bariatric surgery

DebbieMAfromCT. . .my doctor kept recommending this surgery for me for years. His office nurse had it done and the pounds just melted off of her. Watching her progress and questioning her was good for me. It doesn't mean that you need to go out and have it done. Most of the surgeons who do this kind of surgery will not perform it on you unless you are thoroughly informed about what you are getting in to. It is an elective procedure and most surgeons won't do it without pre-authorization from your insurance company. Many of these surgeons hold public informational meetings and you should attend at least one since they are free and very informative. Before you make a decision to do it you should talk to as many people as you can who have had it done to learn about their experience and how they are doing since the surgery. It is not a cure-all for obesity, but a tool to help you diet more successfully. You will need to diet and watch what you eat after the surgery for any weight loss to be successful over the long haul. Once the surgery has been performed it, in general, cannot be reversed. Well, it can, but as one doctor told me, it's like a remodeled house, you can never put it back to the way it was originally built. You also have to take a handful of replacement vitamins for the remainder of your life because the section of your small intestine that absorbs those vitamins has been taken off the main GI track and is no longer in operation.

There are several books and a website where you can get information about this surgery including the success rates and complications:

• Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies (a copy of this was given to me by my surgeon)
  
• Doctor's Guide to Weight Loss Surgery: How to Make the Decision That could Save Your Life by Louis Flancbaum, M.D.
  
• http://www.obesityhelp.com/

I believe there is now a TV series on TLC or A&E called Big Medicine which is about patients having gastric bypass surgeries.

I have had a Roux-EN-Y gastric bypass. I think the question I get asked the most frequently is, "do I get hungry?" The answer is no. A few weeks ago I had to have a colon surgery and was NPO for a couple of days quite comfortably without the least bit of craving for any food at all. I had to have an open bypass procedure (incision) because I had a previous cholecystectomy and appendectomy many years ago and there were, as suspected, a lot of adhesions. They never would have been able to get a laparoscope through that mess of scar tissue. The advantage of having an open procedure is the surgeon has a full view and access to what he is doing and there are less complications post-operatively. I went home on my 4th post-op day. I had very little pain and needed no pain medication when I was discharged even having had an open procedure. The surgeon I went to will only give his laparoscopic patients an excuse for 2 weeks off work. Before surgery all patients have complete respiratory and cardiac workups. In my case I had to have a cardiac stress test (I hate them).

I finally made the decision to have the surgery because I was just tired of eating to the point of feeling stuffed and feeling terrible and guilty about it--yet again. This is something that I was having to deal with on almost a daily basis. At some point I began to think that food wasn't really meaning anything to me anymore than just something to fill me up. When I was going through a mental list of 10 fast food places and nothing on their menus was appealing to me, this was screaming to me that I was eating for a reason other than to satisfy the need to get enough nutrients to sustain my life. And, honestly, I don't miss it. As the weight started coming off, I started feeling so much better. Not breaking out into a sweat just getting from my car to the front door of the supermarket was a landmark. I've gotten dumping syndrome once (a desired side effect of the surgery to help you keep eating correctly) because I wasn't paying attention to the amount of ice cream that some well-meaning fool brought into my house--I'll never make that mistake again and you won't find ice cream in my freezer.

You also need to know that you can successfully eat yourself to hefty overweight after the surgery by continually snacking throughout the day on carb rich foods. My surgeon calls it grazing. You can't eat huge amounts at one time because the surgery physically restricts you from doing that or you will get dumping syndrome which is not a pleasant sensation. However, if you take itty bitty bites of things like potato chips or little crackers, like Goldfish, constantly, you can pork your way right back up to obesity.

If you have some specific questions you want to ask you can always PM me or send an e-mail. I will tell you about my surgeon (he has a website), the vitamins, the kinds of food I eat now, and the protein drink supplements to help get enough daily protein.