laprscopic gastric bypass surgery soon!

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer. I am 299lbs and am scheduled to have surgery Dec 13th. I was told I have sjogrens I am not on any medications for it. I am 65 and have been trying to get this for years. Do you see any problem with this proedure? Slow healing? What would that be? Excited ready and a bit nervous at the same time.Just don't want to make anything worse...

ANSWER: Karen,
The key thing is that you are not on any immune suppressing meds, which are sometimes use in advanced Sjogren's.   Give that you are not on any of these meds, I would not expect any special problems for you in relation to the Sjogren's. To my knowledge, the disease itself does not cause any problem with healing.

Best of luck to you!
Dr JP

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dr. Pilcher,
I have a few more questions for you, I was not able to get the answer so far. Is there something you can do before or after bypass surgery to minimize hair loss? Also I have read fast weight loss can cause liver failure is this true how common if so? What is the most common complication? I had my gallbladder removed in the 80 unfortunately before laproscopic do you think the scar tissue could pose any problem?
Thank you for you time.

Answer
Karen,
To my knowledge, no one has found a way to reduce the chance of temporary hair "shedding."  I describe it this way because it seems to be temporary, and it seems to be a natural stress response to surgery in about half of patients.  There does not seem to be a correlation with any nutrient deficiency that anyone has found so far.

In my experience, liver problems only occur if there is a a serious problem that prevents the patient from making normal dietary progress toward solid healthy foods during the months after surgery.  I'm reasonably certain that liver damage only shows up in the context of some other complication.

Regarding the most common complication - you should speak to your surgeon to learn about his/her most common complication.

Usually, a history of open gallbladder surgery is not a problem.  To be on the safe side, I suggest you speak to your surgeon about this one too.

Best of luck!
Dr JP

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