Through Thick and Thin #20 (May 1, 2003)

The Top Ten Reasons why Weight Loss Surgery is NOT "the easy way out"
one person's experience and perspectives

10. It's very expensive. Many health insurance companies don't pay
for the surgery, and even when they do, co-payments and other costs
add up quickly. Also, it can become very costly to constantly
replenish wardrobes as the weight comes off.

9. Recovery can be very painful. Besides the pain from the surgery
wound, patients may experience nausea or severe gastric distress.
Patients with sleep apnea may become sleep-deprived, with all of the
associated adverse affects, when they must discontinue use of their
CPAP machines to avoid disturbing the staples creating their tiny
new stomach pouch.

8. Recuperation can take a long time. Patients may be "out of
commission" and absent from work for a prolonged period of recovery
time. In some cases, patients may not be able to return to work or
normal pursuits for up to 10 – 12 weeks.
7. It's hard work and a major time commitment. For optimal results,
patients should engage in aerobic exercise for up to an hour daily.
For bodies unaccustomed to vigorous exercise, this can be very
hard. It's also a real challenge for WLS patients to learn all they
must about nutrition so they can assure that their food and vitamins
are sustaining their body. Finally, it can be exhausting to
consciously, carefully and painstakingly chew every bit of food that
enters your mouth.
6. Vomiting isn't fun. Nor is diarrhea. It may take patients many
months (and frequent episodes of vomiting or diarrhea) to identify
incompatible foods and to learn the practical limits of their newly
reduced stomachs or digestive systems.

5. It takes extraordinary courage to consciously limit food choices
for the rest of your life (and potentially limit social
opportunities built around meals). For many patients, life after
WLS means treating food as a fuel, not as a source of drama,
excitement, comfort or a central life focus: i.e. eating to live
rather than living to eat. While some procedures may be reversible,
for most patients WLS is a lifetime commitment, requiring a lifetime
of major lifestyle changes.

4. Weight loss surgery can be dangerous. As many as .5% of surgery
patients may die from the procedure, and up to 5% may experience
debilitating medical complications (especially if they listen to
their peers' advice more carefully than their doctor's.)
3. It takes great bravery and strength to deflect other people's
judgments and society's myths about obesity. Fat people are often
blamed and shamed by family and friends with simplistic advice,
unrealistic solutions, and uninformed prejudices. Whether it's for
genetic or metabolic reasons, diet and exercise, willpower and
discipline have never, by themselves, been enough. Our appetite
regulators simply don't work. Without WLS, we don't know when we're
full!
2. What gives anyone the right to judge which path is right for
another? Is a person who runs a 10K taking a "better" or "tougher"
route to wellness than the person who walks vigorously every day?
Is working with weights better than water aerobics? Different
strokes for different folks. Each of us finds our own right way,
and how dare others judge our path to health and longevity! By
their reckoning, the most courageous thing would be for us to suck
it up and die young.
1. For many morbidly obese people, WLS may be the ONLY realistic
alternative for achieving a long, healthy life. The newest research
provides irrefutable evidence that body weight is largely a function
of genes — just like height or a family propensity for cancer.
These genes help regulate appetite and metabolism. People prone to
obesity seem to gain excessive weight easily, while finding it
difficult or impossible to lose it. That's why diets almost always
fail and why WLS is currently the only viable weight loss option for
many morbidly obese people, according to endocrinologist David
Cummings of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System.
Most people can lose no more than 5-10% off their "natural" body
weight by exercising and eating wisely. Decades of diet studies
show that more than 90% of people who lose weight by dieting gain it
all back within 5 years. "There are exceptions, but when you are
speaking of general rules, the only people who are able to lose more
than 10 percent of their body weight and keep it off are people who
have had gastric-bypass or other bariatric surgery," Cummings notes.

Glenn at www.gastricbypasscoach.com ,VBG WLS 10.24.02, 355/245

Glenn Goldberg, J.D., R.C. is a Writer, Coach, Counselor and
Mediator. He has lost about 110 pounds in his first 6 months after
his Weight Loss Surgery in October, 2002. Glenn offers free
subscriptions to his biweekly newsletter, "Through Thick and Thin",
at his website at www.gastricbypasscoach.com. If you're
interested, check out Glenn's website to see a picture of him
literally wearing his message to the world: WLS is "NOT the easy way
out!"
© Glenn Goldberg 2003