Seriously ill after gastric bypass, Turlock mom finds hope

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About two months after the surgery, she started having trouble keeping food down. Soon, she had persistent vomiting. Drinking water gave her the dry heaves, she said. Starting at 274 pounds, she kept losing weight rapidly and eventually got down to 106 pounds.

"The doctors, to this day, don't know what caused it," she said. "My body just didn't react well to the surgery."

She was in the hospital for weeks with her potassium level so low she was at risk of a stroke, she said. At home, she was so weak she couldn't take care of her two sons. Her husband resigned his correctional officer job to care of the children, while she moved in with her parents.

"I had to live with my mom just so she could bathe me," Martinez said. "I was 28 years old and could fit into my niece's clothes, the size 10-12 clothes for kids."

She had a reversal surgery last year at Memorial. As her weight has climbed to 155, she worries about weight gain and the possible return of diabetes.

Suddenly, a weakling

The same thing happened to Rae Ellen Sweeten, 39, of Denair. An avid horsewoman, she once could bench-press 160 pounds and toss hay bales into the back of her truck, she said.

Today, her weight hovers around 110 pounds, down from 286, and she never has the urge to eat.

Sweeten admits that a svelte body was her motivation for undergoing the surgery six years ago in Fresno.

"Now, I am this scrawny person with old person skin who couldn't change a flat tire," she said. "I made a judgment call. I paid my money and took my chances, and it didn't turn out very well. Eventually, it is going to kill me."

She has been in the hospital several times in the past year, where she was given nutrients intravenously and required a blood transfusion. She said a doctor has told her nothing can be done for the scar tissue in her esophagus and her shriveled pouch, which makes it difficult to eat.

Three other local bariatric patients told stories of severe weight loss and malnutrition.

Stomach-shrinking surgeries have been performed since the 1970s, but after the issuance of National Institutes for Health guidelines in 1991, weight loss surgery became a primary treatment in response to the obesity epidemic in this country.

Where dieting, drug therapy and exercise have failed, bariatric surgery is considered a proven method of losing weight for people facing obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or liver disease.

By stapling off a small pouch from the stomach and bypassing part of the small intestine, gastric bypass serves to restrict food intake and the body's absorption of nutrients. But the treatment doesn't stop there.

Patients are expected to commit to lifestyle changes after the surgery. They must change their eating habits, exercise and take vitamin supplements the rest of their lives.

With such an invasive procedure, experts say, several things can go wrong soon after the surgery, such as leaks in the staple lines, intestinal obstructions, bleeding or infection.

Other problems may occur years later. Iron deficiencies are common and patients regularly are tested for vitamin B-12, folic acid, thiamine, vitamin D and calcium deficiencies.

Other complications may include gallstones, ulcers, hernia, narrowing of intestinal passages, band erosion or reflux disease.

Dr. Anton Decker, as assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said patients considering the surgery need to know it's a major procedure.

"After the surgery, it's important that the patients not be left alone," he said. "They need to have their nutritional profile checked from time to time and need to see doctors who care about them to get on these complications quickly."