Surgery at 400lbs?

Even though Ive managed to lose a lot of weight on my own, I will still be over 400lbs at the time of my surgery. Has anyone here had surgery being that heavy, and how did it go? Im a little nervous.

Check in at the BMI over 50 forum. I'm sure there are several people on the boards who've had successful surgeries at 400 and above. :D

Jen

I was 378. The "good" news is that anesthesiologists really watch us closely. I spent the night in the ICU but I also had other big health issues.

Yes there is a slightly higher risk than if you weighed 250 or 300. We were also at a higher risk for dying just being at that weight.

Good luck to you. Just be prepared to have them ask you a lot of questions and you may have monitoring longer than others.

I just had surgery 7 days ago. My current weight is 476. It did lead to a complication, I wasn't able to have a complete DS in one shot because of anesthesia issues. Other than that everything was great. Was out of hospital one day later. Having Staples removed tomorrow. Besides being at higher risk I have not seen any problems with being over 400 so far. Good luck!

I was 415 at the time of my surgery. No complications here. With any surgery, just make sure you're going to a skilled surgeon. All of the pre-op testing will help them determine your level of risk.

I was 347 at my official weigh-in -- but I had already lost some weight before that ... so I was pretty close to 400 when I had my surgery.

There are a lot of us!

You didn't mention what surgery you're having. I was only 320 at surgery date but I know my surgeon worked on people over 400 - one guy was over 500 and no one but Dr. E would touch him. As long as your surgeon is skilled and the hospital is set up to accommodate you (OR table, bed, etc.) you should be just fine. The anesthesiologist will pay extra close attention. Obviously they will only want to keep you under for a certain amount of time. Different procedures take different times - more complicated. For example my DS took almost 6 hours (minor complication), while a VSG may take half that. Obviously an anesthesiologist wants to keep you under for the shortest time.

Nervous is ok - everybody gets nervous!

I had my DS at 469lbs. No issues. But I was a pretty active almost 500lb guy, maybe that made a difference? Delivered for FedEx at that size.

I was 349 day of surgery and besides post op pain and the normal stuff, everything went beautifully. I'm seeing good results, and I'm very happy with my decision.

I was 351 lbs the day of surgery. My surgeon had me get an IVF filter placed in my neck to avoid having a blood clot. It seems some require that, some don't. I sailed through surgery just fine - my RNY took about 1.5 hours, I was awake and alert in the recovery soon after, could walk to the bathroom to pee, had no shoulder pains from gas, and went home the following day. Best of luck! Getting to a lower weight will feel unimaginably great :)