My Newspaper Article

Its time for my 2nd newspaper article. Here is my rough draft. Be honest with me. What should I add, what should I delete, is it boring...etc. I havent done spell check yet so ignore the grammatical errors. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I made it and I feel great! Having gastric bypass surgery was one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself. I am asked frequently by people struggling with overweight and some who are just curious about what I've chosen for myself and why. My response is always very cautious. I cannot praise this surgery enough but each person's experience of it is unique. Some have suffered from this procedure and some have died. My experience so far has been smooth and problem free. As of my one month post op appointment I have lost 28 pounds and 11 inches have disolved from around my stomach. I had many concerns going into this surgery but now I feel that I was blessed to be given this chance. The morning of surgery I was a little bit nervous but I dont believe it actually hit me until my anestesiologist came in. I started to cry and said goodbye to my family. Thats all I remember. This good doc had me drugged up quickly and painlessly. The next few days were a blur. I was in and out and only remember a few of the highlights. The nurses on my floor at Forrest General were amazing even though they gave me shots in my stomach, pulled drains from my nose, pulled tubes from my stomach, and they wouldnt give me a big mac. Meanies! Respatory therapy was good to me as well although they always wanted me to cough and yikes that hurt. It was for my own good so I thank them for it. I remember on the 3rd day I found myself watching the food channel. Ugh, what is wrong with me!! My 1st serving of chicken broth couldnt have come at a better time. I had 1 ounce every half hour. It was so good! Coming home made things harder for me. Old habits die hard and the urge to walk back and forth to the refridgerator was torture. It became apparant early-I had to get out of my house. Head hunger is a huge issue for me and although I have not been HUNGRY since the surgery, my head thinks it needs to eat something, taste something---ANYTHING! It is getting better and I know over time it will be gone. My addiction to food is deeper than I ever imagined. It truly is a complete change of lifestyle for me and relearning to eat is more difficult than I imagined. On my 10th day post op it was time to get my 27 staples removed. When I saw my surgery nurse, Janet Crawford, I began to cry. I wasnt sure why until I saw Dr. Whitehead. I teared up some more and I realized-They saved me. I am so thankful to them for this program and for Dr. Whiteheads ability to perform this surgery. It takes a special person to understand and perform a surgery like this. I was his 16th gastric patient. I feel lucky! I wouldnt trade them for ANYTHING. They released me this day to start on soft foods. WOOHOOO.... I stopped and got a small mashed potatoes and ate 1/2 of it. I knew I was full but wanted 1 more bite. I took that bite and OH NO---It didnt have anywhere to go. My pouch was full! I knew it was working its way back up so I made a beeline to a garbage can. Having no stomach acids makes throwing up a breeze. No bitter aftertaste! Tastes the same coming up as it did going down. I know, too much information. Okay Okay. There are lots of opinions about the procedure. Some of my closest friends and some family memebrs were against me having this surgery (all being skinny). Content thinking that if I would exercise and diet more I would lose the weight. It's inevitable that we all will have thoughts, feelings, judgments or even prejudices about obesity. However, until the person rendering the opinion has stood squarely in the shoes of someone meeting the requirements to undergo gastric bypass that persons opnion is one I cannot fathom in relating to as they cannot possibly relate to me. For anyone contemplating this surgery or wishing to learn more-. Dr. Whitehead has seminars about it monthly. I strongly suggest going to one of these and visiting www.obesityhelp.com. Obesityhelp.com has message boards where thousands of pre-ops, post-ops, and family members come to learn about this surgery. There is a main message board and then there are individualized boards by states, types of surgery, doctors forums, month of surgery, etc... There are great people on this board and I have met some amazing people. You need a lot of support before and after this surgery. I get this daily from this site and monthly from my wonderful support group meetings. 28 pounds gone in 29 days.

Lots of us have our names on here and if you think I should not refer to this web site.. I WONT! Thats why I didnt in my last. Let mek now.

I enjoyed your article. It seems to make my upcoming surgery a little more realistic. I still know I am having surgery but it doesn't seem real enough yet. I know this sounds crazy, but I just can't explain this feeling.

I don't have a problem with mentioning the site!!! I would have mentioned it the first time too - but you know me!!!! Good article. I like the relaxed way you wrote it, that will draw more folks into reading, learning and investigating....A medical article you expect to be dry and dull. This one has personality!!! Also has some IMPORTANT facts that can't be overlooked....You get an A from me... Smooch, Arlies PS MAKE SURE YOU DO RUN THE SPELL CHECK!!!!!

Christine! Love the article, pretty black and white there, enjoyed reading it. As Arlies suggested, run spellcheck and look again at your third sentence : "I am asked frequently by people struggling with overweight and some who are just curious about what I've chosen for myself and why." uhm..look at it as just a little constructive criticism.. it just don't sound right. Struggling with being overweight, maybe? Or struggling with obesity? Not sure if you left a word out or what but I stumbled on it and I'm so anal about spelling with my kids, I had to bring this up to your attention. I really don't mean to be a critic here, just thought I'd point it out before you ship it off to be published. Two years ago my best friend and I translated a book and we had to run everything past each other AFTER spellcheck just to make sure we'd get all the bugs out. He He, go for it, mention the website, I do it all the time. I took my lastname off months ago and probably will leave it out, and you guys who chat with me know me anyways, my yahoo chat name is pretty explanatory LOL Let me know when your article runs, I wanna get a copy Andie

Great article written by one who has done it. I like the way it is written from a patient's perspective.

Hey girlie!! I thought it sounded GREAT! It was very relaxed and easy to read, but it was also very informative. I didn't realize that we don't have any stomach acid now. I wondered why it wasn't such a big deal now for me to vomit (And the Lord knows I do it all the time, LOL). I have been looking for some good information (book,etc) out there about questions and such AFTER the operation. I only seem to find Pre-Op stuff. Do you know of anything? Kristi