Hi I have hypercalcemia. I now have kidney damage from it. I am finally working with about 75% of my kidneys again after about 2 years of suffering and near death. I was never put on dialysis for it. I was also told that I do not have any sort of cancer. They think I got it from having an almost complete sedentary lifestyle. I am also in a wheelchair due to my right knee needing to be replaced and having lymphedema in both legs. My thighs are the size of tree trunks. I have lost almost 200 pounds on my own in the last year and a half and I have found a gym that has equipment, classes and water aerobics for people in a chair. I am still however hovering at about 400 pounds. I do not ever want to go back to where I was, but I still need to lose over 200 pounds. Finally, my question is, do you think it would be ok to have the gastric sleeve surgery done? If so, after I am healed from that and well on my way to being done with the weight loss, do you know of any surgeons that would remove these huge sacks of hanging skin from the insides of my thighs left from the lymphedema? I was told that the area was very vascular and hardly any surgeon would touch me to do that. After all of that I would finally get the knee replacement and skin removal surgery. Sorry this is so long. Thanks so much for your time and GOD bless you and yours for doing this. Melia Hicks

Summarized question: Is gastric sleeve surgery safe for lymphedema?