The dark side of bariatric surgery
At any medical website you look at — for instance, the Mayo Clinic — there’s often a resource to deal with morbid obesity. Most call it “weight loss surgery”, but the actual term is “bariatric surgery”. Detractors would call it “stomach mutilation”. Supporters would say it’s a tool necessary to help people lose weight.
More often than not, in the pros side of the list, you would see something about assisting in weight loss, reversing diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and regaining one’s health. While on the cons’ side, the issue of having to take vitamins for life is usually the biggest of the negatives. Maybe something about chronic heart burn on the aspect of the gastric sleeve.
However, they neglect to share the biggest complications someone could suffer. Information, I feel, someone should know in order to weigh the benefits and consequences of going through bariatric surgery. I knew all of the problems that could arise when I entered the program… but that was from other patients and lurking for months in support groups online.
None of this was told to me by my doctor. None.
In the interest of medical consent and disclosure, I should have been. I should have known that a procedure could fundamentally change my life. That I could potentially be stuck with a feeding tube, unable to stop losing weight (which can be fatal in itself), not be able to absord nutrients to the point I wither and die….
These are all true stories. It’s also not shared by doctors. Not a single one, that I can tell.
Yes, the complication rate is 2%. All things considered, that’s a small number, especially when right now it is estimated less than three hundred thousand have this kind of surgery a year. That makes it less than five thousand have complications every year.
However, that number can add up. In ten years, it’d be fifty thousand that are suffering from complications. That’s a small city!
It’s largely why I was so afraid and anxious about having my bariatric surgery. (Just this January!) I didn’t want to be on a feeding tube. I didn’t want to wither and die. I did not want complications. I was lucky. My surgeon had a high success rate… but what about those who didn’t?
In two groups, I came across frightening stories about complications. One was a young woman, barely into her 20s. She opted to have weight loss surgery before she hit over 300 pounds. At first, all went well… In the span of 14 months, she lost 160 pounds!
However… now she can’t stop losing weight! A 3% risk after surgery. The pounds melt off no matter what she does. Worse, she’s developed a case of hypoglycemia, an issue that is at a 10% risk life after surgery! She wanted to avoid surgical interventions, but now her BMI is dropping so low that her only option may be surgery only — and there’s no guarantee that would work either.
Another woman, mid-30s or so, just recently had surgery. A month ago, no less. However, she’d been dealing with constant pain every time she tried to swallow fluids. She couldn’t eat, she was constantly dehydrated. There were multiple trips to the emergency room for fluids. Her doctor just dismissed her and told her it was normal.
After constant visits to the ER, they finally found out what the problem was. She had no opening in her stomach! They had closed it completely instead of leaving an opening for food and fluids. They had to push in a balloon to open her stomach and can only hope she will recover in time.
Lastly… this was a story I came across an activist’s page. It was a widower. His wife had bariatric surgery and within the span of seven years, her health dwindled, her bones turned brittle, she went gray, and died. It was a complication from her surgery — a severe one. She couldn’t absorb the life-giving nutrients from food or drinks. There was nothing doctors could do. She left behind a family and a sad legacy.
Doctors should be required to share these complications instead of cutesy issues such as needing vitamins for the rest of our lives.
I’m only two months out from my surgery. I picked the gastric bypass because in extreme cases, it could be reversed. That was the only thing that changed my mind about going through surgery. I hope I don’t develop complications in the future.
