Debra Mc

My sister had a bypass about 10 years ago & has done really well. She has worked very hard at it & has maintained 160 lbs. She weighted 305 lbs. She told me the other day somebody told her she did it the easy way to lose weight. If I could have found this person I would have punched them out. ( I know my redneck is coming out.) It really makes me mad to hear someone say this. Nobody knows what she went thru. 10 years ago they cut you from above your stomach to your navel. Her c section scar almost meets her bypass scar. Now days it is all tiny cuts as the surgery has greatly improved. It is not easy to go thru this. Even now she must watch what she eats & how much. She said it was all worth it. So any of my fellow quilters who have done this you have my support & best wishes that this will work for you. It is a life time commitment & yes you can blow out your pouch with the bypass & go back to being fat. Now I will get off my soapbox. Just had to vent.

BrendaY

The new procedures are waaayyy better now. One friend had hers done 20 years ago, and has had one health problem after another... BUT, a neighbor, a doctor's wife, had it a year ago and has been doing wonderful. I agree with you completely. It's not an easy decision, but thank goodness it's available. Blessings on you and your sis!

glassdriller

I had surgery in 2006 and I have to say I'm glad I did it. I attend support group meetings and have met some great people. Being morbidly obese @ 312, I was quite sure if I didn't do anything, my health would only get worse. I no longer need 64 units of insulin, my sleep apnea is gone and I can do things now that would have impossable before. Easy way? Learning how to cook more healthy choices. I did it to get me back on the 'level playing ground' with those who didn't have a weight problem -- not to become a model.

CloverPatch

I had it done 18 months ago. Easy, yea right. If starving for 2 months cause you can't physically eat is EASY, then everyone would do it.

tutt

I had a lap-band 18 months ago, and have lost very little weight, maybe 20 to 25 pounds. Very disappointing it's not more, but some is better than none or gaining more.

romanojg

First of all; thank you for this and God bless your sister because I know she hasn’t had an easy road. I quit even telling anyone that I had his surgery because of responses like your sister gets. It’s not an easy fix. It's a hard battle no matter how you lose weight; there are no easy fixes and nothing last forever without effort put forth. I had health issues so due to this reason I'm glad I did it.
I had this done back in 1993. Due to the cut in my stomach I ended up having 2 hernia surgeries; then they ended up putting mesh in my abdomen area to prevent it from happening again; so far so good on that part.
I was told I would no longer have to worry about gaining weight and that I could eat whatever I wanted and be skinny. That sounds like a no-brainer for someone who had battled weight for over 30 yrs.
I could not eat for 30 days afterward and my first meal was on Thanksgiving; I was so excited, I took two bites got sick and that was that. I had to learn to eat all over again. To take smaller bites, chew better, I couldn't have anything with sugar in because that was instantly being sick. No one ever told me that some foods would make you sick or that how you chewed your foods would matter. It took me a year to lose my weight; I bought all new clothes. I got a tummy tuck with one of the hernia surgeries. I looked good. Of course, no one told me either that it was common to lose about 20 or more pounds and then gain it back before stabilizing to one weight. There went my new clothes
I work for a hospital and I've met a lot of people who have had this surgery and most of them if you saw them; you'd never think they'd ever been on a diet. You can train your body to tolerate sweets and greasy foods again and that’s why most of these people gained back their weight. To me that is a dumb thing to do. I didn’t go thru all of this to train my body to tolerate what caused the problem in the first place. My friend says I’m the only success story she knows but she also knows that I have to work at it.
If you don't watch your food/drink intake even with this you can gain it back. After a few years I had gained almost 50 lbs and was so upset with myself that I went on the South Beach diet; it follows closely the guidelines we use with the surgery. I still have to watch what I eat or the pounds will come back.
On top of that I have other health issues. My body doesn’t absorb vitamins like it should so I’m deficient in Vitamin D, Calcium, Zinc, Iron and who knows what else. The doctors are still finding new things that are repercussions of this surgery. I give myself Iron shots every month and I have to take lots of vitamins. I can be fine one day and the next day my levels will be drastically down. I have osteoporosis but due to the vit D and calcium levels going up and down I can’t take the meds for it.
I’m sorry that this is so long. As you can tell this subject is very dear to me first of all because I’ve had to deal with people’s perception of me for having it. I’ve had to deal with the facts that the doctor never told me about and I still have to watch my weight like everyone else. God Bless everyone who has ever had or does have a weight problem.

Debra Mc

I knew their had to be others out there with this problem. I wanted to have lap band & did all the things I was suppose to do, went to doctor every month to have BP checked & get weighted so at the end of the 6 months because I hadn't followed a doctor prescribed plan ,good old Blue Cross rejected my surgery. I have been on diets all my life. Would lose a bunch but as soon as I quit watching real close the lbs came back. I am doing the Dukan Diet right now & I am having good results. I started May 5 & have lost 24 lbs. It is an easy diet & I would recommend it highly. I have been on more diets than I can remember. This is really working for me. Sister wants to lose 10 lbs so she is on it. She no longer has to use her C-pap machine, lost the high pressure but it is back because of stress. Thankfully she is doing great & didn't have some of the awful problems others have had. I am so glad this worked for you too. I also have a friend that was as wide almost as she was tall & I got her to go to a seminar with me & now she has had it done & at first I didn't know it was her she had lost so much weight. She had to have her knees done & major skin taken off but is doing great. I feel like I had a hand in saving her life.

Parrothead

Excess pounds run in our family. Almost all of my cousins are overweight. My third daughter was a "fat" little girl and teen. She lost and was in the Navy for 6 years. Then after three babies, she gained and gained. When she told me she was going to have the surgery (gastic bypass), I was worried but understood. I am overweight now but was very skinny as a child and trim as a teen and young mother. She only needed to loose about 100 lbs and has lost more. She has had a few health problems since and went through a lot the first couple of months. While we are all very happy for her, she looks 10 years older than before the surgery. She is 50 and has large wrinkles in her face. So there are pros and cons to this. She was elated when she fit into size 8 jeans!

romanojg

My biggest tip is to let her know to keep having her vitamin levels checked. Our bodies don't absorb normally now and like i said they are finding more and more things that effects us. Most recently was the zinc; I'm so glad that when my regular doc sent me to a specialist to have my blood checked and he knew about the zinc problem. For all of these years I had problems with going to the bathroom way too much. It didn't have anything to do with what I was eating either. After a short time on the zinc (mine was way low) I no longer have that problem. To prove the point last week it started back up again and then after the 3rd day I remembered I hadn't taken my zinc all week; I took it and problem solved. I give my self my vitamin B shot each month and calcium and vitamin D and iron are also big problems. Some people have problems with potassium. I make a list when I go to my docs and then I make sure I get a printout of my lab results to monitor (the lab results will tell you what are the normal levels so you'll know how you are doing. This has a lot to do with strength and energy and vit D can cause you to endure more pain than necessary. It can also make you look older too. Just tell her to make sure her doctor stays on top of things. I don't rely on just my doctor; I push for a test that I need and follow.

0tis

I think its a medical issue between you and your Dr. there is no doubt about the medical issues that come up when you are overweight. I have been on diets too - about 10 yrs ago - I decided to start exercising - I really wanted to increase my cardio so I could do some hiking. Well, I didn't lose weight but I did increase my activity. When I decide to lose weight I followed a 1200-1500 calories a day - food journal - it took 6 weeks to lose the first 2 pounds. I really didn't have that much weight to lose but my point is - my body does not give up weight easily - anyway I lost 35 lbs - took me 7 months - I was really happy with the results but the weird thing was I would wake up every day and then realize I had lost the weight - your mind does not keep up with the image in the mirror. I did very well for 6 yrs or so until I had a hysterectomy. I don't know why but during my recovery I had to take it easy. I could not get back into the activity and pretty soon I started eating all the wrong things (all though they taste great) and sure enough it came back and with a vengance - now I need to lose 50 or 60 lbs and its even harder than before. Why is it that some people can lose weight and others struggle so much. My mom always wanted to lose weight and my sisters too - It has been a lifetime struggle for all of us. I don't believe surgery is the easy way out - its just one way to help. I don't think anyone should be critized for their own decisions - just support them and help them....Ok...no more soapbox...