My gastric bypass surgery was on December 8, 2003 and at about six to eight weeks post-surgery I began to have a variety of issues that I now believe are directly related to a magnesium deficiency. Some of the things that were causing me no end of distress were:
* Dizziness * Bursts of anger * Feeling that my body was "off" * Anxiety and fear that I could not explain * Nervous, jumpy stomach * Two panic attacks at three months post-op and near attacks after that * Muscle issues that started off feeling like a lot of arm fatigue and moved to feeling "wired" as best as I can describe. The general feeling that seemed to be settled on before I began adding in extra magnesium citrate was like the muscles were itching from the inside of my body. What a horrid feeling!! * My blood pressure had stopped its downward progress * Higher than normal pulse rate * Increase in heart palpitations * Fatigue * Increase in difficulty sleeping, from normal of having no issues * Finally a change in how my colon was functioning to slow and requiring more assistance.
I discussed these issues with an M.D. who had helped me alleviate a nasty yeast infection during the year before surgery and he agreed with me in my assessment that this might be related to a magnesium deficiency. Interestingly enough, I was given a series of four or five magnesium injections that summer (2003) that evidently helped finish off the symptoms of the yeast infection (I fought with this infection for 10 months). I was not aware that a yeast infection problem "could" be related to a magnesium problem until I began my recent research. I was taking the injections with hope that they might be advantageous with my fibromyalgia. This particular M.D. is a bariatric doctor who also has an interest in non-traditional methods of healing. He looks at both sides of the picture and tries to find a better solution. He has a keen interest in weight loss issues, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, syndrome x, etc. My three month post-op blood work showed my serum magnesium just below normal. My doctor ordered a better test for me called a Magnesium RBC to see what my levels were, but the day I had the blood drawn I had just received a magnesium injection and had been on my supplements for a week. So, my numbers ran just above normal and did not confirm our diagnosis which I suspected could happen. We believe my deficiency is not a severe one, but was problematic and any slacking on magnesium via supplements would begin the onslaught of symptoms. I do recall that each time that I had a particularly bad time with various symptoms it was after being somewhat sloppy with my calcium citrate/magnesium/vitamin D supplement. Each time this happened I was adding new symptoms to the mix so I believe what I was taking was barely helping me to tread water.
For me, the proof is in the fact that after my magnesium injection (I have had two injections at the time of this writing) and adding magnesium citrate (800 mg) to my daily plan (increments of 200 mg to get to the 800 mg and avoid diarrhea) my smptoms began to slowly disappear. During the improvement stage after this initial consultation and injections my pulse rate slowed down, palpitations improved a lot, my anxiety calmed down, my temper improved, my blood pressure was once again on the low side of normal, I slept much better, my bowels were functioning again as they should and all of this definitely convinced me that I was on the right track.
May 24, 2004
HOWEVER, I am over a month out from the second of those first two injections and had to go back in for another because of the return of the nasty muscle issues, colon slow down, return of some anxiety, higher pulse rate, and etc. I believe that I will need ongoing injections until I can get stabilized and then I hope that supplements will do the job alone. I am currently on 1200 mg of magnesium citrate and hope to be able to tolerate that amount without diarrhea. I am in need of a second injection and hope to hold off for another three days when I have my appointment. I would also like to have an intracellular test run and submitted to the lab. This is called the Exatest and information on it can be found on www.exatest.com. Ideally I would wait until I am two weeks from my injection before I have the buccal swabbing done, but I will need to discuss this with my doctor on Thursday. I may elect to go ahead with the test if I am still caught up in nasty symptoms. What I can say is that this is a depressing and distressing situation in which to find myself and I hate the way it makes me feel. It is not a fun ride. |
