"Since I couldn't eat much meat of any kind (it and pasta were the most likely foods to cause blockage) I started boosting my protein/iron intake with protein shakes … and my weight began to inch up."
Overweight? Tired of one failed diet after another? Looking for the "magic bullet" of permanent weight loss? So was I. I tried them all.
The diets I did not try (the more radical ones, such as liquid protein and wiring the mouth shut as a "forced" means of sticking to a liquid diet) I witnessed when even more desperate friends than I were driven to try anything to shed unwanted, sometimes life-threatening pounds. The bottom line and the common denominator for virtually all of us: even those that did work could not withstand the test of time nor the metabolisms that seem to plague overweight people.
Frightened and frustrated after a 40-pound weight gain in just one year (bringing my 5'4" body to a whopping 218 pounds), I came to the desperate decision in the summer of 1995 to consider gastric bypass surgery. This surgical procedure, commonly referred to as the "stomach staple," has recently made the news again: a number of movie stars and personalities known for fighting the diet wars, (including Carnie Wilson of the 80's girl-group Wilson-Phillips) have undergone procedures of this type.
Contemplating such a radical measure in 1995, before all the celebrity interest, did not come easily. Determining factors for me included my age (45) and the 100 units of insulin required to maintain even reasonably healthy blood-sugar levels, along with persistent lower back problems. I felt I had come to the end of my options.
If the myriad of health problems staring back from my mirror were not enough to convince me, then the success of my friend, who had undergone the procedure in 1993 and had lost over 100 pounds by that time, did. Weighing over 300 pounds before her surgery, the physical, as well as the emotional transformation was astonishing and enviable. Still, the radical nature of the procedure frightened me as much as the idea of such dramatic and seemingly lasting weight loss called to me.
Because of my fears, I spent considerable time quizzing my friend. I asked just about every conceivable question: where had her surgery been performed?
(A then-popular diet clinic based on this obesity de jour procedure.) How long was the recovery from surgery? (About six weeks.) Did she know others who had undergone this major surgery? (Yes, she knew several who were part of the post-surgical counseling/support group that was a feature of the Program.) Were they also successful? (Yes, though some more than others.)
The results of my inquiries were by and large positive in nature. Being careful to eat slowly and to chew your food very well were the major warnings, since virtually all of them had experienced food blockage on at least one occasion. In a couple of cases, emergency intervention became necessary to clear the blockage. The scar was another issue: since the surgery is major, your incision runs from the sternum to just shy of the naval. Other than these warnings, the people I talked to were very pleased with the results. Benefits virtually all of them mentioned included never feeling hungry while experiencing rapid weight loss.
As my weight continued to climb, this weight loss option began to seem more and more appealing. Finally, after three months of haggling with my insurance companies, who required doctors' notes attesting to all the other diets I had previously tried, personal affidavits, and sessions with a psychologist, I received the okay to proceed with the surgery in mid-September of 1995.
I resolved myself to the six-week post-operative recovery and began eagerly anticipating major weight loss. It was exciting to think that within a year I would once again know what it felt like to be thin. After twenty years of feeling every emotion from inadequacy to embarrassment about my obesity, I was looking forward to discarding the "barrier" to success my extra pounds had erected.
What can I say? Nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. I will never forget sitting in a fine Southwestern restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about one month after surgery. Near the end of a mandatory, post-op six-week liquid diet, I made the mistake of taking just one bite of the vegetables floating in my soup broth. Twelve hours later I finally stopped vomiting.
You see, this surgery doesn't just "staple" closed all but a small portion of your stomach. The process includes a reduction in the food passage. This reduction is major (to the approximate diameter of a woman's small finger), and is held taut by a small plastic ring. Eat anything larger than the diameter of your pinky and you are in trouble. I was lucky, though. My first experience was horrible; but whatever was stuck finally dislodged or digested without medical intervention. It certainly wasn't the last time I experienced hours of distress because of food blockage. Now, nearly four years later, it still happens: without warning, with a large variety of foods, occasionally with the first bite I take.
Not such a bad trade off for a nice, slender body, though?
Well … about the weight loss. My goal was to lose 100 pounds in one year and then to maintain the loss. The good news? I lost 46 pounds within the first five months and then … stopped losing. Ah, some exercise was in order. That would do the trick!
Not really. I did as much exercise as my bad back would allow (aerobic dancing three to four days a week, walking for half an hour another day or two), but my weight refused to budge from 172 pounds. I ate less, watched what I ate … and became severely anemic.
Since I couldn't eat much meat of any kind (it and pasta were the most likely foods to cause blockage) I started boosting my protein/iron intake with protein shakes … and my weight began to inch up. I decided it was time to get an update on how my friend was doing with her weight.
"Great!" she said, "I would do it again in a heartbeat."
So, what was wrong with me, I wondered? Was I the only one failing at this? How were the others doing?
Not as well, it turned out. Though all had lost more weight than I had by the one-year mark, most were experiencing weight gains within two years following surgery. Some had regained all or most of the weight they had lost post-procedure.
How could this be? Wasn't this the diet treatment to end all diets? With such a small stomach, how in the world could a person regain all that weight?
It's simple, really. Some of the most fattening foods melt. Chocolate, ice cream, pudding, cream pie, creamed soups, cheese … need I go on? Plus, the stomach has the ability to stretch; eating just a little more means stretching your "new" stomach to a larger capacity.
For those of you who have suffered a long time with obesity (especially if you were an overweight child) the comic strip cat, Garfield perhaps said it best, "The first word in 'diet' is DIE."
Dieting is deprivation. In many ways, gastric stapling is simply forced deprivation. Just as a thirsty man will drink, a "hungry" one will eat.
Oh … where is my weight today? Well, with the help of Xenical, I now weigh 191 pounds. Not too bad when you consider my friend has regained over 50 of the original 125 pounds she lost.
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