Question:
Pre-Ops... This Ones for You!

Hi Pre-Ops! Wishing you success with your surgery. Before I had surgery, there were so many things that I didn't know about when I was considering surgery. Though I do not regret doing it and though more people than not have a success of it, I want to give you some of the other things to consider as you make your decision. I will state it in the comments section so that I'll have more room. Look at the first comment post.    — poodie (posted on April 26, 2009)

April 26, 2009
OK, here are some things you may wonder. This is from my own experience. Some have great stories to tell, but this is another side of the surgery. Like any addiction, there can be setbacks and some use prescriptions or other means to combat the setbacks, such as drug addiction or smoking. I thought the surgery would help me fight the setbacks of overeating or bad eating until I was clear of the food addiction. I thought that each time I did something wrong, my body would reject it until I finally got it in my head not to do that! But that's not how it works and I hope to give you some food for thought: 1) What not to eat - before I had the surgery, the doctor said that after surgery, I couldn't eat this or that. In my mind, that meant the body would reject it and make me sick or throw up. THAT's NOT ALWAYS THE CASE. What the doctors should say is that you shouldn't, not that you can't because my body accepts anything I eat. The problem is that once you realize you can eat the forbidden, you begin to accept it and have more of it, sabatoging your efforts. 2)Bowel and gas - before I had surgery, my doctor mentioned NOTHING about the foul smell. Most all post-ops that I personally know, myself included, have very horrible smelling feces and gas. There's no such thing as "easing out a little one" in a crowd because it WILL be noticed. I had know clue it would be like this and now I'm stuck with it for life. 3)Sagging skin - most know that this is a side effect to the weight loss. Funny, but for me, I had great muscle tone even when heavy (RNY surgery weight: 290). I didn't "wag" at all, not even my arms. Now my arms, butt, and thighs wag. This is just a caution that if you have good muscle tone, it may not stick once you lose the weight, even with the best workout efforts. 4)You can fail - I started at 290lbs, lost 60lbs in 4 months, and have now gain 35 of those lbs back (RNY surgery date: Sept '04). Now as I try to lose weight, it is the same as it was before surgery. I have no restriction, I can eat whatever I want, when I want. So truly, I'm back to square one before surgery. But now I have fatness accompanied with bad bowel and gas, hanging skin, a LONG incision line down my stomach (I had open surgery), a forever changed anatomy, and still fat. I don't blame the surgery. I blame MOST of it on me. However, I wanted to bring this out to you because if you feel you can do whatever you want and the weight will just fall off, you are kidding yourself. And once it's done, it's done. So if your mind isn't set to make ALL the necessary changes, you should really think HARD about whether you are ready. When I think of the trauma I put my body and anatomy through and just to sit back and mess up, I could just kick myself for having the surgery. Not that the surgery was bad, but I wasn't ready or either I was doing it for the wrong reason. Hope you find this beneficial and make the best choice for you.
   — poodie

April 26, 2009
Ann, I don't believe it's too late for you to change for the positive and continue down the track of losing weight. I feel for you it's a mental thing...you're letting your mind take advantage of your body. You have gone through the worst part, now just dust yourself off, stop the pitty party and do what you know you need to do to start losing weight again.
   — alix2u

April 26, 2009
We have a responsibility before surgery to seek out the positive and negative. My surgeons office was very good at informing me of the negative complications and side effects of the rny. That did not keep me from reading everything I could get my hands on prior to surgery. Therefore I was expecting the gas, the nasty taste of my crushed medicines, the foamies when I eat too fast etc. I am also working hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this is only a tool. I have seen many people who have regained all of their weight and most of them have stories like yours. If you expect a miracle of course you will be disappointed. I expect to be able to "eat anything I want" at some point so I am working on setting my lifetime diet to healthy food so that I will "want" healthy food and not expect the surgery to do it for me. Diet and exercise are the ONLY things that have ever worked in weight control. Anyone going into surgery should know that. The surgery is just a tool to allow the inital excess weight to come off while the pouch is very restricted the rest of the weight loss and all of the weight maintence is up to me. I am not perfect and will make mistakes but one mistake I am not going to do is whine about the surgery as if it is at fault if I do not have my fantasy outcome. Kevin
   — hapkidodoc

April 26, 2009
Please note that I am not having a pity party or a whining session. I wrote this so that those who haven't done all the research with really do it before making such an important decision. I've done what I've done and live with it accordingly. I guarantee you that there is someone else out there that's not as informed or may be looking at the glamourous side of losing weight (let's be real - not everyone is doing it just for health) and not the side effects that may come with it. This post was more of the possible realities that one may face AFTER they've done this and I wanted pre-ops to know some of the negatives that could be associated with this if they don't do it for the right reasons. And who better to tell them than someone who has experienced it first hand. I never said anything was wrong with the surgery, I'm just being the voice of another perspective. And I know I'm not the only one.
   — poodie

April 26, 2009
I had pie-in-the-sky fantasies about this and now I have the realities. I personally knew 3 people who did it before me and they were losing, eating what they wanted, and looking better. I saw that and I was hooked. And so I didn't do all my research. And I just KNOW that someone else out there is going about it the same way. That's the reason I posted my comments. They need to know it's more that looking good in a pair of jeans or impressing old boyfriends. There's the side you have to contend with when it's all over.
   — poodie

April 26, 2009
Hi Kevin, I am scheduled for surgery on 5/21/09 and all I can say after reading your response is "right on!" You hit the nail on the head. Best of luck to you as you progress on your journey. I, for one, can't wait to get started. Yes there'll be bumps in the road, but nothing like the roadblocks I face now! PMA, positive mental attitude, and good things will follow.
   — buckscountybabe

April 27, 2009
I had a really hard time reading your statement. It wasn't a question but I wanted to tell you that when you/we made a decision to have our bodies cut and altered, ready or not, we have to take responsibility for that. I do NOT believe most people take the decision to have WLS as casually and without weighing the pros and cons just for vanity. I think you are a minority in that attitude...I could be wrong...I also think your surgeon/psych who did your evaluation/nutritionist, etc.... all failed you miserably or you really had no intentions of trying anything different. I'm not quite sure what your message is...From what I gathered is that you had the surgery because you thought it was the easy way out/that you'd just sit back and do what you always did and after totally ignoring the rules, you failed and continue to fail because you still have no interest in making lifestyle changes???? Ann, you can turn this around. You wasted the rapid weight loss time frame...but that doesn't mean you can't lose weight ever again or decide to make changes now...You don't have to have wretched gas/discomfort if you'd stop eating sugar/simple carbs/starchy foods! You can lose your weight AND you still have that tool...You worked just as hard to sabotage your progress as most do to succeed, in my opinion. And while I realize you posted this as a warning to others who believe WLS is the easy way out (which, let's face it, it's quite easy losing weight the first year compared to old diets at least with RNY, anyway.) But long term maintenance is a bit harder, isn't it? Yes! You still have a tool that probably works just fine if you'd just TRY to use it. I don't think that you "weren't ready"...I think that you weren't and still aren't "willing" to follow the rules. Do you watch "The Biggest Loser"? There is a man "Ron" that had been overweight his entire life...and had RNY which he too could not commit to and never lost his weight. After carrying 500 pounds around with him most of his adult life...He decided to do the Biggest Loser saying that GB doesn't work for some people...But here he is dieting (eating healthy and eating protein without sugar and white carbs) Exercising, despite his bad knees and extra weight and he now weighs less than he did at age 13-14 in the 200's...If he had done just a fraction of what he is doing now when he had surgery and kept doing it as a lifestyle change, he'd have had the same results only MUCH easier that first year. You can do this...but You really need to go for therapy and find out WHY you do not want to succeed or respect yourself and the surgery you had...Do you even gets labs? When was the last time you had your thyroid and vitamin levels checked? You only mentioned things that had to do with vanity...where health is usually the guiding force to success...You never mentioned your health at all...Don't you care about your health? You can still have vanity AND health if you just make an effort to help yourself...When you do decide you are "ready"...start with a good physical (check out your health) and some therapy (mind health)...You can turn this around and REALLY help someone with a positive story instead...YOU for starters... But it is true that once you have WLS, you cannot go back to eating like you did pre op...If that is your message...I hope you do something about it rather than continue living with regret that you had surgery...Big hugs...It must have taken a lot for you to admit this! Hopefully it's a baby step to helping your own self!
   — .Anita R.

April 27, 2009
Anita, I truly appreciate your post. You made good point after good point. Over time, I have read other posts of those who were casual about what they ate and sometimes it was glammed up. I might be a minority in the way I handled the surgery, but the minority doesn't always mean only a few individuals. And my desire was to speak to that "few" who may do things after surgery that they may regret and then if they don't succeed, they have to wear the results of what they did. I don't regret the surgery. I only regret I didn't make the necessary changes mentally to make this work. My only health issue was high blood pressure. My issue I made GRAND was to "look good", I'm not going to lie. I wanted to get back down to my "normal" size (I wasn't fat all my life). I was a queen twice in my school years and I was disgusted with letting myself get 290 lbs and didnt like people from my past to see me this way. And so when I saw folks losing, I just knew this was my ticket out. But now that I reflect, I let the "honeymoon" get away from me and now losing weight is just as hard as it was before the surgery. So my message primarily is to those who aren't in it for the long haul, they may regret the downside of the surgery that they'll now have to contend. I do get blood work every 8 mths - results always fine. But I never see a nutritionist or anyone else. Please know that I'm not someone sitting in a corner licking my wounds. I am outgoing, doing well professionally and so forth. This weight issue is just a BIG issue that I'm not good at working. Your comment made me think that there's still hope! (smile)
   — poodie