Gastric Bypass: My story and common myths

This is the beginning of a series of hubs. I started writing and continued, and continued, and it continues! So, I’ve had to break it up. I think I will start with a little background and some debunking.

I’ve had Gastric bypass surgery. Yup, I’ve taken the easy way out (BWAHAHAHA @ anyone who thinks that). So… I’m fixed, right? I’ll lose all my weight, it will fall off, I’ll get too skinny, and I’ll never gain my weight back because I’ll be throwing everything up or crapping it out. Well, that seems to be what everyone thinks.

“You should have done it the ‘right’ way, the ‘hard’ way, you should have ‘worked’ for it. You didn’t want it enough.” Oy vey. Well, here is a statistic for you. When you cross into the morbidly obese stage, and you diet and exercise, you lose all of your excess weight… in 2-5 years, you stand a TWO PERCENT chance of having only 10% of your excess weight gone (So, you start at 300 pounds, and you lose all 150 pounds that you are supposed to. In 2-5 years, you’ll be considered in that 2% if you weigh 285lbs). Is something wrong with that picture? YES. You are STILL FAT! You’ve basically gained all of your weight back.

Easy.

This. Has. Never. Been. Easy.

Day one, I had to go to an informative session. That was 2 hours away. I had to sit and listen to basic information – while informative to others – was a complete waste of time for me, because I researched GBP for 2 years. I am a nurse as well. So – I was bored out of my mind.

Then get a referral from my PCM. Good luck with that. Some flat out will tell you no. FIND ANOTHER ONE! I got lucky. I’m military. They gave me one.

Next, set up the appointment. Talk about being fat. Be almost nekkid in front of the doctor, so he can touch your rolls to see if he can do this laproscopically on you, or if you’re too fat. Go through your diet history (that is a laugh). Some have to do a 6 month diet. This has drawbacks:

1)      You will lose weight. You *COULD* lose enough to not qualify for the surgery. The problem with this? WE CAN ALL LOSE WEIGHT. Maintaining it is something different.

2)      You may begin to gain faith in the fact that YOU CAN DO THIS. Well, of course you can! As you will seen earlier on in this hub, the odds are FAR against you to keep it off, though. BUT, if you can do it (and I can think of one great example who lost all her weight over 25 years ago, and has kept it off – remaining every vigilant of every calorie that crosses her lips) please, go for it.

Then, you have to see a psychiatrist. Be prepared to talk about everything, EVERYTHING. They want to see if you will succeed at this. After all, surgeons want to have a high success rate.

BTW - RESEARCH YOUR SURGEON (I knew my surgeons stats. He has never had a patient die in over 1500 surgeries, he has less than a 1% leak rate, and has leass than a 1% failure rate, and a less than 0.5% complication rate. I told him at my one month appt, I haven't thrown up. He look at me oddly and said why would you?). I have had ZERO, none, nada complications. I was and remain very lucky.

You have to go to a nutrition class. I can tell you something about fat people; most of us know everything about nutrition. We know more than the skinnies. We sometimes know more than our nutritionists (yes, I had to correct mine several times). Why? Because, we are so used to diets and counting calories and looking at labels and measuring food and All. That. Crap.

We have to be prepared for the big fight with the insurance company. Good luck with that. I can’t give you any pointers. Mine was easy. If you’re fat enough, you can have it. I was fat enough. Not to mention, if I was within that 5% rate that wasn’t fat enough, I had all the comorbidities that go along with being fat, so I would have qualified.

Finally, we put our very lives at risk by going under the knife to re-rout our guts? That is the easy way? Really? Are you willing to risk your life to lose weight? Nah, didn’t think so.

Easy – so, if you had cancer that was curable… would you go through 2 years of hell and just let it take it’s course, or would you take a chemo treatment and cure it right then? Of course you would. Well, my fat was my cancer. If you still think I took the easy way out, I DO NOT CARE! I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I am healthy, happy and live my life to the fullest extent possible.

Some other common myths that I just love – so much so that I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t even bother sharing I’ve had WLS, cause it is the S-A-M-E questions (I used to love to share this part of my life to give others hope).

“You’re going to throw up all the time.” Uh, NOPE! I’ve never thrown up – E.V.E.R –  let me stress that one more time NEVER EVER EVER thrown up since I’ve had my surgery; even when I’ve prayed to God to let me throw up. Now not everyone is that lucky – but it keeps me from developing an eating disorder, so I’ll take it.

“You don’t even have to try and your weight is just going to melt off.” My weight did not FALL off. The first 6 months, I lost weight easily; after that, not so much. I can’t drink when I eat, I have to watch my carbs (yes, I still have to eat properly). I have to – get this – EXERCISE. It took me 2 years to get to my goal weight (that 18 month window stuff is C-R-A-P!! You have a critical period, and it can last longer than 18 months. It depends on how you work it). If you set a number, you CAN reach it if you continue to work for it.

“You can only eat 3 bites of food for the rest of your life.” BWAHAHAHAHAHA, I wish! Truly, I can sit down and eat a normal size meal (*NORMAL HEALTHY* size, not the size at a restaurant, not 5 helpings). Sometimes I can eat more, sometimes less. It depends on what type of food and my mood. Yes, I still emotionally eat. It is my downfall. One I have got to change.

 “You’re lucky; you’ll never gain your weight back.” Too many people think this is the easy way out and they’ll never gain their weight back (you will often here, "I'll NEVER see the 200's again" or I've lost 40 pounds FOREVER." Be careful. Never, forever... those are daring words). Your statistics go up with Gastric bypass surgery. A lot. People poo-poo the statistics and say they aren't that great, but they are a heck of a lot better than non-surgically-altered people. You have gastric bypass surgery. In the first 2 years, you stand an almost 90 percent chance to lose 80-100% of your excess weight. Again 300 lbs down to 150 pounds. In 5 years, you stand a 50% chance to gain 50% of your excess weight back. So, that takes you up to 225. That looks a lot better than 285.

Now, let me explain some things. That weight gain (some people use the word failure – I *hate* that word) statistic includes those who now think they are “fixed.” They can eat McD’s every day, they go back to drinking with their meals. They eat brownies, chips, cake, cinnamon rolls, m&ms and crap like that every day. Not ALL of those people in that 50% statistic, but a lot of them.

Some people like to get into surgery wars… have *this* surgery and you can eat bacon and drink the lard every day and you’ll lose weight. Here is the problem, while some of those people are spouting that, they’ve never reached their goal weight, and they are 5-8 years out. I’ve known 2 people, personally, with *THAT* surgery, and they are both “obese.” So, I don’t entertain the one surgery is better than the other. Do your research. YOU can choose which is best for YOU! Each takes work.

Oh… isn’t that a nasty word. Work. Us fat people *HATE* that word, but you had better start loving it if you want to be extremely successful in this game of weight loss, surgery or not. Yup, you gotta work. I didn’t have this surgery so I could eat anything I wanted. After all, a calorie is still a calorie, whether you’ve had gastric bypass or not. I didn’t have this surgery so I’d never have to get off my lazy butt again. I didn’t have this surgery so I’d never have to “diet” again. I had this surgery so it would give me a chance, a chance to lose weight, and live a semi-normal life.

Nothing chaps me more than going to “support” groups, whether online or in person, and hearing a person 3 weeks out say, 'I ate a hamburger, is this okay?' 'I love my donuts and will never give them up, no matter what people say, so nah nah boo boo.' 'I didn’t have surgery so I’d have to diet for the rest of my life.' Please, if you see yourself in any of these remarks, don’t have surgery. You’re not ready. You can’t do these things. Donuts and brownies were my weakness before surgery. I have not TOUCHED them since surgery. Why? Because I am afraid I would not stop. I tell myself I am allergic to them now. I’ve had enough in the many years before surgery to last my life. I am not willing to gain 20 lbs for 5 seconds of flavor on my tongue. Just. Not. Worth. It.

Here are my statistics. When I was 18, I was anorexic. I weighed less when I got married than I did in 8^th grade. I married a military man who deployed frequently. I was left alone, A LOT. Food became my consoler and my best friend. I *DIETED* my weigh (pun intended) up to 303 pounds. I say I *DIETED* my weigh up there, because I could lose all the weight I wanted, but I could never keep it off. When I’d lose weight, it would creep back on, and bring 10 friends along with it.

I had GBP on Oct 4, 2006. I had NO PAIN the day after surgery. I walked 2.5 miles the day after surgery and 3 miles every day for the first week (I was cooped up in a hotel room because I had travelled 2 hours and my surgeon didn’t want me back home). When I went for my 6 day follow up, I accused my surgeon of not doing the surgery because I felt so very good. That is, until I stepped on the scale. I had lost 9 pounds already. I lost 30 pounds in the first 30 days. I felt like crap that first month – lethargy wise. Just run down. This is normal, because you’re body isn’t getting the fuel it needs (plus I could not take the protein shakes. They were unpalatable. But, after the first month I realized I needed them. So, I held my nose and chugged). I got dehydrated a few times because I didn’t drink enough water. When they tell you sip, sip, sip; do it!

2 years later, I FINALLY hit my goal. At 18 months, I lost so much hope because you hear about this 18 month window. If you don’t do this or that by 18 months, you never will. BULLSH!T! By 2 years, I had lost 102% of my excess body weight. I weighed less than I did in 8^th grade, and 1 pound more than my wedding day! I felt fabulous. I maintained it for over a year. I never had that “bounce back” weight they warn you about. My body loved where it was.

3 years after surgery, 1 year after hitting my goal, I was started on a new medication (I have multiple sclerosis with daily neuropathy pain). This new medicine was a God-send, until I saw my weight creeping up. I tried to counter it with watching what I ate. Lowering my calories and exercising more. I thought I would give it a few pounds, since it worked so well, and be happy. In 6 weeks, I gained 17 pounds with no end in sight. That was far too much. I would rather be in pain, daily, than to gain weight.

My mistake was thinking the weight would fall off as quickly as it came on. Wow, was I so wrong. It took me 4 months to lose 5 pounds. This medication really screwed up my metabolism.

I ended up losing 10 pounds total, but now my 5 pound “window” (I would allow myself 5 pounds up and down from my ‘normal’ weight) was far too high. Plus I noticed it was much easier to gain the weight back.

So, I am 4 years, 4 months out from surgery. I am back to having 17 pounds to lose to get back to my goal weight. This is enough of a wakeup call. My metabolism seems to be getting better, but my eating habits have gotten worse. Not to mention, I am not exercising because I had an MS relapse where I could hardly walk.

So, my next battle will be a new hub. This hub was just to give back ground info on me, and my history with WLS and to debunk some common questions. Keep an eye out for my plan. And watch my transition back to my “normal.” I will get there J