Was any one else told they would not be able to give blood after VSG?

I give blood all the time. I'm almost 5 years out.

I would ask your surgeon... I gave blood a few months back and again just this past Saturday.  I don't see why you cant I have and have had no problem, they test your HGB and if its in range then you should be fine. Good Luck

"our Chemistries will always be messed up. "

Well that's nonsense.

Now it may be the opinion of your surgeon that you shouldn't give blood for one reason or another. But if a medical professional actually told you that your body's chemistry will be messed up as a result of a VSG, using those exact words, they are a quack.

All a VSG does is remove part of the stomach. Our digestive systems continue to function normally afterwards. Our blood chemistry functions normally. We don't malabsorb anything either. Some VSGers do have issues with maldigestion of certain nutrients but that is not the same thing as having a "messed up" body chemistry. The body chemistry is the same as before. The only difference is there is a smaller quantity of ghrelin and IF. But there still is ghrelin and there still is IF.

Now this is NOT true of all the WLS types. With RnY, for example, not only are parts of your intestine removed from the path that food takes making it impossible to absorb certain nutrients, but the part of your stomach that makes most of the acid is sectioned off so that stomach juices are flowing directly into your intestines farther down than they used to. (This is one reason why ulcers are a big risk of that surgery.) So in that operation, the body's chemistry is definitely altered in a big way because everything is re-routed, moved around, reattached in a different order, etc.

I believe that the reason some doctors say you can't give blood is because (a) they treat their RnY and VSGers the same and it's a rare RnYer who could give blood and/or (b) a small percentage of VSGers do have issues with low iron levels and rather than saying "Don't give blood until your iron levels are checked" they just say "Don't give blood."

Personally I'm not fond of that style of medicine -- where you blanket forbid something because a small percentage has issues with it. That's where the "no straws" rule comes from and a host of other stupid rules that don't really apply to the majority. I prefer a program that is more individualized and more case-by-case. To tell every single person with a VSG not to give blood because less than 10% have issues with iron just seems really lame to me.

As I said, I've given blood post-op and I will continue to give blood. My iron levels are excellent and, if I'm not careful  with my supplements, my serum iron levels actually get too high! There's no reason for me not to give blood and luckily I have medical professionals on my team who treat me like an individual and don't give me a hard time about it.

I think you are right.  The statement about not being able to give blood that is printed on the discharge papers is probably a blanket statement that is listed for all bariatric patients.  I didn't think about that before. Even though all types of bariatric surgeries are performed there, the RN doing our pre-op testing new that we were all VSG patients and she made it a point to tell us we couldn't give blood.  I'm going to talk to my surgeon about it.  I have an apt. on 8/14.  Thanks for your help.