Hi all - lots of questions

[Grumblefrog]

Hi

My name is Tracy, and I live in the UK. I've actually posted to this site a couple of times but it either times out (on my iphone) or I can't find my post, so if you have replied to me, I'm sorry I've not replied, I can't find it to reply to!

I've not actually had surgery yet. I am about 240lbs give or take. I have tried, over the years, to diet, have lost 3 stones, 4 stones, whatever, then put it all back on and more. I am a deeply unhappy person and unfortunately I eat with my emotions, and once a bad vibe has set in it's open season in the kitchen.

I have actually got to the point that I don't want to go on anymore. I can't see myself living like this anymore. So I have made an appointment to speak to my GP about surgical solutions to obesity this coming Friday.

I've heard a lot of stuff about bad side effects, problems after surgery, and as always when you are faced with something this immense, you tend to focus on the bad side. I've also heard a LOT of good things, how it's turned peoples' lives around etc. A friend of a friend has had gastric bypass and she has shed 10 stones, 140lbs, and kept it off for 2 years, and looks AMAZING.

So I was wondering, could someone give me the low down, the highs, the lows, the good, the bad, the ugly of this procedure? Any regrets? Would you do something differently if you could?

Hope to hear from you guys soon - you are all so supportive of each other!

Tracy x

[MissDeidre]

Grumblefrog ... Obviously, everyone is different and we all lose at different rates, heal differently and each experience is it's own ... however, from my perspective ... the risks of the surgery were FAR outweighed by the benefits ...

Your success largely depends on you ... assuming all goes well and there aren't any complications (knock on wood), how dedicated are you to success? Can you find it in you to work out EVERY DAY (or at least 3 - 4 times per week)?

Have you examined your diet so you know where your triggers are and you can remove them (for example, I got into the habit of getting up and getting a cup of ice cream around 11pm every night ... didn't matter if I was hungry or not, it was habit and I'd do it almost unconsciously ... Finally I just stopped buying the damn ice cream ... sometimes, I'm a little slow on the uptake)

Have you considered changing what you do when you are emotional? Instead of reaching for something to eat, kick something (like a pillow or a stuffed dog) ... hell, even a squishy ball to squeeze in your hand until the feelings pass?

For me, I was 32 years old when I had a heart attack because of uncontrolled diabetes that I didn't even know I had! That was when I realized how far off my life had become ... it took another 3 years before I said to myself "Hey! Jackass! Do something about your WEIGHT instead of bitching about it, dummy!" (I'm a little hard on myself ... you get used to me ... like a cold sore). THEN it took me another 2 years before I lost the weight I needed to lose and felt comfortable in my life changes where I thought the surgery would have it's best chance of success. I had to treat my weight loss in the same way I treated quitting smoking ... change my triggers, change my attitude towards it and realize that it's JUST FOOD. It was like a bad relationship ... it wasn't GIVING me anything but it sure was taking everything I had ... Once I realized that, I started shedding pounds off by changing my habits (my wife was a HUGE help in this area ... yelling at me every time she'd hear me prowling around the kitchen ... or sometimes just coming INTO the kitchen and snatching something out of my hands ... my willpower was a little weak at times ... but come ON ... it was PIE ... who doesn't love pie?)

My best advice to you is to examine your life ... take a good HARD look at where you are and what you want ... it's harder than you think ... try to find your triggers and deal with them WITHOUT food ... make the changes you need to make in order to give this surgery it's best possible outcome. Because in the end, the surgery is just a tool ... it's prone to breakage if you don't use it right.

Best of luck to you ... we are ALWAYS here whenever you need someone to bitch at, listen to or ask advise of ...

Cheers!

[Grumblefrog]

Thanks so much... I think with me, I am so deeply unhappy with my life at the moment... my doctor keeps offering me anti-depressants but to me they are just masking feelings, and those feelings are there because I am so fat! I just want to lose this weight and move on with my life... I want a permanent solution because otherwise my weight will continue to worsen, regardless of whether I lose the weight conventionally or not... my thinking is, if I have my stomach permanently reduced, then I CAN'T binge... can i?

[MissDeidre]

Unfortunately yes ... you can ... which is why my advise is to deal with the issues that make you WANT to binge

The stomach CAN stretch back out again ... you can MAKE yourself eat past the point of comfort ... All the surgery does is reset the slate ... turns your stomach back to that of an infant ... if you don't deal with what made you fat in the first place, you'll wind up repeating your behaviours over and over again ...

[roxyringo]

hi tracy...you need to do what is right for you...
i had mine 8 days ago and am down 22lbs already...dont feel hungry and have even stopped smoking! which is a mad added bonus! i just miss chewing at the moment!
I have had no pain at all and not needed pain killers since the day after i had it done... so we shall see how it goes...the fact that i am on the way down with my weight instead of up is only a good thing xxx good luck whatever you decide xx

[jane_vsg_ayla]

The only way to lose weight is diet and exercise... All this surgery does is help you stick to a diet. You have to look at it like that - you still have to pick the right things to eat and eat the right quantities. The big difference is that after surgery you CAN stick to that because your stomach is so small you are actually FULL after a few bites, and if you overeat you will likely throw up immediately. If you eat the wrong things or eat too fast, you will likely get diarrhea because some foods take longer to digest - like carbs - and since they are not in your stomach long enough (one of the reasons you are supposed to chew your food so much is to get as much digestion happening through saliva in your mouth first) to break down into the nutrients you need, they go into the small intestine in the wrong form... So no only do you not get the nutrients from the food, but its going to come out looking a lot like it went in!

But the best part, and probably the one reason I decided to go through with it, is that you really are not hungry! They remove that hunger hormone, so not only can you physically not eat that much, but you dont really want to! I was always feeling like I was starving no matter how much I ate, so this was the godsend for me.

But that also means that if you mainly overeat as a response to stress etc, rather than hunger, you will still have that response if you dont address it. And like MissDeidre said, your stomach WILL stretch again.

I have had nothing but a positive experience with the whole thing, personally, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Only wish I had done it years ago!

[MissDeidre]

They don't remove the hunger hormone ... Beginning about 2 months post op, I felt hungry again ... I wasn't hungry for the longest time but I did eventually begin to feel hungry again ... So you have to be aware of that.

I know I'm a terrible Debbie Downer about how positive this entire experience was so PLEASE listen to me when I say this was absolutely the VERY BEST THING I have EVER done ... I don't regret it for a second and my experience has been NOTHING but positive ... I just don't want anyone to go into this with blinders on ... you CAN ruin it, you CAN feel hungry again and you CAN still gain weight if you don't address the underlying issues ... just like Judie says, "All this surgery does is help you stick to a diet. You have to look at it like that - you still have to pick the right things to eat and eat the right quantities"