Question:
What is the youngest age that you can have this surgery at?
I am only fourteen, and I just wanted to know if anyone else my age was considering this.<P> AMOS MOD! Please BE NICE to this young person. Many of us were MO at this age. Bob Haller — LinzyJJ (posted on June 1, 2004)
May 31, 2004
— AlleyCat
May 31, 2004
My surgeon does the RNY on selected teenagers. They have to be willing to
change their lifestyle and add daily exercise, plus be old and aware enough
to understand and live with lifetime vitamins and medical monitoring. Its
not so much about getting thin, as getting healthy. If you have othe health
troubles like diabetes that increases the chance to get surgery. Its a
MAJOR step at such a young age for sure. The lap band adjustable band might
be a good option since its easier surgery, and doesnt require such closer
lifetime medical monitoring. Best wishes on whatever you and your parents
decide. I myself was MO my entire life and wish I could of done this at
your age.
— bob-haller
May 31, 2004
Hi Linzy,
Our program does patients 18 and older. However, Children's hospital in
our city (Birmingham, Alabama) does this procedure beginning at age 14.
There are many, many factors involved in determining if a young woman your
age is an appropriate candidate. There's LOTS of education. Considering
your age it would be necessary for your family to be very involved and
supportive. If you live in or near a large city I would seek out a
Children's Hospital or a University Hospital. Weight Loss Surgery is a
serious decision but I'm sure you know that. My only regret about weight
loss surgey is that is wasn't an option for me when I was your age. Best
wishes to you as you investigate this journey.
— ronascott
June 1, 2004
There is a young girl named Ashley Hardy who I believe is 16 years old. But
I know she is having so many problems and spending alot of time in the
hospital. You should definitely look at her profile. My opinion is that,
this surgery is for people who have tried everything and failed. A last
resort. I think being so young you should not go down this road at this
time, but try to get help other then surgery. That's only my opinion. Good
luck with whatever you decide...
— jwd430
June 1, 2004
I've heard of kids havng it at 13 and 14 but they are severaly MO, BMI of
50+. There is something you can do which is a lot like the surgery. check
with you dr to okay and Atkins style diet, low carbs and join a gym.
You'll have to do that if you have the surgery.
Try not to look at being overweight is an all of nothing scenario which is
what I did at your age. Make your goal to lose 20 pounds not 70.
— mrsmyranow
June 1, 2004
Think long and hard about this, you are young and I know you may feel that
this may be the only way to lose weight right now, This is a life long
decision for someone who has no other choice but to have surgery in order
to save their life. What you should do is try to lose this weight by
changing your diet and exercise. Who knows about 20 years from now they
may have a cure for obesity(It could happen) and you would have done this
for nothing. I know, I know a lot of people won't agree but personally
speaking I wouldn't encourage any one as young as you to just go under the
knife unless there were no other recourse but surgery then I would suggest
the band, at least that can be taken out. As for "I wish I could have
had it done at your age" is simply ridiculous, I have a son 14 years
old and I would not let him have any elective surgery to lose weight at
this age, I give my kids well balance meals and make them get plenty of
excercise, that means no couch potatoes and no sweets in my house.
— Rebe W.
June 1, 2004
Oh sweety look at all your choices first and make sure you talk to your mom
and dad. And also your family doc. I have just started down the road at
looking into this for my daughter,she is 13. We are searching for the
reason why she has gained so much in such a short time.She is 110 pounds
over weight and it just breaks my heart into. And she has several
comorbidities. I am scared for her life. We think she has pre Cushing
syndrome since she is also having hair growth issues.I have talked to my
wls surgeon in length about this.He has talked to me about them doing wls
at a childrens hospital.
If anyone were to ask me if I would let my child do this. I would say it
would depend on if they had tried other ways to lose. Then I look at my
daughter when she cant breath and is on her cpap machine at night. Or when
she is doing her breathing treatments because she can't walk with us. I
would say yes I am seriously wanting to save my daughter.Her quality of
life depends on her losing the weight.
If you would like to chat or just talk I am here if you need me. Good Luck
to you.
— Autumn
June 1, 2004
I'm not a teen anymore either by a long shot. In fact my own little girl is
only a couple years younger than you but I have to disagree with the idea
of "dieting". Atkins can not be stayed on for a long term
maintenance diet and if you're diabetic any specialist with shoot that down
in a second. I grew up obese and I ended up with a little girl who followed
in my foot steps with her weight and body shape. If I can offer you the
same advise I give my little girl it is to eat HEALTHY but NOT to diet. The
yo-yo affect of dieting is horrible. I NEVER would have gotten as heavy as
I was without yo-yo dieting my way up there. And it really ruins your
metabolism. I already know that chances are very high that my little one
will eventually face WLS too. For her I'm waiting until she's closer to an
adult, if not one, before I'd give my consent. In the mean time though I
don't advocate dieting for her at all. My 2c.
— Shelly S.
June 1, 2004
Hi Linzy, I'm 43, so, far from your age, but I was very close to
qualifying for this surgery at your age also, so you are not alone. I have
had very few problems or complications from my WLS so my gut reaction is go
for it as long as you totally can understand what changes will be needed
for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Not just 18 months to lose the weigth, but
forever. I will be 16 months PO tomorrow and was very fortunate to lose my
weight quickly, even though I had 242 lbs to lose. I am in maintenance
mode now and struggling to find the right combination of things to maintain
and not float up and down. It does stay within 5 lbs, which is great, but
it's still the yo-yo syndrome. If I go really strict then I continue to
lose and I am fine where I am at now. The remaining weight I will lose
will come through PS. That is one of the biggest advantages to losing the
weight at a young age. The chance of needing PS is very minimal.
<p>I believe that counseling is a very important part of the WLS
process. I lost 200 lbs back in 94/95 by eating right and exercising. Yet
I ended up in a severe depression and the entire loss was sabotaged and
within 8 years I had regained it all. Along the way I learned a lot about
myself and found that I felt a lot more prepared to go down the weight loss
path again. Only this time with better success and long term
maintainability. It won't be easy and I will have to make choices and at
times plain say no, but it is doable.
<p>One of the hardest things will be your friends sabotaging you
either intentionally or by accident. I'm sure you feel left out of a lot
of things now because of the weight, but the eating could possibly do the
same. So it will be critical that mentally you are prepared. Having a
counselor to work with through this process and for the next number of
years I think would be invaluable. I would not have wanted to go down the
path of WLS without my counselor, psychiatrist and depression medications.
Those three components help me to maintain a normal mental health life.
<p>From what I have seen on TV there are more and more teens looking
into some form of WLS and are successfull but not without a lot of support
from many places. My surgeon has started doing the Lap Band, which
surprised the heck out of me because he was very against it when I had my
surgery. However, after he came back from the national conference last
year he felt there was a need for this type of surgery and one of the main
places he uses it is with young adults and teens. As long as they have
made valid attempts to lose weight and keep it off and pass a psych eval he
will consider doing surgery on a teen. I'm not sure how young but in time
I suspect it will be as young as 14 and maybe already is. His feeling is
he would prefer to do a LapBand which is a much less invasive and life
altering surgery than the RNY. He feels that in your lifetime they will
figure out what is causing severe obesity and a cure will become available.
Therefore he would prefer not to reroute a young persons intestines that
will be for life. The band can be removed in the future should a cure
become available. He realizes that helping a MO teen to find a way to
maintain a healthy life will spare them a lifetime of possibly severe
health issues. I guarantee if I had done this even 10 years ago my knees
would not be in such bad shape. However, 10 years ago not many people did
surgery nor did doctors, specifically PCP's, see it as a legitimate
solution for patients. They just said push away from the table, stop
eating junk food, exercise more etc. Which technically was right to a
point but there is definitely a genetic factor in teens who reach a MO or
SMO stage or adults that reach that SMO stage. It's not just food choices.
My surgeon truly believes there is a significant genetic component to
massive weight gain. I did my first diet when I was about 7 or 8.
<p>Please discuss your idea with your parents and doctor. Talk with
a few surgeons to see what they can offer you. If you've made multiple
attempts at losing weight yourself then WLS just may be the right road for
you. I can look back and know that my weight has been a major influence in
my life as far as personal relationships and just pain ole dating. I never
dated in high school and yes I did feel left out. So I do know the angst
that can go along with being the "fat" one. My nickname was
Rolly, as in Rolly Polly. While I laughed it off, it did stick with me and
down deep hurt. Someone asked me a while ago what was the best thing about
losing all the weight and I said losing Rolly Polly. Now the only name
calling I hear is skinny. LOL While I am not skinny I certainly am tons
smaller than I was and very comfortable in the size 12-14 I am. I'm tall
and getting smaller than a 10-12 is not where I want to be.
<p>Sorry I went on for so long but I do understand your plight and
sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I had this opportunity
during my teen years or at least early adulthood. I've had a great life
but not without it's issues. Take care and I hope you find the right
solution for you and a wonderful caring surgeon like I had. Blessings
— zoedogcbr
June 2, 2004
I wish I had the gumption to keep my mouth shut about this but, as has been
stated many times before, this is a public forum and therefore I have the
right to express my opinion. To Rebe W. who feels that "I wish I
could have had it at your age" is ridiculous.........first, as Bob
suggested, let's be nice - your comment isn't nice. Second, I was
oveweight all my life. I was genetically predisposed to be that way.
Morbid obesity was inevitable. Do I wish I could've had WLS as a teenager?
Yes, yes and yes again. However, to clarify, I wish I could've had it as
a teenager and had a good comprehensive program, a great surgeon and a very
supportive family willing to lead, guide and direct me through the journey.
If I'd had the opportunity to have it as a teenager I might have avoided
having to attend the prom with a cousin, having boys from the football team
"moo" at me, having Type II diabetes, having a group of girls
laugh at me when I did my gymnastic requirement to pass P.E., and more. If
you think these things are all vanity issues you are wrong. These painful
events shaped the person I was to become as an adult. Then as an obese
adult if I'd had surgery as a younger person I could've avoided having
gestational diabetes resulting in a very large baby that had to be
delivered via c-section, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, etc. I'm not
suggesting that every overweight or obese teenager should rush to a surgeon
and elect to have WLS. There are many variables in determining if a
teenager is an appropriate candidate. I'm simply suggesting that we don't
automatically rule it out because someone is young. Diets don't work.
It's a scientific fact. According to the National Institutes of Health 95%
to 98% of people who lose weight via conventional methods such as diet and
exercise, behavior modification and diet drugs regain all lost PLUS A BONUS
within 5 years. This is a quote from the N.I.H. Wishing I could've had
WLS as a teenager isn't ridiculous - it's the wish of a person who missed
out on 30 years of good health and good happiness because of morbid
obesity. There's nothing ridiculous about that. I hope I haven't offended
anyone.
— ronascott
June 2, 2004
I second everything Rona said. I just had surgery 1/30/04, and also feel
like I missed out on 30 yrs that if I had been able to have the surgery
earlier, my life would have been drastically chged. All of the hurt and
pain of high school stilll affects me today, (I still have nightmares). I
went to the prom with my sisters husbands younger brother, as he was the
only guy that I even thought of asking that MIGHT go eith me. I really
meant to ask this poster to check out the teen forum on here. It could be
realy helpful in your WLS quest. I think more and more kids with MO will be
checking out this surgery as time goes on. I think you are SMART to be
checking this out while you are still young, but PLEASE think long and hard
about whether you're ready to make this big huge committment to getting and
staying healthy (I mean taking your vitamins,H20,Protein ect...). If you
don't feel this is something you can handle, please wait several yrs till
you feel more able to handle this. I wish you all the best, and know that
you'll make the right decision. God Bless YOU Sweetie!!
— bufordslipstick
June 2, 2004
High school? I was so happy when that was over. No prom, only one girl
would go out with me:( Being so fat it was horrid. I wonder sometimes what
my life would of been like if I had been normal. I would of definetelyu had
some kids... Weight is a killer in all directions
— bob-haller
June 3, 2004
Rona I was not being nasty to this youngter as you implied I was expressing
my opinion at the"I wish I had done it when I was young",
comment. Not everyone was born FAT and not everyone need surgery to lose
weight. Everyone in my famiy is slim, I was normal until I had children
and lost control...... My sister was fat until she was 13 years old and
then she just started loosing all her baby fat like crazy. I wouldn't
advise any young kid to have surgery just to go to a prom or have a
boyfriend or girlfriend. I would first try to see what the problem is and
why, then let them join weight watcher or such and learn a good lifelong
life style with food, then if all else fails or I see his/her health isn't
getting any better then I would let them search out this surgery but Like I
said before I would look into the band first.
You and many like you are the reason why I don't respond to this site.
This site has been very very helpful to me and many many people are so
helpful and nice.. but none of us are doctors, this surgery is still new,
that why we can only can give our OPINION not FACTS, unless you are a
doctor and only one doctor here responds from time to time. I feel so bad
for children who are picked at and made to feel worthless at such a young
age, but in my culture (I'm a black women) we are taught at an early age to
have a tough skin, there more things for us to be concern about then always
being ashame of ourselves. I tell my kids how beautiful they are when they
are born, my parent did it to all ten of their children, although we were
picked at in school but quess what it wasn't our weight it was our color,
big nose and nappy hair. But you know what I love my color , my big nose
and my beautiful hair and believe me I had three guys ask me to the prom
and I was engaged three times before I was married and even then I wasn't
skinny but I wasn't 310 pounds either.....only after I had my beautiful
children and my husband died did I gained so much weight that it became
unhealty and out of control.
I would never be nasty to anyone especially a child who is only looking for
information Lord knows so many people here have helped me and I really
really appreciate it with all my heart.
— Rebe W.
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