Losing Weight almost killed me

[cantbeatluck]

My Story:

I had mini gastric bypass in feb of 2006. My surgery by all accounts when perfectly. I was under the knife for less than 45 minutes and no leaks, blood, etc. I started having issues with the surgery about 1 month in or so. I noticed I always felt just weird or lightly dizzy etc. 6 months of feeling weird I began to get scared it would never end and I would feel like this for the rest of my life. I was dropping weight very quickly and at 8 months was down 160 lbs from 340 lbs to 180 lbs. During the 7th month I began to have dizziness and trouble walking in that I was always running into things or bumping into walls etc. The dizziness got so bad that I started not wanting to leave my home or bed. I was unable to drive for 2 months nor was I able to work. For lack of a better way of saying this, mgb was ruining my life (but I was 180 lbs). During the 8th month it was so bad that my surgeon Dr. P agreed that a full reversal was in order and that he really had no idea why this was happening. I went down to Texas in November and was fully reversed in less than 1 hour. My reversal did not go as smoothly as the first surgery as I woke up bleeding out of a few of my ports and eventually had to be hand stitched (a first for Dr p with this surgery). I had some weird issues in the hospital at one point losing my hearing and my vision went jigsaw puzzle like (everything broke into pieces I looked at) again I must be the anamoly when it comes to surgery or something. I returned home hopeful that my problems would go away. About 2 weeks out I started to have soft foods etc and the issues came back but different issues surfaced. I wake up every day freezing cold, shaking, confused, anxious, and I can feel my pulse all over my body especially in my stomach. Throughout the day I have a weird pain / sensation on the left side of my stomach it almost feels like someone is squeezing my pacrease. I am light headed even as I try to type this. My pcp had me take a 3 hour blood glucose tolerance test and after the 2nd draw stopped the test at the hospital as my blood sugar was dropping not raising after having the 75 grams of liquid sugar. Everyday is horrible and I awake to these weird sensations that never go away. I have had no luck in finding an endocronologist who will see me as I have no insurance and am a 28 year old college student who is poor. My life was supposed to be better but it seems the only benefit ill have is once the mgb takes my life I will have a smaller body to fit in the urn. If you have any questions or ideas please write or reply to my post. I had no idea this could occur and have looked over the manual 100 times looking for why this happend to me and have come up short. At one point Dr R. had me taking in fistfuls of salt and nothing changed [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I am eating a restricted diet of very little simple sugars and only complex carbs / proteins, but it doesnt seem to be working.

[buriedbeds]

That's terrible. I hope you get better...there's not too much else to say.

-bb.

[hawk59]

have you considered talking to a malpractice lawyer?

[imitation]

That's a terrible story. Is it common for someone so young to have this kind of major surgery?

[cantbeatluck]

I am working on the lawyer ting as we speak, I was 5 8 340 and beginning to show signs of sleep apnea and severe reflux disorder.

[wezvidz]

re: hawk
Screaming malpractice eh? There are inherent risks with getting surgery like this. Doctors are not flawless gods of medicine, they are human, and medical technology still has a long way to go. From the story, it doesn't sound like the doctors did anything wrong, his body is just responding in a much different way than the norm. It sucks. Trying to extort the people who tried to help for a bunch of money won't make him feel better.

Maybe it's just that I'm seeing the physician side of this due to being in Pharm school, but litigation just drives up the cost of healthcare for everyone. For me personally, going under the knife is always a last resort due to complications that can arise. If you tried everything possible to lose the weight before this surgery and researched it fully before undergoing it and this happeneded, I truly feel for you.

[J_T_P]

what do you do with all that extra skin?

[cantbeatluck]

hide stuff in it jtp

[mjkidd]

[ QUOTE ]
Trying to extort the people who tried to help for a bunch of money won't make him feel better.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, but he will get money to pay his bills. You're right that doctors are held to an unreasonable standard, but malpractice suits have become a sort of de facto disability insurance after a bad outcome. The OP (and anyone in his position) would be a fool not to litigate after such an extreme bad outcome. After all, he paid his share of his surgeon's malpractice fee when the doctor got paid. I'm sure the surgeon fully expects to get sued in cases like this; it's a risk the surgeon took when the OP went under the knife, just like this terrible outcome is a risk the OP took. But under our system, bad outcome equals malpractice settlement.

OP -- good luck in your litigation and I hope your health improves.

[mjkidd]

Did you get 75 g IV glucose or did you drink sugar water in your test?