12 year after my surgery. I want to share what I have learned.

My lap r.n.y. was in June 2001. I was in a car accident and took pain reliever with ibruprophen because my doctor would not prescribe hydrocodine and tylenol wasn't enough for my neck pain. The medicine gave me such a bad ulser I had to have a revision to make another stomach. That was in 2008. DO NOT TAKE IBRUPROPHEN or any medication containing it. I'm not here to blame the doctor. I am here to tell you that YOU are responsible for you health care. 12 years ago this was still a new procedure and less was known about the long term results. After several years you forget you had the surgery, you don't come to this sight and you forget you were ever obese. You think your body is just like anyone elses. You think of yourself as normal. I had not thought about my weight loss surgery until I started having problems. These are problems I caused myself. My GP was not my GP years ago when I had my surgery although he is aware that I have had it. Two years ago I was having rapid heart beats and a shooting pain in my ear. I was scheduled for my yearly exam and asked my gynocologist to check my ear because it would hurt sometimes. He told me my ear was clear and told me sharp ear pain is a sign of heart disease in women. So off to a heart doctor I went. After a stress test we found nothing to be wrong with my heart. Looking back I see several things that were caused by my low vitamin b-12, D and iron levels. I will turn 58 this year and just thought I was getting old. I ache all the time, my neck hurts so bad I have to lay on a heating pad and I feel tired all the time. I still have the same desires to do all the fun things in life, I just get so tired too quickly when doing them. ALL OF THIS IS MY FAULT. Here is how it all snuck up on me. Please pay attention. I am a successful business woman and not stupid, I simply forgot about or ignored my special needs because I thought of myself as normal.

Every day I take a hormone pill (I'm 58), a Biotin (because my hair is so thin because of lack of vitamins) and a prozac for depression. In addition to this I was taking a Centrum Silver. ATTENTION women over 50. Centrum Silver does not contain Iron. I also chew two calcium gummy vitamins with d3 and take Boniva once a month. After this years visit to my gyno he did blood work on me. The reason he does it instead of my GP is because your gyno exam doesn't cost anything when using my insurance. It's like the physical you are allowed once a year. I had a prescription for B-12 shots and I was picking up the vials monthly at my pharmacy but didn't have anyone to give them to me regularly. BIG MISTAKE. This is why I feel so tired and my muscles ache so bad. My neck injury is exagerated because of this low level. My lab report came back that I was dangerously low and could cause pernicious anemia and neurologic problems. Low vitamin B-12 causes depression. Thus the prozac. How stupid am I? I want to warn all of you that once you get thin and active you forget about who you were and you go on living a fun, exciting, productive life and in my case, never looked back. That was what I did wrong. Fortunately, I found out in time before doing permanent damage. I was taught how to give myself b-12 shots in my thigh and I am now on my way back to being healthy. I hate the fact that I ignored my health. I won't do it again. Stay aware of your numbers. Get your blood work done once a year. Don't make the mistake I did. I am lucky and do not want this to happen to any of you. I am so grateful that I had the surgery. Most people do not know that I have had it or don't really remember me being large until they see a photo. So, it's something I don't talk about and you can't tell anything by the way I eat. I eat normally. I am a size 6 to 8 and on my way back to being a healthy adult again.

I wish all of you the best. I just poked my head in to let you know what is going on with me. I am so busy living my life now but I remember how I used to stay on this sight all day. It helped me so much to lose the weight and stay motivated. I got busy living my life and no longer took he time to stay informed. I am back here today to see what changes have been made since 2001 and to learn more about long term care.

Thank you for sharing this.  It's so helpful to hear from those who have gone before us.  I'm glad there was no permanent damage and you are on your way to feeling good again.

Thank you for sharing the importance of staying on top of things. I'm glad you found out before it was too late!

Thank you so much for posting.  I had been putting off my labs for weeks now.  I made an appt for tomorrow.  Thank you!.

OMG, thank you thank you thank you for poking your head in.  I come to this website daily because I am determined to finally kick obesity to the curb once and for all and forever no matter what.  I read a lot of posts and your post will hit a chord with veterans, newbies, and everyone in between.  If we all do better, we will all do better together.  

Thank you for your post and for reminding us that we are responsible for our own health and the importance of vitamins and labwork. I'm glad you caught it before there was permanent damage. Thanks for checking in!

For a newly post-op patient, this information was both scary and helpful. I appreciate you sharing this because in the beginning we assume that we will be compliant with meds and appts but you're right as life goes on we will get busy, we will feel normal and the surgery will be a past memory not rarely thought about. So I see how a person can fall into that pitiful. I have visible tattoos and honestly I don't see them anymore unless someone points it out. Thank you so much for sharing your personal story and I'm happy you are on you're way to being healthy again...

Thank you for taking the time to share your story and be so honest. Your post will help people.

Thank you for posting this.  I am going through this with my cardiologist right now.  He wants aspirin daily.  I just discovered that Plavix has a generic that it free with my Part D Medicare plan and I shall be calling him immediately post-surgery to have him put me back on it rather than the aspirin.  I will remember your post forever as this is a forever surgery.   Getting a pouch is sort of like adopting a pet, you have to take care of it always and forever.

Thanks for the reminder.  It's important for others to know that we are ALWAYS going to have special needs that are different than the general population when it comes to vitamins and labs along with eating healthy.  I've had times of feeling normal and not supplementing as I should.  Skipping days, not totally stopping the vitamins.

I'm 8 years out and have had some iron anemia with infusions and had to up my Vitamin D a couple of years ago to bring it back up as it had trended downward.  I was having some muscle and bone pains that my surgeon said was not vitamin related (he didn't want to run Vitamin D labs) so I had my PCP run them and sure enough I needed to up the D.  It took a few weeks of serious supplementation and I've been able to keep it up since (this was back in 2007).

I hope you've been able to stop any permanent symptoms related to deficiencies!