Gastric Bypass Malabsorbtion... - ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass Forum, Lap Band Forum, and Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum

SBonillas · 01-24-2010, 04:21 PM

I had my Gastric bypass in 2003 or 2004, not sure right now, I still need to look it up somehow. I was 6'2" and 380lbs. At the time I had PPO Insurance and I said sure I'll do it. I met with the appointed Psych. and within 2 weeks or so I had it done, not like today's times.

I had not had any real medical conditions other than some back pain and figured that it was just all the extra weight I was carrying around. I never really complained about the mild pain and never took an aspirin for a headache or anything.

At the time I did have constant stomach acid issues and I was eating 40 Tums-EX a day. My gallbladder was taken out at the same time and was larger than a softball, and ever since then to this day I haven't eatin one Tums for some great reason.

I had the procedure done fully cut open (not lapo) and couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. I was sent home to recover and was back to work within a week. Never thinking about it at the time, I was sent home with liquid Tylenol w/codeine. 1st day home I drank half the bottle for the pain and the next day had some more and that was it, I didn't need anymore for the pain of the operation.

After time went on I lost around 200lbs with 175lbs being my lowest weight to date. At first I took GNC liquid vitamins and felt good, fine, whatever you want to call it and never complained. After all it was 2005 and life was good for everyone in America. The first 1 or 2 year is when my real problems started. I stopped taking any and all vitamins, ate what I wanted in small quantities of course but just wasn't feeling myself.

I thought maybe it was mental, so I went to see a Psych. I was prescribed Lexapro, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, and others one after the other but they didn't seem to help so I stopped going.
By this time in my life I had NO health insurance and didn't go to the doctor so I didn't need it right.

I said fine maybe I'll try drinking then, My first shot I did within one minute I was out on the kitchen floor, and for an hour I was blitzed, but by the end of the hour I was perfectly fine, weird. I drank on and off but it wasn't me and trouble followed that habit fast.

Some more time went on and I was having more and more back pain issues. I started going to a Chiropractor three times a week and after a while it just wasn't doing it for me. By the time I got back to work and out of the car from an adjustment I was in pain again. So I stopped going and spending $45X3 $135 a week on that.

By now living with the pain and no insurance I tried this and that I got from friends, just trying anything to help get through the pain of my days. After that failed and actually caused MORE pain.

I started taking Vicodin that I acquired, at first it worked being that I was a lightweight but really fast I noticed that I needed more and more. Was I addicted or something? My wife knew I was taking them and when the supply dried up I told my wife that I thought I was addicted to them, was that a big mistake. The entire family life was in a tailspin.

My wife then made me an appointment at a pain management doctor of her choosing and I left there with a prescription for Norcos and legally this time. I went back month after month and always telling the doctor to pump up the volume. After 1/1/2 years and getting insurance again (HMO) I was on 80 milligrams of Oxycontin 3 times a day and 30 milligrams of Roxycodone 6 times a day, and taking more than prescribed but always still running out each month time and time again. Month after month I would complain to the doctor that when I went to the bathroom all I could smell was pills, and I always tasted pills. After all this time I never mentioned my gastric bypass and didn't think that it was an issue.

By this time everyone and my doctor said I was just a drug addict and just needed help. But whenever I ran out each month I never really got sick or threw up like an addict but still just laid in bed because of my back and neck pain.

Everyone told me I needed to get clean so I said fine and went and checked myself into detox. 2 days later I was released, not the 3 weeks like everyone figured I'd be gone and the hospital said there's nothing showing in your system, good bye.

I was sent home and ambien'd myself out so I could sleep through the days of my real pain but still couldn't sleep more than 1 1/2 to 2 hours a night. I was in bed for 2 or 3 months just stewing in my mind day after day. I then went to see an addiction therapist and he determined that I wasn't an addict. If I was really an addict I would be doing anything possible to get pills right? But I wasn't... He talked to my pain management doctor and I was started on meds again. But at this point of my life I was still in bed even with my pain meds again.

Still looking for answers I went to see doctor after doctor, waiting for HMO referrals month after month and still no real help. I went full circle in the system again trying to get relief, but still nothing. Every doctor I went to I begged for surgery but they all said that there is no real fix for my problems and more than likely I would be in more pain after adding titanium rods and whatever else they could do for me.

I figured out that yes the pills do work but for such a short time, why is this? I looked up "Gastric bypass and medication absorption" online. I found alot of people complaining about the same issues of their meds not working anymore and these were even people who took them before their surgery so they should know how they really work or not. I have no idea because I never took them before my surgery, so what do I know I'm just an addict right. I tried Fentenyl patches and told the doctor to keep them wearing 3 at time with no impact.

Well whenever I eat anything I have to go to the bathroom within a short time and all of the Oxycontin is time released anyways so are the pills going through me like my food does? After reading this info online I tried to go to liquid pain medications, drinking Methadone and Lortab liquid, like it's going out of style but guess what I'm still in bed...

As of today I can lose 25lbs in a month without even trying and could loose +35lbs if I wanted to prove a point because I'm so disgusted with life.

Nothing tastes good and I'm not really hungry ever, I eat just to eat now. The only way I can pack on weight is by eating candy bars by the case, bowls of ice cream, brownies, and drinking cokes, but these are things I crave when on my meds. So no meds and the weight flies off of me again and again.

Besides my degenerative disc diseases and fractures etc. and whatever else any doctor for the month says what back problems I have, I am vitamin B deficient, vitamin D deficient, anemic, malnourished from malabsorbtion, and in pain on no meds.

I stopped Oxycontin cold turkey with no drug addict side effects, I stopped Methadone cold turkey with no drug addict side effects, why? How is that? Cause it's all going right through me I THINK?

I always feel really bad no matter what I do and have been in bed for the last 6 months now. The only way I can get up is when I get so pissed my adrenaline gets me up but then I pay for it in bed in worse pain for 3 or 4 days. Am depressed? No I'm pissed that I am having to live like this.

Last month I had 3 Cortisteroid injections which have helped some but the overall effects have been minimal at best. I am getting new PPO insurance next month and need to do something, I only have six more months of disability benefits and am grasping at anything I can at this point.

I have lost 3 inches in height in the last 1 1/2 to 2 years and things aren't getting any better so...

My last blood labs were in November or last month December and were all wacked out.

I give blood every other week it seems but nobody knows what to do with it. I have been told and told that I need to go to an Academic Institution like Loma Linda, UCI, or Cedars Sinai, where a team of doctors can work on me, not going to happen on an HMO.

I went to my Rheumatory doctor in November and he tested my blood again and my testosterone level is 133 and should be in the range of 455 to 879 for my age. I went to my Endocrinologist and am now on Androgel Testosterone replacement therapy but it doesn't seem to be helping any.

Before I was prescribed the Vitamin D 50,000 pills 1a week and nothing absorbed, then 1 a day and nothing absorbed, then 2 a day and blew them off.

I could go on and on and will type more if someone cares to reply, this all seems like a bad movie?

Highlandlass · 01-24-2010, 05:29 PM

your story is dreadful, I have no magic to cure you, but want you know that I did read your post and will read any others you post. My son has had some of the same pain as you - he had 4 of his bones in his spine operated on - titanium rods and screws - the whole 9 yards. Just as he began to feel better one of the titanium screws snapped and he was admitted for a second surgery - all the screws were replaced. He has pain all the time and also has pudendal nerve entrapment. He's had injections, massage therapy, drugs prescribed and is now looking into seeing a doctor in France to help with is pain and the entrapment. In all of Canada there is not surgeon that can help him. He went to San Francisco last year to a pain management doctor and no helpt there either. Long term pain is just a horrible, horrible disability. My son is able to go to work, to get out amongst people, but is always in pain and it shows on his face.
I don't know what to say, except if I did have some magic cure I would sure use on my son and others like yourself.

SBonillas · 01-24-2010, 05:44 PM

My Orthopedic said that with me now at 39 years old that I have the spine of an 80 year old, want some more Percosets?

I have begged and pleaded for any type of surgery, anything to relieve the pain but here's some pills, see you next month. To me that's not pain management...

I saw one of the top Neurosurgeons in my area that told me he covers over 400,000 people in his area. He works and teaches out of UC San Diego and told me that my surgery would be dangerous and I would be in more pain afterwards, I told him at this point I don't care if I was paralyzed...

I have seen doctors that wanted to do a cervical and medial breach where they kill all the nerves in my neck and back, but my insurance wouldn't cover it.

Highlandlass · 01-24-2010, 05:53 PM

Its a sad state of affairs when someone is in a state of bad health that you are in and can't get the coverage required to have a treatment that might offer some relief. Yet they cover the pain meds that are addictive (in most people). The same with my son - the kept offering different meds to deaden the pain temporarily, but he soon refused them because they were affecting his personality and ability to work/drive/be a dad/husband. Can you somehow bug the insurance company enough that they will reconsider? I'm in Canada where we have universal health coverage - and boy do I thank my lucky stars for that. All my son had to pay for was the air fare and hotel room to San Fran. Everything else was totally, 100% covered by our OHIP and his extended health insurance through work.
How about hyperbaric oxygen treatments - I've been reading about them. And my son has some sort of contraption where he is strapped in and he hangs upside down to stretch his spine. Don't know if that's something that might help you.

SBonillas · 01-24-2010, 06:01 PM

I should have PPO insurance coverage next month and to me it will be like hitting the lotto.

I will be able to then go to any doctor that I get to help me, instead of the HMO referral network with basic auto mechanic see how many patients they can push through in an hour doctors.

Peg · 01-24-2010, 07:40 PM

Wow! Sounds like a nightmare. It's rough battling so many issues at the same time. You definitely need to try and get your nutrition in check, see if your doctor will refer you to a nutritionist. The pain problem can be horrendous, try getting other opinions. I've been there! I suffered a cervical spine injury 3 1/2 years ago. I was paralyzed and spent months in the hospital and rehab. For 6 months I was treated by 2 different orthopedic spine surgeons, they both told me surgery would make things worse. I wouldn't accept that answer. I was desperate for pain relief. At that point I was seeing a pain specialist and they kept increasing the dosage of all the pain meds as I built up tolerance. This was before gastric bypass, so absorption wasn't an issue. I finally sought opinions from 2 neuro surgeons at top Chicago university hospitals. They both told me I needed surgery to relieve a compressed spinal cord. I ended up having a 4 level cervical corpectomy. They removed 3 disks and the bone from the front of vertebrae c5 and c6; in place of what was removed they put in a titanium tube packed with ground donor bone, this was covered with a steel plate with 4 screws holding everything in place. Below is a few images of what the final result looks like. I started getting better within weeks and over the course of the next 18 months I regained pretty much all of the physical deficits caused by the injury. 8 months post-op I was finally off all pain meds.

Don't give up! Look for other medical opinions. I hope things turn out okay for you. Good Luck!

Kelkie · 01-25-2010, 04:21 PM

I am truly sorry for the way you have been treated by the HMO. My husband had the same surgery mentioned above, only on his lumbar spine. He had hip and back pain for years, and Dr.'s told him it was muscular, one even told him it was arthritis. He was 28 at the time. One day at work he was pulling boards off of the chain, and went down on his knees. He went to see a NP at our regular clinic, who ordered x-rays, within days she had ordered a MRI. A week later he was seen by a spine specialist, had surgery, went back to work a couple months later and has been a different person every since. I am hoping that somebody will figure out how to help you soon.

Kel...

suebry05 · 01-25-2010, 04:32 PM

u are soo not alone with this- there are a few others here that have gone thru the same things you are talking about and actually they had there surgery back then too I think

nothing I can say could help you as I dont have these problems...but I am listening to you

keep your head up and take your vitamins please

Josephine · 01-25-2010, 05:09 PM

It sounds to me like they need to reverse the malabsorption part of your surgery, just leaving you with the pouch. After they do that and get you absorbing pain meds, they can figure out what to do with your back. I'm so sorry. It must be unreal to live with that pain!

Cyndee · 01-26-2010, 07:00 AM

Will the PPO allow you to have the procedure to kill the nerves in those areas? I have heard good things about that. I have looked into it myself, but I am in nowhere near as much pain as you have had to deal with. I am sorry to hear your story, I hope you find something that helps you very soon.