I haven't blogged about my surgery for a while and figured it would be a good time to come here and answer some of the common questions I have been getting since I went 'public' back in March.
I'm open to questions and don't usually mind them...I know it's a curious thing to some people. I figured all along that losing 60lbs in 4 months would gather attention from the people around me, whether I wanted it or not. I think anyone who thinks they can be secretive about bariatric surgery are operating under a delusion. People will notice when you only eat 6 oz of food at a sitting. And they'll notice when look significantly different from when they saw you last month. And they'll want to know what the heck you've been doing.
So questions are okay. Information is good! The only question I ever had that I found a bit unsavory was....are you sure you're fat enough to have this kind of surgery?
Yes I was fat enough. And I'm sure.
Anyway, to the FAQ's:
Do you get hungry?- Yes I do. I get hungry often enough that I usually snack between meals. My stomach growls and to me it feels the same. The difference is that it takes very little food to fill it.
Do you digest food normally?- Because I had gastric sleeve and not gastric bypass, yes my food is digested just exactly like yours. The difference is that my stomach is much much smaller. Bypass patients are a little difference because doctors remove the pylorus which does in fact change the way they digest and absorb.
Was it painful?
It is a major surgery so yes, there were some painful days right after
surgery, but I got through them. For a couple of weeks I would have
painful gas and cramps when I ate but that did not last very long. Since
then it has not been painful at all.
What can you eat?- At this point I can eat anything except steak and bread, both of which I am able to have at the one-year mark. I was on a restrictive diet for a while afterward but that has passed. Because my pylorus is still in tact, I do not have 'dumping syndrome' that bypass patients sometimes do...so high fat and sugar foods don't make me sick. That being said, they do of course slow down weight loss.
Can you drink alcohol?- I can and I do and yes I am a super cheap date now. Because some of the stomach enzymes needed to break down alchohol were removed, it goes into your blood stream in a more pure form. Meaning one glass of wine is all I'll ever need to have a happy evening.
Is your procedure permanent?- Yes, very much so. 2/3 of my stomach was removed, incinerated and will never be heard from again.
Will you have trouble staying healthy?- If I keep up on my vitamin supplements and protein, I will be just as normal as anyone if not healthier.
Do you feel different?-Yes. The weight loss is one thing of course, but I feel ample amounts of energy compared to a year ago right now. I know a LOT of that has to do with having better control over my blood sugar, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to do this. It was something I was struggling with every day, as well as the affects of having sleep apnea. Being well rested and having a balanced blood sugar level is a game changer for me, regardless of how much weight I've lost. I could never and would never have gotten to this level of health on my own.
Why did you choose surgery over some other method of weight loss?- Well, obviously it's not the right choice for everyone. But as I said in my last answer...I was caught in a vicious cycle of blood sugar swings and low energy due to other health problems related to weight (what the bariatric peeps call 'co-morbidity factors') and those were the main reason I chose to go this route. I told my husband long ago that regardless of how much weight I lost, I would choose to have this procedure done anyway just to get control on those two things.
There is also something very liberating about knowing I don't have to rely only on my own self-will for weight loss. I have admitted to the world that I didn't have the self-will, by asking my surgeon to force it upon me and it's like a great weight has been lifted (no pun intended) and I can better focus on just eating what's good and healthy. I don't have to worry that I'll eat too much, because I won't.
Those were the key factors in my decision making: forced self-will, blood sugar and hunger control, and a major change in other medical conditions. I would never have found those things anywhere else, and I desperately needed them.
Do you still crave things? Yes. I'm still human of course. Lately I have been craving sweets which is kind of new to me cause I've never had a huge sweet tooth. I keep thinking about things like birthday cake, pumpkin pie and cheesecake. I wonder if some part of my brain is subconsciously trying to get me to consume more calories and carbs! To curb the craving, we hit up the local frozen yogurt place yesterday and got about 4 oz of red velvet yogurt to the tune of 150ish calories. It was goo-oood.
Can you stretch out your stomach back to normal size and gain weight back? From what I've read it is easier to do this after gastric bypass surgery than it is with gastric sleeve. That's not to say it's impossible. I will have to watch the volume of my portion (currently 6-8oz) for the rest of my life, but at this point that has become like second nature. A few times I have eaten too much and it is both painful and nauseating. When I feel full, I should always stop right then no matter how good it is. Eating enough volume to permanently stretch out the stomach pouch seems to me like it would be a painful process, and I'm hoping that I would never put myself in that position.
Do you ever regret it? No yet, no. Not at all.
