It has been almost eight years since I had my gastric bypass. Eight years ago we were about to welcome in a new millennium. People were worried that all the computers would crash and some actually thought there was the possibility that life as we know it would cease to exist. The year 2000 brought some interesting changes to the world and to my life in particular because on January 5, 2000 I underwent a gastric bypass.
The gastric bypass surgery has been accepted as a drastic, but not uncommon procedure to help morbidly obese people maintain some control over their weight and their life. Morbid obesity is a not so pretty title given to someone who is at least 100 lbs. or more overweight. I gained that title after years of dealing with being fat. I have been on more diets than I can count and though I have lost weight numerous times no matter how successfully the weight came off it seemed to pile back on much more efficiently. I have fasted for months on end. I actually went for 14 months at one point without eating anything solid. I drank high-protein diet drinks five or more times a day along with all of the water I could hold. I lost and enormous amount of weight and felt and looked great until I had to face normal eating again and began to regain the 170 lbs. that I had lost. I took me awhile but I was also successful at regaining the weight that I had lost.
Over the years I tried the grapefruit diet, the egg diet, the Special K diet and the plain old starvation diet. I went two different rounds of different programs where you drink high protein drinks. During all of my medically supervised weight loss programs I attended nutrition classes and learned the difference between the differences in calories in fat grams versus protein fat grams. I learned how much exercise you must partake of to loose one pound and what amount of calories must be consumed to regain that pound. Though I have lost in the neighborhood of five good sized adults in my life time search for weight loss, I have still hung on to my love or addiction to sweets. Some people might say that “nothing tastes as good as thin feels”, but I would rather eat something wonderful than just about anything else in the world. Yes I love beautiful clothes. I love feeling sexy, but I love Cella’s dark-chocolate covered cherries with liquid centers just about as much. I have admitted I have problems with dependency on food and unfortunately when you lose weight the problems in most cases are still there.
I underwent a psychological evaluation to make sure I would be able to handle the stresses of enormous weight-loss. I kept the appointment with the Nutritionist who told me in a vague kind of way that my old way of eating would change forever when I underwent a gastric bypass. After a few discussions with the surgeon I was informed that I would be a great candidate for the surgery. I didn’t do the research that I should have done, because nothing prepared me for my journey after weight-loss surgery.
I was told that the surgery could be dangerous and that I would be unable to eat any solids for weeks. I either didn’t listen when things were explained to me or maybe they weren’t explained sufficiently, because I had no idea that if and when I ate something I shouldn’t after the surgery, I would begin to sweat profusely and for approximately 20 minutes or so and I would actually feel as though I were going to die. It took me months of trial and error to realize that high fat foods or sugar would trigger what they call “dumping syndrome”. This is caused by the way the body’s digestive system has been altered and the way it handles the amount of insulin and the way it is processed with the gastric bypass. Nobody told me that this would happen but I found out fast. I would literally soak my nightclothes and sheets after eating some food that contained more sugar than my body could handle. Though I have learned what might trigger this phenomenon, after eight years it still occasionally makes me feel that way when I eat what I shouldn’t.
I lost a lot of weight and I lost it fairly quickly. I lost 170 pounds in about a year. I could finally sleep while laying flat on my back at night. I started to walk without becoming winded. I started feeling attractive again for the first time in years. I moved from the perimeters of life to the main stream. If you have never been obese you don’t realize how invisible fat people sometimes can feel. Most people not wanting to make us feel embarrassed, tend to look past us. Though we are larger than life, we become invisible. My gastric bypass surgery brought me back into the visual realm once more. I once again became a person. I began once again dating and found and married my present husband or did he find me? I was able to find a beautiful wedding gown and I felt beautiful on our wedding day.
After gastric bypass surgery you must take a form of vitamins and take them for the rest of your life. I had what is called the Roux and Y operation where they disconnect your small intestine, shorten it and reconnect it to your new egg size pouch, created by stapling off much of your original stomach and leaving only enough to hold about 30 ccs of food or liquid at one time. Though I wasn’t told, I learned that I must ingest Vit.B-12 for the rest of my life or face becoming dangerously anemic. You see Vitamin B-12 is absorbed through the surface of the stomach lining and when you have gastric bypass you diminish this surface. Vit. B-12 is necessary for the production of red blood cells and for good nerve and cell development. Though I take an oral supplement weekly, once a month I must give myself an injection of Vit. B-12 into a large muscle. If I fail to do so I become anemic and become very lethargic.
You might wonder if I have regained any of my weight? I am still obese. I never lost enough weight to actually become thin, though I dreamed about it. I have kept approximately 100 lbs. off. I have regained about 55 pounds and after eight years at least I have accepted the fact that despite the method chosen for weight loss you must deal with the psychological aspects of maintaining that loss. I am thankful for the fact that I have kept that 100 lbs. off. Without the surgery I would probably be unable to walk at all. Despite my weight loss I struggle with arthritis caused by many years of bearing a huge amount of weight. Bones were not made for that kind of abuse and though the surgery has caused some nutritional loss and consequences I can only blame myself for the end result.
The issue of loose, hanging skin that just doesn’t fit your body anymore, is also an issue that not many people want to address. If you plan on loosing a large amount of weight and you are not under thrity years of age face the fact that somewhere along the line you will want to have some form of plastic surgery to tighten things up if you can afford it.
Since my surgery things have changed a bit. They now routinely do what known as a laproscopic surgery. This surgery uses several small incisions instead of the open abdominal surgery that I had. This newer version results in quicker healing, mobility and a much shorter hospital stay. One of the more recent developments in weight-loss surgery is the “Lap-Band”. This is done with minimal invasion and a very short hospital stay. It is adjustable and when the amount of food that the stomach can hold starts to increase the doctor injects more saline into a port left close to the surface of the skin and the stomach again will hold a lesser amount. The surgery is also reversible. Because there is no stomach surface sacrificed, there is no permanent loss of nutritional value in the body. I wish that this surgery had been available when I chose to have mine.
You are probably wondering if I could do it over again, would I again chose to have the same gastric bypass? I have asked myself that question many times. I think I would still have had it, or at least what might be the equivalent. I think I would have tried the “Lap-Band” first though. I also would have done more research on the subject and found out exactly all that such a drastic procedure entails. The repercussions of my surgery will be with me forever. I also strongly recommend that if you chose to have a gastric bypass or even embark upon any radical form of weight-loss, please deal with the real issues behind your problem. If you don’t, you will continue your struggle despite your methods to lose weight. Most of us who are morbidly obese deal with other issues behind the fat. The weight is just an outer expression of an inner struggle.
