Suggest Remedy For Fever, Headaches And Sore Joints After Gastric Bypass Surgery

Posted on Thu, 21 May 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 21 May 2015 Answered on

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I had the gastric bypass surgery on March 12 this year. Now I seem to get horribly sick very easy. Is this common? I am taking my vitamins. The sickness I am speaking of involves flu like symptoms; fever, freezing, weak, headache, sensitive skin and sore joints and muscles. It will last 2-3 days. Can you help?

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Malnutrition and anemia can be the case.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Thank you for the query.

Gastric bypass patients can sometimes suffer from malnutrition and anemia due to iron deficiency. Both problems can be the reason of frequent infections. Lack of iron or proteins simply weakens the immune system.
I suggest you to have blood work (CBC, iron level, ferritine, protein and albumin) done at first. In case of anemia you may need iron supplementation.
Please also start probiotic intake (it will help with the immune system problem) and try to increase protein intake.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Neel Kudchadkar