Question:
Can you have wls with congestive heart failure?

   — bubbles (posted on November 14, 2004)

November 15, 2004
Hi,,, I had my WLS back in Nov 02, I have Ventricular tachycardia, dialated cardiomyopathy, and also congestive heart failure. I made it through my surgery,, I did spend 3 days in ICU, due to my heart,, once they took me off the Morphine and Demeral my heart was stable enough to get out of ICU. I have since had foot surgery back in April 04, and I just had a triple hernia repair and abdominal plasty on Sept 23, 04. They kept me in step down on a heart monitor. My CHF was fine, they keep you on your heart meds and watch you IV fluid intake (due to CHF docs recomendations). They have to worry more about my Vtach, But Im here, no problems whatsoever. From what Im told my heart beats normal when Im under anesthesia, which is odd. But your doc will have you see your heart doc and get a letter of approval for the surgery before he does your WLS,,, Oh and since my WLS, my EF has gone from 25% to 45%, and as of Sept 04 its back up to 60%. Loosing the weight really helped (plus the meds) Good luck to you. If you have any questions feel free to email me.
   — Amy Hoffman

November 15, 2004
Jane, I had pretty significant CHF when I had my BPD/DS done July 2, 2002. I had no problems because of it at all - amazingly! It is completely gone now - man, don't miss it at all! I would urge you to make sure that you choose your surgeon carefully - those of us with touchy co-morbidities are at especially high risk for surgical complication. Blessings, dina
   — Dina McBride