Thinning skin on arms

I am curious if you found out anything about this? I am 44 years old, 2 1/2 years out from DS and have lost 270 lbs. My arms are terrible about busting and bleeding, but I clot very quickly. I love to do yard work so I look like I have battled a barb wired fence. I would like to know if my iron is that low. I tried to donatee blood back in February and minimal iron level was 12.5 and I was only 12.4 which was good but just off. Been researching everything I can about this...

You can get Vit K WITHOUT a prescription at Vitalady

I too am having the blood blisters on my arms. The stares are the worst. Never had this problem until 2yrs post surgery. I have started taking Iron, now I will start Vit K. I even wake up with them. How to hide them is the most difficult in the summer time when it is 110 outside! Any help will be GREAT!

Thank~You,

Janet

Hi Y'all,
Add another light-skinned, blue-eyed person to the list of bandaid wearers. I have been plagued with this same bruising/skin-tearing issues since my first surgiversary. Now I'm 2 years out, and I am very close to my goal. I've lost 160 lbs.
I'm very slightly anemic and according to my regular doc (I don't see surgeon anymore---those bills just kept coming and coming after I had been told that the BCBS covered the procedure. My only complaint about the whole thing was that there were so many extra bills that were required in cash.)

Anyway, my own doc cares for me most conscientiously, but he has no idea what the bruising and easy wounding of the forearms is all about. He thinks it is likely from the great weight loss. I tend to agree. Something so drastic would impact more than just the waistline.

That said, I'm still worried. One woman in my rowing club---not overweight ever, but light of skin, eye, and hair---has the same problem, and she recommended Quercetin+C from the health food store. I have to say that the bruising and bleeding was greatly diminished for the time it took me to finish the bottle. I can't wait to get another and see what it does for me. My friend's arms look very good, but I can see little places where the bruises are healing. I think this might be what we are all looking for. I haven't been in a position to visit any establishment with a cash register for a few months, but this week, I expect a windfall and I will stock up on the Quercetin. 

The amount of damage that I've seen on my arms in the past year has been significant. Some of the wounds have been quite deep, and they don't heal like I expect. I'm not being vain, but I've always had great skin that healed quickly and without scars. Seriously, I didn't appreciate this great gift. Well, I sure do now!  I'm delighted with the way it has "snapped back." This is unexpected, as I have been overweight all of my life, and I expected to look like Fat Bas*ard at the end. Fortunately not. I may not even need a tummy procedure. If the arm bruising is the only problem I have with my skin, I count myself very lucky....but I sure would like to know exactly what this is about.

* One clue that intrigues me is that the Quercetin has antihistamine effects, so I'm wondering if this is some kind of histamine problem?

** My puppy always scratches my arm with his paw to get my attention. Poor thing. He still hasn't figured out why he can't tap my arm, though he is very concerned when I start to drip blood. "Speak" is out of the question; he is truly operatic, and we try to keep his vocals down to a minimum as well. lol He's a Jack Russell, the type that has a little fox hound in his bloodline, so he can really howl.

Hello,

I had my surgery 2 1/2 years ago, and about 7 months ago developed thin skin and easy tearing, bleeding on my forearms.

I have low vitamin D levels, and I was taking a tablet type supplement. I changed last week to a 2000 unit, vitamin D3, softgel supplement, which I take once a day, and withing 24 hours my arms were vastly improved.

It's been a week, and the bruising and bleeding has stopped.

I hope you give this a try and have success too!

Roxy

Hopefully the OP has some solid answers by now...  but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents.  Having very thin fragile skin, especially at a young age, can be a sign of cushing's disese.  It was one of my early symptoms.  Band-aids would rip my skin  right off - it tore like wet tissue paper.  Also easy brusing and slow healing,  There are a lot of symptoms associated with cushings - weight gain, buffalo hump, insomnia, thick stretch marks, weakness, fatigue, etc.  It's pretty rare, and symptoms are often explained away by other things.

So, just wanted to throw that out there. A 24-hour urine test for cortisol is a good place to start if you want to test for it.

good luck!

 Well I too had GB surgery it has been 7 years and the thin skin started about 2 years ago. I was told by a nurse I have arm skin of an 80 year old women....I am 48. I lost 100 lbs and have lots of stomach issues. As soon as I eat I have run to the bathroom. It sucks. I found if I stay away from dairy and eat lots of fiber I am good to go. I also started taking biotin for my hair (and it is finally growing again) and a lot of vitamins including iron and D as soon as I did this my arms did not bleed. I ran out of my viatimins and have to lazy to go get them and guess what......huge bleed on my right arm. That to me solves it. The lack of vitamins D and Iron plus calcium made this happen. I hadn't had a bleed in months! I have huge bruises all over my legs. I have new coworker that used to work for a GB doctor and she is getting me all kinds of samples of vitamins and protien shakes. I will update you guys with what she supplies me with and how they help......have a great day.

I had a VBGB done in 1998 and had to have it redone in 2004.  I've lost 176 lbs. and am below my target weight.
I, too, have noticed this problem as of this year.  It started with strange bruising on my forearms that doesn't turn white when applying pressure.
Now in the past 2 weeks or so, the skin on my forearms is tearing at the least little bump and bleeding like crazy!
My skin is paper thin and looks as though you could just peal it right off!

I'm light-skinned, blue eyes, lt. hair and also had quite a bit of sun exposure throughout my life.  I'm 49 years old.
I've been taking 3000 iu's of Vitamin D-3 for years and my level is perfect.
I really need to find a 'cure' as my hobby happens to be mining and I bump & scrape myself up against rocks all the time!

I empathize with all of you and will keep my eyes & ears open and try to find something to help. 

I would love to hear from abemmaco4 to see if any of her dr. visits revealed any new information.

Take care & good luck, all.

I also have this problem.

I am nearly 7 years out from my gastric bypass.  A few years ago I noticed the skin in my arms had become very thin and looked like crepe paper.  Almost any little bump or scrape resulted in ugly red bloody areas right beneath the skin.  As time goes by my skin is getting more and more fragile.  A few days ago my arm brushed the top of my car window as I was getting in.  It didn't hurt, I glanced down and a 1" x 2" piece of skin had peeled back and was bleeding profusely.   4 days later and it is still open and oozing.  I saw my general practitioner today and asked her about it, she said it was due to the weight loss surgery and could offer nothing more than using A&D ointment.  So I came here, feeling somewhat like a freak, a 58 year old woman with the arm skin of an 80 year old.  It scares me, if it is this bad now, how on earth will it survive another 20-30 years?

So it was with great interest and relief that I now find I am in no way alone in this distressing problem.  I have made notes of some of the vitamins mentioned here.  I am going to make sure that I am getting enough of the ones mentioned and will also talk to my bariatric surgeon at my checkup next month.  I have also been having routine blood workups due to some non-related problems.  Other than being low on potassium, everything else that they checked for looked pretty good.  But they did not to a real extensive panel, certainly not 10-17 vials!

I should also mention that I am Scandinavian, with light skin that tans easily, dark blonde hair and blue eyes.  Like another poster here, my family spent weeks in the western states each summer where we were out in the sun all day rock hunting.  We did not use sunscreen and there were some times that I burned pretty badly, which is what I originally blamed this on.

I will be continuing to monitor this thread to see if additional information is added that might help.  If I find out anything of any value at my appointment, I will come back and add that, as well.

Thanks to all who have posted.  It really does help knowing I'm not alone in this.

I saw a dermatologist about my arms and he said my arms looked like the arms of an 80-year-old WWII veteran!
He said it was sun damage and there was nothing I could do about it but try to prevent further damage and use sun screen and wanted me to wear long sleeved sun screen shirts.