Hi, I have Complex Partial Epilepsy and was going to have a gastric band for weight loss. My daughter however, said she was worried about the surgery and that I would probably be refused. Dos anyone know if it will be safe to have weight loss surgery?
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Epilepsy and gastric band
- Thread starter jade05
- Start date
Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums
Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.
Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!
Gastric Bypass???????
jade05,
I had gastric bypass surgery in 1998, and I had no problems as a result. The surgery went well and I lost a lot of weight for the first 6 months after the surgery. Then it was just like I had never had the surgery. I have gained back almost every pound that I had lost.
The surgery that I had was done with staples, so they can't do any type of recovery as far as getting my digestive system back.
I can only hope I stay near a bathroom after I eat something like chili. No fats or oils are kept in my body so if I eat a greasy meal I never have to worry about any type of laxative. :roflmao:
AcsHuman
jade05,
I had gastric bypass surgery in 1998, and I had no problems as a result. The surgery went well and I lost a lot of weight for the first 6 months after the surgery. Then it was just like I had never had the surgery. I have gained back almost every pound that I had lost.
The surgery that I had was done with staples, so they can't do any type of recovery as far as getting my digestive system back.
I can only hope I stay near a bathroom after I eat something like chili. No fats or oils are kept in my body so if I eat a greasy meal I never have to worry about any type of laxative. :roflmao:
AcsHuman
Considering they can do gastric band surgery with an incision that is as small as an inch. I believe it would be safe. The drugs that they use for pain or whatever would be worse for your epilepsy in my opinion. Ask your neurologist and surgeon. To make sure there would be no complications. The worse complication in my opinion would be having a seizure while healing. The incision would only be an inch. I doubt it would cause any problems if you were to have a seizure though.
This is probably not what you want to hear. I think you should reconsider weight loss. Why do you have problems with weight in the first place? For me, I over ate, struggled with portion control and to top it off I have hypothyroidism. I've been slowly losing weight by cutting down what I eat after my thyroid being corrected. You should also ask about your seizure medication, and see if it contributes to weight gain. There may be a solution to those. I think surgery should be the last resort. It's quite safe, but I just think you should consider the other options. There are some prescription pills though.
Ask about the prescriptions. They could be dangerous or worse with epilepsy medication. I am just saying consider the other before an expensive surgery. Ask your neurologist which he would prefer. As mine says though, it's not really his field. He will offer what he can. He would probably refer you to a family physician or nutritionist.
This is probably not what you want to hear. I think you should reconsider weight loss. Why do you have problems with weight in the first place? For me, I over ate, struggled with portion control and to top it off I have hypothyroidism. I've been slowly losing weight by cutting down what I eat after my thyroid being corrected. You should also ask about your seizure medication, and see if it contributes to weight gain. There may be a solution to those. I think surgery should be the last resort. It's quite safe, but I just think you should consider the other options. There are some prescription pills though.
Ask about the prescriptions. They could be dangerous or worse with epilepsy medication. I am just saying consider the other before an expensive surgery. Ask your neurologist which he would prefer. As mine says though, it's not really his field. He will offer what he can. He would probably refer you to a family physician or nutritionist.
Last edited:
Gastric Bypass
Something that many people have to realize is that gastric bypass surgery requires no type of medicines to be prescribed. Maybe, a person may have pain pills. These are only needed if the patient asks for them and the doctor agrees.
There are no prescriptions involved with the losing of the weight! This is done through the control of the amounts a person may eat.
In 1998 when my surgery was done, the average capacity size of a human adult stomach was 32 ounces. The surgery created a new 'stomach for me that was only 1 ounce in capacity.
You can imagine how much quicker a person would feel 'full' with that much of their stomach capacity gone. The person would then stop eating.
It the person continues to eat they will start to feel sick. You learn very fast to NOT want to reach this point!
Every person has a different tolerance to pain. I never needed any kind of pain pill, but that may not be the case with everyone. I was up and walking the hallways of the hospital about 6-7 hours after my surgery.
I know that today they only make a tiny incision to do the surgery. I have an incision about 8 inched long running vertically through my naval. It turned out that the seam that was created did not heal as strongly as the muscles were before the surgery, so now I have a problem with hernias.
It is up to each person to choose what they want to do. They just have to do some thinking and try to make the decision that will work out the best for that individual.
ACsHuman
Something that many people have to realize is that gastric bypass surgery requires no type of medicines to be prescribed. Maybe, a person may have pain pills. These are only needed if the patient asks for them and the doctor agrees.
There are no prescriptions involved with the losing of the weight! This is done through the control of the amounts a person may eat.
In 1998 when my surgery was done, the average capacity size of a human adult stomach was 32 ounces. The surgery created a new 'stomach for me that was only 1 ounce in capacity.
You can imagine how much quicker a person would feel 'full' with that much of their stomach capacity gone. The person would then stop eating.
It the person continues to eat they will start to feel sick. You learn very fast to NOT want to reach this point!
Every person has a different tolerance to pain. I never needed any kind of pain pill, but that may not be the case with everyone. I was up and walking the hallways of the hospital about 6-7 hours after my surgery.
I know that today they only make a tiny incision to do the surgery. I have an incision about 8 inched long running vertically through my naval. It turned out that the seam that was created did not heal as strongly as the muscles were before the surgery, so now I have a problem with hernias.
It is up to each person to choose what they want to do. They just have to do some thinking and try to make the decision that will work out the best for that individual.
ACsHuman