TO SLEEVE OR NOT TO SLEEVE (That is the Question) Weather tis nobler to suffer the pounds of outrageous fat against a sea of embarrassment and humiliation or is it nobler to carry the weight and go gently into that good diet.
The breadcrumb along the path that leads to bariatric sleeve surgery begins long before the Internet search for a solution leads you there. Why would anyone consider cutting their stomach into two pieces and the keeping only 15% of it? Why not just push yourself away from the table or better yet just shut your mouth? Why are we fat? How did we get fat? We didn’t wake up one morning and look in the mirror and say “Oh my god I am obese”. It silently sneaks up on us. Not a New Year’s eve passes without a solutions where we swear that this year we will seriously diet and exercise to success. Finally we reach a point where we are forced to confront our inability to combat the curse that preys on our dignity and self-esteem
People don’t understand the quite lives of humiliation and desperation most of us lead. No one wants to be fat! We don’t choose to live overweight and be subject to ridicule or have comments about our will power tendered behind our backs. Still what can we do but preserver for it seems hopeless.
This past month I was diving in the Philippines and was getting a massage after a dive when the man giving me the massage said, “Are you pregnant sir?” You would have to understand the Filipino culture to understand why he thought this was funny and would say it out loud to a customer. I can assure you not only did it allude my sense of humor I got up from the table and left him puzzling as to why I was upset. Four years ago I was in a department store in Manila and a salesman asked me the same question with a big smile on his face.
I had looked in to the bariatric Sleeve operation before but the cost was just too pregnant. I have decided to pursue the operation after extensive research and am well aware of the risks, side affects, and the mountain that must be climbed to reach the summit if I am lucky enough.
Most people fear the decision and the operation since it is very serious surgery and has inherent risks. It will require rigorous commitment including major eating habit changes and logical discression. Skill that have eluded us for the past few years. Why now will we be successful and follow the program? Well for one thing I will have a stomach the size of a banana to remind me that such behavior has consequences. Mostly because I have reached my tipping point where I am ready to do what ever it takes to get control of my life back. I realize I need the tools to forge a healthy future so I have come to the conclusion that a Sleeve operation is my best option.
How do you choose a doctor? Should you use an agency with a wonderful health coordinator? What country should you do it in? What does it cost? I get it you and how the heck should I know? What I do know is that sooner or later you have to pick a horse and bet on it or you have no chance to be in the race.
I have done extensive research and found the horror stories of surgery gone wrong, loose skin after the operation, and people judging you. Gosh lets me think …hum… people judge me now for being fat. Ok I would rather be thinner and judged so one down. What if something goes wrong or there is a serious complication during surgery? “Opps” I will regret it that’s two down. Loose skin because I lost so much weight will bum me out but I will be less heavily depressed and three down. The point is our lives have been full of excuses or hopless meaningless attempts to lose weight. Stand up and smell the fat.
So I am going to make an appointment with Dr. Jaime Ricardo Ramos Kelly and have a gastric sleeve operation at the Florence Hospital (The Oasis of Hope Hospital) in Mexico. Why because it’s there, I need it, and I have enough credit to allow me to borrow to afford it. I have had pleasant correspondence with Dr Kelly the past two days and am comfortable that he is skilled and experienced. So this long stream of conscience is not a journey entry. It’s more of a declaration of intent to JUST DO IT. I am not recommending anyone just jumping into the frying pan. I am not intelligent to be afraid yet and it is too soon to regret so I am stuck with hope and the prospect of improving the quality of my life.
My journey not yet begun but I have a trip planner. I think some people need to share their journey. It seems like a necessary part of the process of dealing with the arduous ordeal of confronting the serious issue or a long term struggle with weight loss compounded by the fear of an unknown future out come based on a life altering irreversible decision.
These accounts provide meaningful insight and for the most part console and reinforce the fervent hope that there is life after fat. I have read several sincere and well-written accounts that attempt to pull back the curtain and show the reality of the surgery. The dream of successful long lasting weight loss and its actual implementation are fraught with harsh issues on need to consider. There are stories that reveal disappointing failure as well as over the top fawning over medical staff and super coordinators. Somewhere in the middle lies the semi-truth of it. We want to beleive. No check that. We need to believe that the success stories will one day contain a befroe and after picture of our own.
If you have scanned the forums you will find that the competitive marketing methods and/or tactics that some agencies employ confuse and distract from the clients ability to compare and analyze meaningful options for true consideration. Many accounts on the forums under the guised of praising a doctor, spend more text on the great organizer or consultant that took them shopping and visited them at the hospital than giving an account of the doctor’s competence. Other accounts slander Doctors not affiliated with their agency or under contractual agreement so they can be charged finds fees. The poor Physicians must be frustrated trying to tread water in this sea of dismal commerce but it the nature of the beast.
Once I get to the starting line I would be happy to share if anyone other than me cares. I am going to do this alone. I don’t want my wife to accompany me. She will be worried and scarred and frankly this is about me. I am doing it for myself and will do it by myself. Naturally when I return home I will be the wounded little boy who needs complete and sensitive attention and support. So I guess this was my intro. I fear only lost opportunity.
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