How do the numbers DROP so fast?

[stravi 0]

My bp went back to near normal five days after my surgery. If it hadn't happened to me personally, I would not have believed it. I had surgery on Wed and almost passed out in the shower the following Sunday morning. I took no pain meds after surgery except some celebrex, which I take anyway for arthritis.

My primary care physician immediately reduced my bp meds to only 1/2 of one of the 4 bps pills I was on prior to surgery. I'm charting my pressure twice a day, and I'm doing great.

I cannot explain it but I did find a website of a surgeon in Texas who has had some patients have the same experience. If any one is interested, I'll try to find a link to his site.

I'm going with the flow and "if it ain't broke, I'm not going to try to fix it"!

[brispenny31 0]

Good Morning All…

I have read a few posts here, as well as other sites, as well as the 'guest speaker' from my future surgeon say something such as "As soon as I left the hospital, my diabetes were gone, and my blood pressure was at a normal range".

HOW in the world can someone make this claim? Is it possible?

This whole Oprah issue is all over the New York radio stations this a.m. on the commute. How the DJ's are 'bashing' the 'nutshell size' stomachs that are created with the Bariatric surgeries. I hate hearing this, especially since it's taken me some time to get up the guts to do this!!!

Don't listen to anything negative, it will only make you think twice, and u know, as well as I do, that this is the right thing to do. It will change your life 4 the better.

brispenny31

[vgerbus 1]

My diabetes numbers didn't drop overnight but my A1C number two wees before surgery was 7.2 and three months after my number had dropped to a "normal" persons number of 6, so I am not quite sure how to answer questions on medical forms anymore if I am diabetic, but my doctor tells me I am no longer diabetic. I was never on medication for the diabetes just diet and exercise. This is one of the reasons I decided to get the band, I was already diabetic and high blood pressure runs in the family. Don't let anyone try to talk you out of the surgery. You know in your mind what is best for you so don't let anyone knock your confidence.

[sisterfunkhaus 3]

Naysayers are either

1. Jealous b/c you are about to lose weight.

2. Those hateful ignoramuses who think you can just buck up and lose it on your own with will power.

3. Or just fat haters period.

People should do what is best for them and forget everyone else. No one else is in a position to say anything about how someone loses weight if they have never been there themselves. I find it so interesting how much thin people criticize something they don't understand.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Amazingly, it is possible. But not for lap band but bypass. Check out this study, it's HUGE right now in the bariatric community:

Welsh Medics To Examine How Surgery Can Cure Diabetes

Because of this study scientists are scrambling to find out why this is the case. They are already looking at completely different ways to approach diabetes. The results are essentially the same for band and bypass, but bypass remission happens within days, diabetes remission happens with weight loss in banding.

[Jeni 85 0]

you m know your body best and what the right choice is for you... don't listen to the negatives...

I have also noticed and improvement in my allergies and asthma since i had surgery march 15... i noticed it within a couple of days actually... I heard that some of it has to do with the hormones changing or something like that...

[GayleTX 1]

Curing Type 2 diabetes with gastric bypass (not lapband, actual bypass where they reroute the intestines) is a topic that is being studied all over the world right now and is a major topic at many of the bariatric surgeon conferences as well as diabetic conferences . The 'cure' has little to do with the change in diet but with the surgery itself....that's why it is so exicitng to diabetic community. Here's one article I found about it:

"The latest research shows that weight loss surgery not only helps patients lose weight, but in many cases, cures their diabetes as well, Senay says.

Dr. Louis Flancbaum of New York's St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital performs bariatric surgery on the severely obese to help them lose weight. The most commonly performed bariatric surgery is known as gastric bypass, where the stomach's size is reduced and the small intestine re-routed to minimize calorie intake.

"It appears that gastric bypass surgery is a cure for a variety of people who have type 2 diabetes," he says. "It seems that the re-routing of the food alters the way hormones are secreted from the foregut and from the pancreas, and that that seems to have an effect on type 2 diabetes that occurs even before people lose weight.

However, I have a lapband and within 3 mo after surgery my diabetes was completely controlled by my diet (not cured, controlled) and has remained so. I am quite so, tho, that if I went back to my old eating habits it would be back. Gastric bypass is quite different.

[stravi 0]

Hi Sherilynn,

The best advice I can give you or anyone else considering LBS is to talk with your surgeon and his/her staff about your concerns. They are the only ones with the expertise to advise you. If you aren't comfortable with your doctor, then you might want to think about finding a different one.

For me, the numbers did drop within a short period of time. My primary care physician tells me that even a 10 lb weight loss can have a significant effect on a person's stats. I can only tell you what happened to me as I'm not qualified to give medical advice or make other general statements.

As for friends who say they don't want you to have the surgery: My best friend didn't want me to do it but not because she was afraid I'd lose weight (for crying out loud!) or because she was "jealous". She was afraid something would happen to me like I might die. She was worried BECAUSE we are best friends. Also, one of her sisters went to Mexico and had it done and it was a disaster and that's the only person she had known so far that had had the surgery. Her only frame of reference was not a positive one.

People who are skeptical of LBS usually don't have all the facts. It's a very personal decision that you must make with your doctor.

As for me, I wish I had done this a long time ago and given the choices, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was a good decision for me and I have absolutely no regrets and I feel great!

And by the way, my best friend is amazed with my results so far and she is now considering having it done too (in the United States, of course!). She is a diabetic, so I hope she does because I don't want anything to happen to her either!

I hope you have a similar experience to mine. Good luck and keep in touch!

Sharon