A Napa,
California woman who was diagnosed with lupus when she was 12-years-old and
subsequently suffered from drug-induced obesity underwent a life-saving gastric
bypass surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics about a month ago.
Stanford is now
using the case of Jena Graves as an example to warn others that sometimes
taking steroids to cure one problem, may lead other problems that actually can
be worse.
Jena Graves, who
is now 19, was a healthy and active girl when she was diagnosed with lupus
seven years ago.
According to
Stanford, she was given high doses of a steroid drug that helped contain the
disease and its symptoms, but which also caused her to gain more than 150
pounds over five years.
Lupus is an
autoimmune disease in which the human immune system becomes hyperactive and
attacks healthy tissue.
According to the
medical center, this is not a unique predicament, and millions of Americans
suffer from drug-induced obesity, which creates additional physical and mental
trouble for the people already dealing with these diseases and illnesses.
As a result of
her obesity, Graves who is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighed 268 pounds at her
heaviest and developed a number of other conditions and diseases.
"I felt
uncomfortable going out in public. I felt people staring at me and heard them
making comments. My friends slowly stopped contacting me," Graves says.
"While most people my age were dating and going to the prom, my life
consisted of lab tests, and my closest friends were the nurses drawing my
blood."
Director of
Bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics John Morton operated on
Graves in May in order to reverse the effects of the drugs, and Graves has lost
over 40 pounds since the surgery.
She has also been
able to stop taking a majority of the 30 medications she was on prior to
surgery.
"It was bad
enough news that Jena was diagnosed with lupus, but then to become morbidly
obese because of the medicine used to treat her disease was tragic for her
future development," Morton said. "I've seen this happen to a number
of other patients - not just those taking steroids, but also those taking
antidepressants and insulin. However, I am so pleased that we are able to
provide Jena and patients like her with a procedure that can reverse
obesity-related illnesses and therefore make it easier to manage underlying
chronic illnesses."
