Hi Anne,
I've had a similar experience. When I left inpatient rehab (6 weeks post OHS), I was about 25 pounds lighter than my pre-surgery weight. Over the next 6 months or so, I effortlessly dropped another 15 pounds. I then remained stable at the low weight for a while. I used to joke to people that if they want to lose weight, I highly recommend OHS.
Eventually, I told my cardiologist that a potential long term care insurer was complaining that I was dehydrated which also might have been raising my blood glucose levels and the cardiologist responded by saying "let's get you off the lasix; you don't need that anymore and that will improve your readings." Well, the doc was right about the improved blood readings, but I also started to gain weight. By the way, I told my financial advisors who had recommended the long term care policy that the insurers were imbeciles for worrying about my blood readings and potential heart risk when they really should be worrying about my Alzheimer's risk given my father's health history and the fact that mine has mirrored my father's history almost to the day. I said that if those fools aren't worried about paying me for years until I die at 92 from Alzheimer's complications, then they probably are in the wrong business.
Anyway, I'm now close to 25 pounds heavier than when I left the hospital. I'm estimating that about half of that weight is new muscle (I'm back at the gym after a one year Covid layoff and, amazingly, at the age of 70, I'm lifting heavier weights now after a year of calisthenics and isometrics, than I was last year) but I definitely also gained a layer of fat that I need to drop asap.
So, the philosophical question I need to answer is whether I lose the unwanted pounds, live longer and die of Alzheimer's in 20 years. or die sooner, skip the Alzheimer's and save my family a lot of money and stress. It's a tough question to answer because, if it wasn't for the cost of care issue, it might be very interesting for a zen buddhist like me, who has spent the last 40 years learning that the self is an illusion, to experience the loss of self that occurs through Alzheimer's. There might even be a book I could write about it if I finished it in the early stages. Sort of like one of my heroes, Ulysses S. Grant, racing against time to complete his memoirs before dying of throat cancer.
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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-16-2021 13:05
From: Anne Birdsong
Subject: Weight Gain
Hi folks, I haven't been here in awhile. I had OHS last May to repair an atrial septal aneurysm and an ASD. I'm doing very well and have been back to work and exercise for a while and I'm feeling pretty strong and healthy.
My main problem is my weight. Prior to surgery I had been losing weight on my own through cutting carbs and increasing exercise. I had lost about 35# but had not reached my goal weight. The weight loss accelerated from January through May due to a lot of health problems and hospitalizations, including one for pancreatitis. There were a lot of times I was NPO, a lot of times I didn't eat bc I didn't feel well, etc. Of course for a little while immediately after the surgery my weight was up bc of fluid retention, but that eventually came back off and I continued to lose more weight in a very effortless way, eventually being down about 50#. I reached the lowest point maybe 2 - 3 mths after surgery, last summer.
Fast forward to now. My weight keeps going up and up. I'm now up about 10 - 15# up from my low post-surgery weight. Sometimes I'll have those 2# overnight weight gains, for which I'll take Lasix, but I feel like I'm cheating bc I'm not seeing signs of fluid retention like swelling/edema (maybe very mild edema). So I feel like I want to blame it on fluid and get that quick-fix weight loss, but maybe I shouldn't bc maybe it's not fluid, but just my old weight "finding me" again. And I know I wasn't exercising as much bc of winter, and who knows, maybe I wasn't being as careful about what I was eating as I thought I was. But the other day? I ate fruit, non-fat yogurt, and some mixed nuts (not salted) during the day and had a salad for dinner. The next morning I was up 2#. I had also taken half hour walks pretty much every day that week. That's got to be fluid, right? Anyone else have this problem? It's very frustrating.
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Anne Birdsong
Occupational Therapist
Rural
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