Long-Term Complications of Gastric Bypass Surgery

For those of you who are not familiar with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery it is a procedure in which your stomach is cut at the end of the esophagus to form a small pouch. Then part of you small intestine is bypassed and by cutting it and reattaching it to the pouch. This limits the food intake and the amount of time food stays in your small intestine for the body to absorb fat.

When I decided to have gastric bypass surgery almost nine years ago, I thought I was fully prepared. It seemed as though my doctor had told me everything I needed to know concerning the procedure. Little did I know that he was just "sugar-coating" what I was really in for.

The doctor explained that just because I lost weight didn't mean I was going to feel better about myself. I had to undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if I was prepared for the changes to come. I didn't expect to nor did I want to look like a supermodel, I just wanted to be able to play with my children and live a normal life, to be able to do things that a person who weighs over 300 pounds cannot do.

On the day of my surgery my doctor had been called out on an emergency so another doctor performed my operation. Right before the anesthetic he asked if I was aware that I would have a significant scar down the center of my abdomen. I told him I was and that I wasn't concerned with scarring. He never said anything about all of the excess skin I would be left with that would never tighten back to its original size, not that it would have deterred my decision.

Two days after I came home from the hospital my incision re-opened about three inches and when I tried to contact the hospital I didn't get a response. I tried to close the opening with butterfly tape but it wouldn't hold and I was left with a very nasty, infected incision.

I had read through all of the information that they had given me regarding the operation and I knew I would have to take a children's chewable vitamin for six weeks afterwards to help me get the nutrients that my body needed. They didn't tell me that I would need to take several supplements for the rest of my life.

They never told me that I had to be very careful when it came to sugar intake. I found that out the hard way when I was driving home from shopping one day and took a sip of my son's lemonade. I immediately started to feel as though I was going to pass out and I had to pull over and buy some water to dilute the sugar I had ingested.

In the beginning I was losing weight too quickly because I was unable to eat. Every time I tried, I would vomit. My hair started to fall out due to not getting enough protein into my system. I was so fatigued that I could barely function.

I had to have surgery to repair a hernia due to my bowels ripping through my weakened stomach muscles.

After a few years I started to feel better, once my stomach pouch stretched out a little and I could eat more. I am now able to eat what would be considered a normal low-fat diet. I have to take a multi-vitamin, iron to ward off anemia, calcium to avoid osteoporosis, a B-complex and fiber tablet to counter-act the constipation from the iron supplement. After taking all of these medications for the last eight and a half years it has taken a toll on my liver and I am now having complications with that.

Now I am left to wonder if it was actually worth all of the problems. Sure I am thinner and more active now, but for how long?