What You Might Not Know About Weight Loss Surgery

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By Matt Sloane
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
Nov. 14, 2014 -- For Julie Murphy, being overweight was familiar. After all, her entire family was big. But she was determined to handle things differently.
“My mom never would go anywhere with us -- she was always so embarrassed because she was so overweight,†says 57-year-old Murphy, who's from eastern Tennessee. “I was determined that I wasn’t going to be like Mom. I was not going to shut myself out of my kids’ lives.â€
And she didn’t. Even at 268 pounds, she got to their games, recitals, and their school functions. It wasn’t until she had grandchildren that things got harder.
“I had been diagnosed with diabetes, I had arthritis in both my knees, I got out of breath easily,†she says. “I had grandkids now, and I wanted to be able to do things with them.â€
Murphy decided the best course of action for her was to undergo gastric bypass surgery. This shrinks the size of your stomach, so you can't eat as much as before. The surgeon also re-routes, or bypasses, part of your digestive system so you don't absorb as much food.
“I knew I had made the right choice, and I said I did this for myself, I didn’t do this for anybody else,†she says.
So in March of 2004, she went under the knife. And just 1 day later, the trouble began.
“I’m in the hospital, post-op, and the lady goes to help me in the bed," Murphy says. “She kind of throws me back and I pull every muscle in my stomach.â€
Shortly after that, she got kidney stones, a known complication of weight loss surgery. Next up was low potassium levels, which kept her in the hospital for 8 days.
She also needed her pouch -- the small amount of stomach she had left -- stretched five different times, because she couldn’t stop vomiting when she ate.
“My last name is Murphy,†she says. “It’s kind of like Murphy’s Law – anything that can go wrong is going to go wrong.â€
[h=3]Risks of Surgery[/h]According to Edward Lin, DO, the surgical director of Emory University’s Bariatric Center, Murphy’s complications were some of the less severe type.
Of course, with any major surgery, he says, there is a risk of a heart attack or blood clots.
“The [other big] one would probably be leaks,†Lin says. “You’re taking two pieces of bowel and attaching them to each other, and they can leak. These patients can get very, very sick.â€
While major complications of weight loss surgery can be deadly, they are rare.
According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, the chances of having a major complication are only about 4.3%. The risks of staying obese are far more dangerous.