HI!
I know this past week several of you said my Neuropathy pain could be coming from lack of vitamins because of my Gastric Bypass. My husband and I have wondered about that but most of my tests came back ok......except for the Carnitine, Vit. D and B12.....which I've increased in the past 4 months since all this pain started.
Yesterday in the Science Daily newletter, it had an article about this very subject: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0525210340.htm
It says that even after upping the dose of these vitamins and supplements the Neuropathy continues
I'm going to talk to my Rheumatologist about all this on Monday.....but today.....I'm totally depressed about the whole thing
I originally had Gastric Bypass because several dr.s said that having that done would help with my servere acid reflux (which caused my Barrett's Esophagus) Needless to say...it didn't help at all. I now sleep sitting up in an adjustable bed.
Since my Gastric Bypass I've had to deal with one health issue after another...tho I did lose weight and no longer have high blood pressure and the Osteo Arthritis in my knee is much better....it's hard to weigh the odds as to if it was worth all the bad results or not...........Roxie

I'm sorry for your suffering and the issue your in. I read that and may of missed the part where it said the neuropathy continues. I thought that it meant if diet is adequate and with proper vitamins it can help prevent further. I had a long history of anorexia and my pn may be from the result of that. I have been told that the combo of meds and continue nutrition can help make me functionable again. I think I will always have pn but it may not take over my life if that makes sense. I hope you get some answers from your doc. I have also been thinking for myself to look into holisitc if they can do a combo with meds so diet/nutrients can be addressed. My nutritionist now says that it can take awhile for the body to get stable again after depletion.Good luck and try to hold onto hope.

Roxie,
I'm so sorry Sweetie. There are some ways to help with all of this. But be sure to let the rheumatologist know and take your husband with you. You are stressed and may not remember everything he tells you.

Liquid vitamins can help and switch to the correct form of B12.

Discuss all of this with your doctor of course. Wish I had more direct help for you.

We will be waiting to see what your doctor says.

Billye

I am totally vexed by the medical establishment in regards to bariatric surgery, and the aftermath. Why do doctors ignore the facts about nutrition following this surgery?

We had another poster a while back who developed severe neuropathies and ended up at Mayo. She stopped posting however. At that time she had severe autonomic effects. I had one patient also recently who developed autonomic fainting spells due to nerve damage controlling blood pressure. She had a bypass too and used liquid vitamins.

I would think at this point you should be getting aggressive injections of B12 for the time being. However, fixing calcium, folic acid, iron and zinc is not easy either. The nervous system can repair, but it is a very slow process..requiring patience.

I hope you can find a doctor to help. You might need a special holistic physician with experience in nutrition to see positive improvements.

Many docs know very little about nutrition I have found. I have always had to go to specialists and even when I work with a nutritionist I had to find one that specialised in my area. So I agree about the holistic or possibly a nutritionist who work with gastric bypass patients. In my recovery I had way different needs then the normal person and I'm sure your body is the same.

Wow, every time I watch the Discovery Health channel and I see the morbidly obese and they have had these various kinds of bariatric surgeries, they lose 200 lbs or so, they look like different people, and they all go "oh wow, I should have done this years ago". And then many of them have the second part (taking off excess skin). I personally know several people who have had this surgery.

My friend Diane had the first of these over 30 years ago when they first came out. She weighed over 500 lbs. When I next saw her she was down 200 and I could barely recognize her. She did not want to have the excess skin removed because she wanted to have children (and she was told that if she had a tummy tuck, she could not become pregnant. She eventually married, had a baby and gained back all the weight and then some.

I have a cousin John, and he and his girlfriend both had the operation. John lost 100 lbs. His girlfriend did not lose any. Now how can that be?? I asked him and he said "sometimes it doesn't work on everybody". Can this be true??

And Alan has a cousin who had this operation and he's been in and out of hospitals with complications ever since.

I guess when you are over 500 lbs this operation can be life saving, but no one tells you about after -effects such as neuropathy. I wouldn't wish that on anybody!!!

So Roxie, I hope things turn around for you. I really do. You sound like a sweetheart!!!

Melody

There is no excuse for that ignorance. Even most docs who don't know the first thing about recent decades of research regarding B12 know that gastric bypass or other digestive surgery is a cause of B12 malabsorption. Shame on them.

When the cause of nerve damage is removed, it is very common for at least some of that nerve damage to repair over time.

It takes time.

rose

I'm so sorry you're going through this Roxie. A relative of mine has a lifelong eating disorder, so I know the desperation you must have felt before getting the surgery, and your hopes that the surgery would give you a better future.

You can turn this around.

Besides vitamins (especially B12, B-complex, D, E, C), your nerves need minerals (especially calcium, magnesium, and potassium), protein and essential amino acids, and the correct fatty acids to heal.

It is impossible to recover from trauma, including the trauma of surgery and nerve damage without exercise. Pick something you enjoy, start slow, build up strength and endurance slowly, until you reach the equivalent of at least a half hour of moderate exercise a day. It can be broken up into three 10 minute sessions, six 5 minute sessions, etc. or all at once. Then continue that as long as you live.

Finally, reduce the stress and anxiety in your life. This will involve taking the long view ("In the end it's all small stuff"), the spiritual view, living for and giving to others, avoiding the negative and finding the positive, having fun and smelling the roses, and whatever else rings your bell.

You're sick now, and probably grief stricken and bitterly disappointed. But if you are bound and determined and persevere, you can and will turn your life around. What is the alternative?

We are all pulling for you here. Consider this, my first posting to you, a heartfelt hug.

Roxie,

The good news is they have found a likely cause for your neuropathy and they can treat this. They can, if they need to give vitamins IV, but, that is a last resort.

You may have to do some homework here and find out what you are malabsorbing, and how to best get it in your system. I would love to tell you the medical system is well prepared regarding nutrition, but they are not. I can't give you a reliable source for guidance, as your case is unique. That is the problem with many drugs out there as well as surgeries. Many drugs interfere with absorption of nutrients as well as surgeries.

Nutrition is one of the most ignored areas of western medicine.

Don't fret over what was, concentrate on what is and what is to be.

Good nutrition is a battle for me too, as I get bouts of gastroparesis, have hypoglycemic unawareness, and usually not a good appetite. It sounds like you need supplementation over and above the usual. If your stomach is the problem then they had better figure out what the right route is for absorption. Your doctors should be able to find you a resource or check the net for a good, reputable nutrition consult.

Then you need to make every calorie count for nutrition and that is hard...it is good juice instead of diet soda. It is veggie or fruit juice. It is a protein drink if I can't eat meat that day, or an egg. For me a multiple vit is still OK, plus a few other things I take, but, that may not apply to you. To feel half way decent, I have to put a lot of thought, work and energy into eating and exercise of some sort....and it is hard work. I envy people who whip up delicous food...I generally have to sit on a stool to cook, as standing up gets me hypotensive.

I am a big proponent of yogurt, lol.

When you make decisions regarding surgeries you do it with the info you have at the time. I am sure there are many things we all would not do again, and we can't cry over spilled milk ....I can tell you I would never have another selective spinal nerve root block...it totally botched up my spine.... but it wasn't intended to do that, so, it is a consequence of a procedure meant to help.

Like David said, you need to make lifestyle changes and those are difficult to make, but they are doable. You may even be lucky enough to experience some healing and restoration of function if you feed those nerves and use them. You have an 'enemy' to fight, and a way to do it....go girl!

You just reminded me to make a trip to the kitchen for a healthy snack...thank you!

As the nerve endings become damaged, the brain scrambles to make sense of the goofy signals from the feet, legs, hands, face, or wherever the damage occurs. The brain finally settles on an interpretation of the signals as pain: aching pain, burning pain, stabbing pain, creepy crawly pain, electric pain, usually all of those.

Then the areas of the brain that get the signals from the damaged peripheral area and the main nerves that carries the signal to those areas of the brain become hypersensitive to any stimulation from the area. That is what neuropathic pain is; it starts in the feet or hands or wherever, but its even more so in the brain and main nerves to the brain.

Healing is a two step process. First, stop further damage to the peripheral nerve endings. Know that the damaged nerve endings will continue sending inappropriate signals until they heal, regrow, or die off (experienced as total numbness in the area).

Second, train the brain and main nerves to settle down. Anticonvulsant drugs help, but in themselves don't retrain the brain. They just put a partial lid on the hyper-sensitivity. To retrain the brain and main nerves, I know of only two things that work. Both are rhythmic, and impose order and proper function to what is chaotic. The first is exercise: walking (left right left right, etc.), swimming (up down up down, etc.) etc. The second is electro-stimulation with a pulsed micro-current, about 5-8 pulses/second. I've posted about this several times, including this week, so you can use the search function to find the postings.