for heat and humidity. I have had my air con running daily for the past 2-3 weeks. @@genn Thank you for the list of symptoms, even though I have them from my earlier days, it is good to see them in a simple list form. Very helpful. I belong to few Thyroid support forums, both American and Australian, and I get Mary Shomon's blogs and emailed newsletters. If not for my thyroid issues, my recovery from WLS would have been quite smooth. Having and autoimmune thyroid disease really sucks! Hopefully, one day, it will all get better ..... I woke up at 4 am, my time today, hence I am having a quick look on this forum. I either can't fall asleep for ages, or I fall asleep at 10-11pm, then wake up around 3-4 am ..... I am not depressed, but sleep deprived .....

@@els Hi, I am also in the holding pattern, for many weeks. I am 9 months post op, and I have noticed that for me, my weight loss slowed down after 7 months .... I am still shrinking though, and also lost a shoe size Actually, I recently bought 4 new pairs of shoes, and I love them! I have 3 more kilos to go to my Goal weight, and 8 kilos to go to my Stretched Goal ..... I have thyroid disease (autoimmune), still in the medication dose adjustment stage. I also noticed that my appetite has returned, and that I need to stay away from sweet things and very sweet/carb laden fruit. If I eat those, my weight loss stops completely....

My heart goes out to you! Although I don't have thyroid cancer, I have been suffering from Graves Disease (autoimmune thyroid disease) for decades, before finally being formally diagnosed in May 2015. As my thyroid was destroyed via radioactive treatment, I later had to go on Thyroid replacement med. What I noticed was that once my regular dose was decreased by 50%, I slept better, but my weight was staying the same, and my old sweet cravings came back. So, for me, I am still playing the dosage adjustment dance. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello, and offer you a link to great Thyroid Support sites, BP permitting. I belong to few online thyroid support groups, and find them very beneficial. Here is a link: https://www.verywell.com/finding-thyroid-support-and-support-groups-online-3233103 Prayers and well wishes to you!

Hi Debbie, Yes, no crocs here, on the Gold Coast, humid here though too now, thank goodness for air conditioning! I lost most of my excess weight in the first 6 months. I have been in a long stall lately, same weight but my measurements are still changing, shrinking .... I basically had a pretty good recovery, with few issues that were caused by my Graves Disease (autoimmune thyroid disease). If not for Graves, my journey would have been very easy. I like my new lifestyle and results. All the best to you!

I read the posts about sleeve vs bypass for people with RA a few pages back and wanted to comment. I have non progressive autoimmune disorder and I test positive for RA have a few flairs a year with long emissions. My liver reached max tolerance for acetaminophen in 1993 and my kidne us actually failed from years of ibuprofen use. I had serious side effect from methotrexate and both biologics I tried. Because there weren't any better options I have been on narcotic pain medication for most of the past 12 years. And yes, prednisone is my best friend and my worse enemy. I have a gastric sleeve and am now just past 5 weeks post op. The pain was reduced within a week, though it took two more weeks to Tauber down from 20 mg of long-lasting oxytocin and 24-30 mg of dilaudid (4-12 mg every 4-6 hours) i have been completely off narcotic pain meds for over two weeks. I was aware that a bypass was more likely to improve my autoimmune disorders blut it was just too drastic of an alteration for me to wrap my mind around and my surgeon believed that the sleeve would give me some improvement. . In any case I think some of the improvement is because of the high Protein diet as my pain impoves when ever I up my protein and severely decrease carbs, but there is something more going on because I feel better every day. Sorry about the length. Hopefully this thread will survive the recent "kerfluffle".

I lyme's in 1986 but because I live on the west last I s sick for months before it was finally DXed. I was treated and recovered and never had any problems till a few weeks ago when I woke up with facial paralysis. It had nothing to do with the WLS I had on 10/23. About 12 years ago I considered the lap band but there were concerns that my immune system would react to a foreigner body. This was not a consideration of concern with the sleeve. The post surgery high Protein diet improved my underlying autoimmune disorder. I am off narcotic pain medication for the first time in about 12 years. I did have to make some dietary adjustments, mainly adding good fats which might slow weight lose, but I don't think it has so far. PLEASE do make sure your surgeon is aware of your full medical history before you have surgery.

Hi I weigh 215 and I'm 5'6" the people who know about my surgery think I'm kinda crazy for doing something so drastic. I am having it tomorrow because I want to feel like myself again. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and put on lots of meds including prednisone and I went from 165-215. I have tried and failed to lose the weight and I hate how I look. I think having the surgery is an individual decision. If you will feel better, then go for it. I have yet to read that anyone has regretted it! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I noticed that in the past few months I have been sneezing lot more, and my nose drips like a tap on some days. At first I thought this hay fever/allergic rhinitis was/is due to my autoimmune thyroid disease because allergies come up with this disease, or get worse. After doing some reading on post op possible symptoms (post VSG), I found that few people end up with runny noses and sneezing. I have tried all sorts of medications and sprays (cortisone ones and non cortisone ones), and nothing much is helping. I ordered older types anti-histamines, as the newer ones did not work on me at all. At least the older ones like Phenergan, Benadryl and Sudafed seem to relieve my symptoms, together with Beconase nose spray. So, my question is if anyone here has been experiencing this after surgery, how long for, and did it go away for any of you at some stage? I am in my 9th month post op.

Discuss this with your surgeon. There are times when the medical needs of a particular patient require modifications to the surgeon's standard protocols. It is my understanding that caffeine is mostly problematic because it is slightly dehydrating. Some surgeons are OK with caffeine intake if the patient can offset the potential Fluid loss with extra Water intake. For example, surgeons generally agree that NSAIDs (ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen) are not allowed after VSG surgery. My surgeon agrees that the risk is outweighed by the benefit of treating my autoimmune disease, so I am allowed to take NSAIDs as needed, but I have to stay on a PPI to minimize the risk of ulcers. Every patient is different, and good surgeons can work with the individual needs.

I met my now bf when I was about 2.5 months post op and I disclosed everything on our first date. But I was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at the beginning of the year so if this relationship was destined for anything I couldn't start it with a lie. I'm so happy I did He's really been the one thing this year that hasn't sucked but I think he's also part of the reason why I'm pretty happy now What if this guy is husband material?? Would you wanna start that with a lie?? HW - 140kg or 310lbs SW - 132.5kg or 291.5lbs CW - 92kg or 202.5lbs Surgery date - 7 June 2016

This is very interesting to me, since I also have RA/PsA. When we started discussing biologics, I asked my rheumy's opinion of WLS. She was enthusiastically behind it, citing WLS as many times reducing the inflammatory factors. However, she and my surgeon (and my research) all said that the bypass was NOT a good option for someone with auto-immune because of the complete contraindication for NSAIDs and steroids, where the sleeve only has a relative contraindication for those meds. Not criticising you or your docs, just find it interesting how there are so many differing opinions in the medical community. BTW, biologics are now off the table for me for the forseeable future. My inflammatory factors are down, and we still have dosing room on sulfasalazine and we haven't tried plaquenil yet. Mtx failed and I developed an allergic reaction to it, so at least I don't have to give myself chemo anymore! LOL. So the sleeve has worked amazingly well for me. Not remission, but meds are working better and we're able to avoid the real heavy hitters indefinitely. It is interesting how doctors differ in their opinions. I have autoimmune diseases as well. Medications really truly were the reason i packed on so much weight so quickly. I have Psoriatic Arthritis and hypothyroidism. At the same time, I had a very severe case of GERD causing me to cough every day all day for over a year with no solution. We had to heavily weigh the right choice of surgery for me. GERD is 100% resolved, issues with pain control for my joints are an everyday battle and I can not and will not risk taking any nsaids even with treatment. Because I have Psoriatic arthritis oral steroids are out as well as it kicks up the psoriasis so bad that it has caused serious infections that have caused me to be hospitalized over the years. I also never over ate. However, I ate crap all the time so i was actually malnourished while being morbidly obese. In fact my family and friends could not understand how i was so heavy because they saw how much i ate, they just did not realize that all the carbs were killing me. Anyway, since bypass I am still on biologics (Stelara) and Cyclosporine to keep my Psoriatic arthritis under control. It has been well controlled for the last 2 years so we have slowly be reducing the quantity of those medications. We tried lowering the dose of Stelara over a year ago and I went into a full on several month episode so we increased it back to where it was. We are discussing trying a reduction again in the spring as everything looks like it is going into remission. That being said, anytime i have surgery it seems to kick back up again so we are going to wait until after my plastics in January to try again. The biggest thing about having WLS is the head game. You have to change the way you live and learn to make better choices. I think for the most part i have done this well. Of course there are times when i indulge but 90% of the time, I do have to fight with my head. In the beginning, it was easier for me because even if i did indulge, the weight still came off. Now that I am two years post op, those decisions matter. I will gain or lose based solely on my behaviors. I believe this MUST be true of anyone going through or that has gone through WLS. Yes, some people will lose slower than others - I was one of them. It took me 18 months to lose my excess weight and alot of hard painful work to actually get there. Others have lost their weight of similar proportions within the first 12. I am sort of glad it took me longer, and took me understanding that I am now in the drivers seat, not my pouch. What i choose to put in my body and how often will dictate whether i lose, gain or maintain. If i choose to get no exercise at this point, it will and does have an impact on whether i lose, gain or maintain. I am in the drivers seat......not my surgery. The sooner some people realize this there will be less need for revisions in my opinion. Of course, I am NOT referring to those that have a equipment failure. I personally feel that a surgeon that is considering a revision for those persons who failed to lose the weight (not by malfunctioning equipment/surgery) really do need to see someone to assist with why they have not lost the weight. There is a nurse in my doctors office who had bypass surgery at the same time i did. I know this because she told me and seemed almost upset that I lost all of my weight and she has lost very little. She immediately blamed the surgery for not working. Then proceeded to tell me that her schedule simply did not allow for her to focus on herself so she is unable to get the right Protein and even fluids in her body. She skips meals and then eats whatever is handy in a few minutes in between patients. Ok, that is not the surgery failing, clearly she is still following the same behaviors she was before surgery. Dont get me wrong, I get it....she is taking care of patients. But, there comes a time when we have to be selfish and focus on ourselves if we want to be successful in the end. I literally started taking care of everyone else but me from the time I was 16 years old. I was a working married mother of 2 by the time i was 19 going through a horrible marriage. By 22 I was divorced and a single mother working 3 jobs just to make ends meet. By 25 i was remarried to my wonderful hubby of 29 years and working a high paying very stressful job. I did so well in my career and became the primary breadwinner. Well, then there was the stress of that so again, not taking care of me just working like a crazy person. By the time i was 51 i was in big trouble health wise and was literally told, i would end up in kidney failure soon if i did not lose weight. So, it was time for me to be very selfish and start taking care of myself. For the last two years, I have been focused on my health and well being and when you are morbidly obese, that is a necessary part of getting your health back. So, i say again......your head really has to change in order to be successful. It is why they send you for physch evals before this surgery. I honestly think they could do a better job of assessing patients and setting them up with the right people to help them through the mental part of WLS. Most of us need some sort of help. @@Djmohr, thank you for your comments. I was on the October 2015 forum and your posts have been encouraging. I am finally going to have gastric bypass surgery on December 12th and I have learned a lot from you and others in that and other forums. I just wanted to let you know that you are appreciated. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

@@rose1504 Definitely get your Thyroid checked, and not just TSH and T4, but T3 as well. I have Graves Disease (autoimmune thyroid disease), this kept me slim my whole life, till 2014 when it did 180 degree turn, and I was piling on weight at a frightening speed. I went from 60kg to 101kg between 2014 and March 2016. I also developed astonishing sweet cravings during that time, which made a mess of me. Graves is Hyper-thyroid. I had every symptom of this disease, except of bulging eyes and goitre. There is also Hypo-thyroid (under-active), Hashimotos etc which also can really mess with metabolism and general well being. Good luck @@rose1504 I hope you don't have thyroid disease, as I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy ...... Had my both ear Daiths pierced 3 weeks ago, to see if they would help my thyroid migraines and severe headaches. They (the acupressure point piercings) helped me tremendously! I was living almost daily on very strong pain killers. Now, I don't take them, and so those piercings really helped me. I have a huge stock of heavy duty pain killers at home, and now I forget all about them. So, Good Luck with all your tests. Please let us know how you went.

I chose the sleeve, because the complications and malabsorption with bypass always bothered me. When I heard the sleeve was proven effective I knew it was the one for me if I was going surgery route. I first attempted to lose on my own a few years back. I also have hormonal conditions such as autoimmune thyroid and PCOS, which lead me to believed I had malabsorption issues just from things I noticed with how I felt. They did confirm when they did Vitamin levels that I was deficient in several and close to being deficient in one. I feel more comfortable giving my body the change to absorb as much as it can by still having my stomach and not re-routing GI tract and lose/maintain healthy weight at the same time. Plus, I've never been fixated on being an unrealistic weight goal or loss. I am very realistic - my goal was in line with the weight range my dietitian gave me which will still have me in the obese category technically for my height... I'm looking to be healthier, more mobile, and have more strength not to be thin per se or a certain pant size. Lastly, I had hoped to avoid as much distress of loose skin, and thought I'd be better with sleeve since my end goal after surgery would still be quite overweight. I've lost around 7% so far of my body weight at a normal, healthy rate, and honestly I've already started noticing changes with my skin. When I lost significant weight (almost 100lbs) a few years back I had virtually no loose skin except an unnoticeable to others amount on my stomach. As I lose now I am coming to terms with the likelihood I will require some skin removal, and should start savings now. I had hoped I could just be okay with it and wear it proudly, but I'm actually having skin irritation already just from around 25lb loss. Each weight loss journey a person has is different. This experience is so much different from my last one just a few years ago. And as everyone pointed out you can gain with either option which is often shown on weight loss documentaries. I was told by my program's psychologist to prepare for a 10-20lb weight gain after you hit your goal weight, and to set a limit you will not allow yourself to go over i.e. 200lbs, so if you reach that point you reevaluate yourself and get back on track, because weight will always be an issue for each of us, and everyone that loses through whatever means has to stay on top of it or it'll become uncontrollable. Sent from my SM-G530T using the BariatricPal App

Ugh don't know where my post went... Yes I'm neatly four weeks post op, chronic pain issues unchanged for now but have new awesome energy and diabetes is way better as is blood pressure much more stable... I use stevia since it's natural and also use g6 sports powder from GNC sweetened with stevia bc it's yummy to me especially in non fat milk... if your non lactose intolerant... there'd unsweetened nut milks of course.... I've lost 25lbs so far, and no real complications... I drink premier occasionally if necessary on emergency bc insurance paid for it... but if I drink to much, my tummy reacts badly!! I'm excited for you and me! Therr is a gal in my support group with autoimmune disease as well who said post surgery, her pain got way better and now she's jogging and 150 lbs down in less then a year I believe!! Amazing

This is very interesting to me, since I also have RA/PsA. When we started discussing biologics, I asked my rheumy's opinion of WLS. She was enthusiastically behind it, citing WLS as many times reducing the inflammatory factors. However, she and my surgeon (and my research) all said that the bypass was NOT a good option for someone with auto-immune because of the complete contraindication for NSAIDs and steroids, where the sleeve only has a relative contraindication for those meds. Not criticising you or your docs, just find it interesting how there are so many differing opinions in the medical community. BTW, biologics are now off the table for me for the forseeable future. My inflammatory factors are down, and we still have dosing room on sulfasalazine and we haven't tried plaquenil yet. Mtx failed and I developed an allergic reaction to it, so at least I don't have to give myself chemo anymore! LOL. So the sleeve has worked amazingly well for me. Not remission, but meds are working better and we're able to avoid the real heavy hitters indefinitely. It is interesting how doctors differ in their opinions. I have autoimmune diseases as well. Medications really truly were the reason i packed on so much weight so quickly. I have Psoriatic Arthritis and hypothyroidism. At the same time, I had a very severe case of GERD causing me to cough every day all day for over a year with no solution. We had to heavily weigh the right choice of surgery for me. GERD is 100% resolved, issues with pain control for my joints are an everyday battle and I can not and will not risk taking any nsaids even with treatment. Because I have Psoriatic arthritis oral steroids are out as well as it kicks up the psoriasis so bad that it has caused serious infections that have caused me to be hospitalized over the years. I also never over ate. However, I ate crap all the time so i was actually malnourished while being morbidly obese. In fact my family and friends could not understand how i was so heavy because they saw how much i ate, they just did not realize that all the carbs were killing me. Anyway, since bypass I am still on biologics (Stelara) and Cyclosporine to keep my Psoriatic arthritis under control. It has been well controlled for the last 2 years so we have slowly be reducing the quantity of those medications. We tried lowering the dose of Stelara over a year ago and I went into a full on several month episode so we increased it back to where it was. We are discussing trying a reduction again in the spring as everything looks like it is going into remission. That being said, anytime i have surgery it seems to kick back up again so we are going to wait until after my plastics in January to try again. The biggest thing about having WLS is the head game. You have to change the way you live and learn to make better choices. I think for the most part i have done this well. Of course there are times when i indulge but 90% of the time, I do have to fight with my head. In the beginning, it was easier for me because even if i did indulge, the weight still came off. Now that I am two years post op, those decisions matter. I will gain or lose based solely on my behaviors. I believe this MUST be true of anyone going through or that has gone through WLS. Yes, some people will lose slower than others - I was one of them. It took me 18 months to lose my excess weight and alot of hard painful work to actually get there. Others have lost their weight of similar proportions within the first 12. I am sort of glad it took me longer, and took me understanding that I am now in the drivers seat, not my pouch. What i choose to put in my body and how often will dictate whether i lose, gain or maintain. If i choose to get no exercise at this point, it will and does have an impact on whether i lose, gain or maintain. I am in the drivers seat......not my surgery. The sooner some people realize this there will be less need for revisions in my opinion. Of course, I am NOT referring to those that have a equipment failure. I personally feel that a surgeon that is considering a revision for those persons who failed to lose the weight (not by malfunctioning equipment/surgery) really do need to see someone to assist with why they have not lost the weight. There is a nurse in my doctors office who had bypass surgery at the same time i did. I know this because she told me and seemed almost upset that I lost all of my weight and she has lost very little. She immediately blamed the surgery for not working. Then proceeded to tell me that her schedule simply did not allow for her to focus on herself so she is unable to get the right Protein and even fluids in her body. She skips meals and then eats whatever is handy in a few minutes in between patients. Ok, that is not the surgery failing, clearly she is still following the same behaviors she was before surgery. Dont get me wrong, I get it....she is taking care of patients. But, there comes a time when we have to be selfish and focus on ourselves if we want to be successful in the end. I literally started taking care of everyone else but me from the time I was 16 years old. I was a working married mother of 2 by the time i was 19 going through a horrible marriage. By 22 I was divorced and a single mother working 3 jobs just to make ends meet. By 25 i was remarried to my wonderful hubby of 29 years and working a high paying very stressful job. I did so well in my career and became the primary breadwinner. Well, then there was the stress of that so again, not taking care of me just working like a crazy person. By the time i was 51 i was in big trouble health wise and was literally told, i would end up in kidney failure soon if i did not lose weight. So, it was time for me to be very selfish and start taking care of myself. For the last two years, I have been focused on my health and well being and when you are morbidly obese, that is a necessary part of getting your health back. So, i say again......your head really has to change in order to be successful. It is why they send you for physch evals before this surgery. I honestly think they could do a better job of assessing patients and setting them up with the right people to help them through the mental part of WLS. Most of us need some sort of help.

The sugar free stuff made my gut angry and I have autoimmune diseases but no gut ones. I had to stop all of that and find a stevia based Protein powder and was fine... The surgery itself is known to often reset and help improve inflammatory autoimmune diseases according to my rheumatologist and others Getting enough Fiber for the bowels us a bit tricky at first so you might need to troubleshoot that early in advanced

Bitingcat, I have an "undefined" autoimmune disorder as well. I tested positive for RA in 1994 but as it hasn't progressed as expected it's not RA but I have had five joint replacements so it's not nothing either. As for nurse ratchet. I really thought long and hard about what to do because I didn't want to be the cause of someone losing their job. But in the end I realized that there was no way this was an isolated incident since she started in on me the minute she walked into my hospital room. And I only gave the highlights here, it was much worse. Bottom line she was unprofessional at best and sometimes outright reckless. She did not get fired but she is on probation and can't work in bariatrics or post op/recovery even when her probation is over. Thanks for visiting!

Thank you all. When I first started out on this path I didn't believe I'd really make it to this point. Honestly I thought if I could just get below 300, I'd be happy. What I have gotten back this year has been amazing! You get out of it what you truly put into it and I plan to keep on chugging with my many hurdles til I reach that final goal line. I can see it's possible now and I want people to know that it really can happen and will happen, but you have to get up and put up the fight every day even when you are sick or injured or depressed. It's hard and when you backslide to a bad habit you need to pick yourself up, give yourself a scolding, and get back on the right track. I got more bad medical news yesterday afternoon about my heart and my autoimmune diseases being more aggressive than we would want, but I'm fighting to stay "sober" and stay on my plan and keep chugging forward. You may never be a size 2, honestly at 5'9 it's just not reasonable for some of us, but you can be so close to your goal a year from when you start...just start and see it through! ❤️ I went from a 34w/36w to a size 12/14 in one year!!!!!!

Knowing full well the contraindications for NSAIDS, bypass was the only WLS that showed remission in autoimmune disorders. My docs are part of a center of excellence, both with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and my rheumy is Duke- trained and one of the top researchers in RA and Lupus, so I felt pretty comfortable with their recs. Giving up ibu was mentally harder than anything else, considering I've not had to take more than 3 Tylenol since my surgery! Sucks about the MTX for you...wondering were you doing pills or injections? Pills had me puking and were much less effective than the shots. Plaquenil was useless, as were every other med...been there, done them all. My last drug, Actemra, provided a LITTLE relief- about 10%, which lasted a whole week after I was infused. It was the IV decadron that kept me going along with the daily pred. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Yeah, my rheumy didn't talk about remission, but said that especially since the sleeve completely removes some of the stomach tissue that drives inflammation, it had the potential to help a lot. I'd not seen any of the research with complete remission. However, I don't think I would have gambled my ability to take NSAIDs and steroids. My rheumy hates steroids, so I haven't been on them in forever, but she does like to keep it as an option for really bad flares. I haven't had any NSAIDs since surgery, I figure the less I take them the better even though they're allowed by my rheumy and surgeon and I'm on a PPI. My rheumy wants to keep all treatment options on the table, because we caught this so early there's no joint degeneration. Right now 3 months post-op, my pain level is less with zero NSAIDs and less than max dose of sulfasalazine than it was prior to surgery with over 10,000mg of ibu a week. And my inflammatory factors are almost normal. We'll treat even with normal inflammatory factors since I'm seronegative and we're trying to fend off joint damage. I was on the mtx pills, and woke up with a rash all over, and a severe episode of pleurisy. A higher than normal dose of benadryl didn't knock it down, so I went to the ER (it was the one I worked at the time, so that was fun) and got some IV steroids and fluids and more benadryl. My rheumy wasn't convinced it was the mtx, but it wasn't working for me anyway so we stopped it. I have wondered since if I might have had a better response if I was using injections. But oh, well.

This is very interesting to me, since I also have RA/PsA. When we started discussing biologics, I asked my rheumy's opinion of WLS. She was enthusiastically behind it, citing WLS as many times reducing the inflammatory factors. However, she and my surgeon (and my research) all said that the bypass was NOT a good option for someone with auto-immune because of the complete contraindication for NSAIDs and steroids, where the sleeve only has a relative contraindication for those meds. Not criticising you or your docs, just find it interesting how there are so many differing opinions in the medical community. BTW, biologics are now off the table for me for the forseeable future. My inflammatory factors are down, and we still have dosing room on sulfasalazine and we haven't tried plaquenil yet. Mtx failed and I developed an allergic reaction to it, so at least I don't have to give myself chemo anymore! LOL. So the sleeve has worked amazingly well for me. Not remission, but meds are working better and we're able to avoid the real heavy hitters indefinitely. Knowing full well the contraindications for NSAIDS, bypass was the only WLS that showed remission in autoimmune disorders. My docs are part of a center of excellence, both with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and my rheumy is Duke- trained and one of the top researchers in RA and Lupus, so I felt pretty comfortable with their recs. Giving up ibu was mentally harder than anything else, considering I've not had to take more than 3 Tylenol since my surgery! Sucks about the MTX for you...wondering were you doing pills or injections? Pills had me puking and were much less effective than the shots. Plaquenil was useless, as were every other med...been there, done them all. My last drug, Actemra, provided a LITTLE relief- about 10%, which lasted a whole week after I was infused. It was the IV decadron that kept me going along with the daily pred. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

So here is my question for you. (And before ANYONE starts a battle on @@LisaMergs behalf -- she and I are groovy, we can discuss like adults without intervention.) Clearly you have had awesome results with the bypass. Why did you doctor suggest it? Was is malabsorbtion? As I stated earlier, that makes MUCH more sense than the people who say they never overate but who choose the sleeve. Did he/she think this would "reset" your metabolism? More importantly, are you off all those awful meds that made you gain the weight? I've seen your pics and you look AH-MAY-ZING. I know you can clear up some of my confusion about this. My whole purpose for having bypass was based solely upon anecdotal evidence showing that people with autoimmune disease specifically rheumatoid arthritis were going into remission after bypass. There was no evidence shown for patients who had the sleeve. My feeling was it was worth a shot. Worst case scenario oh would be that I would be able to drop some of the massive weight I had gained from all the medications there by alleviating the pressure and extra weight put on my already damaged and painful joints. I was one of the fortunate who went into complete remission after my bypass surgery. I know coming off all the steroids had a huge impact on the significant amount of weight that I was able to lose so quickly. But let's face it there was still plenty that has had to come off with Hard work determination and a commitment to the tool and for lack of better terminology life altering life saving gift I was given. Two things- Forgive my lack of proper sentence structure I'm dictating this into the phone as I'm driving to pick up a child from school, and lipstick lady is right we are super groovy and big girls and don't take anything each other says with anything other than the intent in which it was stated. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

In my case it's very likely lyme disease. I had it in 1986 and was pretty sick but because I lived in N Ca it went undiagnosed for several months before I saw the small bullseye rash on my back right under my bra line. The treatment took almost 3 months. Back then they didn't do post TX titre (maybe there wasn't even a test for limes). My GP increased the prednisone to 100mg a day for ten days and if the titre comes back positive he will send me to an infectious diseases specialist because of autoimmunity issue and the blood count I had house "sticky" platelets which I have because I had malaria when I was in my 20s's so with the I increased stickiness he suspects something is brewing. Crap. There is no connection between the WLS or the cervical spine injections I just had.

I have a similar question. My wbc is low as well 3.1. I do have an autoimmune disease so the cause is known. Rest of blood work was normal. I'm at the end of a very long process and I have my final medical clearance next week. Will they still do the surgery? Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App

Have you had a pouch test to see if everything is in tact? Also, good to have a good physical as there are many things that can cause tiredness and weight imbalance... low vit D, thyroid as you said and done drs dobt follow the updated values on what is considered hypothyroidism, anemia, autoimmune diseases, Cushing's syndrome, pcos, and more I do think going back to the basics for more then a week might be. Good idea especially if you do have anoyhet unknown issue in the way. You can document everything so you have evidence to show the insurance and new doctor that you tried everything and here are the results Maybe you do need a revision but if you have a primary thyroid condition, a revision is not likely to fix it help much...your body needs repair first with meds, than WLS can be considered. I have bipolar, and lithium has given me hypothyroidism but after a couple years on thyroid meds, it's better. I was just sleeved and I have pcos too and I notice my weight is slow to move off despite following the rules. Still tweaking things though... I have to get steroids from time to time and that makes me voraciously hungry, pack on lbs and store fat for the winter lol but I'm still loosing with the surgery just not as fast as my counterparts it seems.... So, having thyroid issues should not make you gain huge amounts and loose nothing with the sleeve in place unless something is wrong with the sleeve and it happens even though not often I have to be very strict about my meals bc I dobt lose as fast so maybe you need a diet reset for longer, document every crumb for yourself, the NUt, surgeon old or new and insurance. Also suggest getting a good exam..maybe you need a new gp!! Good fortune