Carnie Wilson - 2nd weight loss surgery

Carnie Wilson, singer and daughter of Beach Boy, Brian Wilson (pictured in red dress in photo with her singing group);  got a RNY gastric bypass, 12 years ago. She lost 150 lbs initially, and told the press, "It was so easy -- it was like I blinked my eyes and the scale went WHUUP!". 

A frenzy of people signed up for gastric bypass surgeries. One person who worked for a weight loss surgery surgeon, told the news that every time Carnie Wilson appeared on TV, their phones rang off the hook!  The surgical group who did Carnie's surgery, dramatically simulcasting on the internet during her surgery and launching a huge publicity campaign in partnership with the manufacturer of surgical instruments, went from doing 5-7 weight loss surgery procedures a week to doing 12 weight loss surgery procedures a week.  The future looked rosy, for Carnie and the Weight Loss surgery industry.

But dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.

Soon after Carnie Wilson's famous quote to the press above, she began regaining the weight, despite fighting hard to keep her weight off, including, hours of exercise, engaging personal trainers, putting salt on desserts so she wouldn't be tempted and publicly humiliating herself, talking about her weight problem. By 2011 when she appeared on the Dr Oz show, she'd regained to her average weight before surgery, about 240 which is a lot for her since she's only 5'1".

Apparently, she lately, had a gastric band placed over her bypass to force a restriction of her food intake, and has lost 30 lbs so far.

The bottom line is the gastric bypass or any weight loss surgery, is no free ride.  Just like using a non surgical tool like weight watchers, it's a lot of work on a daily basis for the rest of your life or you will regain the weight and/or get sick!  A percentage of gastric bypass patients get sick anyway, even if they do everything right.

Carnie Wilson, like so many others, was given the impression surgery worked automatically and easily.



That so many people embark on weight loss surgery seemingly ill prepared for the reality, can be at least, partially blamed on allowing the mass advertising of surgery without requiring the advertiser to list side effects and disclaimers like "results not typical".  Some weight loss surgery surgeons have an annual income of $1.5 million dollars - people have done strange things for much less money than that.

Let's hope the second weight loss surgery procedure will bring her what she's looking for.  She's such a beautiful woman and a great singer and somehow all of that tends to get lost in her frantic efforts to get slimmer. To me, that is sad.

Click on this blog link to see photos and story.

If it doesn't work the first time, get cut again

When people talk about Weight loss surgery, they never talk about the long term outcome. Or if they do, it's vague.

Long term patients (over 10 years which isn't that long term) tend to be slimmer. What they don't say is studies have found most still are very obese and some with a BMI over 40.

And one study found that 34 percent of gastric bypass patients who start in at BMI 50 or over, regain all or most of the weight within 10 years of surgery. (Annals of Surgery. 244(5):734-740, November 2006. Christou, Nicolas V. MD, PhD; Look, Didier MD; MacLean, Lloyd D. MD, PhD)

A bit different picture from the slim enthusiastic new ops who are paraded at the seminars or on TV's shows like "BIG MEDICINE".

And what is the solution that medicine offers? Get cut again.

Shorten the bowel so virtually nothing is absorbed. Well that works except everyone I know who's had that one is a rather sick person. As a favorite surgeon says "fat and healthy trumps thin and sick anytime".

Or pleat the stomach from the inside. That is painful, destroys the lining of the stomach, doesn't hold in place for over a year and hasn't really worked for anyone I know.

Or get rid of more of your stomach (a popular one for those who have had duodenal switch). What? People regain with DS/BPD's? Oh yes, big time.

Does it work? Maybe. Hard to tell because generally the regainers are made to feel ashamed and fade into the background.

I actually know several people who have had multiple weight loss surgeries and still are seeking more procedures! Some of these folks have had 7 surgeries after the original WLS.

I also know several folks who have had "revisions" (that's what the surgeries following the original weight loss surgeries are called) who are pretty sick.

A surgeon friend of mine says "success with weight loss surgery is 10 percent the surgery, 90 percent the patient".

How many people I wonder, actually have this surgery with the idea that they will have to work just as hard as someone on any other diet, to keep the weight off i.e. diet, count calories, measure and exercise in addition to getting blood work and dealing with the repercussions of a digestive tract which doesn't work the way it used to because it's been all rearranged inside.

Not many. I suspect most who have the surgery, have a dream in mind, fueled by the TV and the new ops they have met - a dream which has little resemblance to the reality, a dream where all the weight just falls off and then the person is "normal". But dreams are dreams and reality is reality.

Isn't it better to find out about reality before you get your body changed forever?