It has been a few days since I last posted; car purchasing, annual leave from work and eating like food is going out of fashion have proven to be a large feature of my life this weekend. But the urge to write is upon me once again...
I decided to indulge my love of trashy magazines yesterday and bought Reveal (a fairly popular publication in the UK albeit much of the content centres around inane 'z' list celebrity nonsense.) There are some real life articles contained within and I came across one about a 336 pounds lady who had a gastric bypass operation and is now a worrying 84 pounds and perilously close to suffering heart failure. It transpires that whoever had performed the procedure had narrowed her stomach too much and, as a potentially deadly result, her body rejects food. She is literally starving to death so she is now hooked up to a drip that is pumping her failing body with the crucial vitamin and calories she needs. Apparently 1 in every 200 procedures has the potential to have complications.
Having lost my weight the natural way, it would be easy for me to sit here at this moment in time and pass judgement about this seemingly barbaric last resort. I know those feelings of gut wrenching desperation that can constantly plague a person when they are obese. You don't know where to start, the awful realisation sinks in that losing the weight will be arduous and time consuming. It does take a massive amount of will power and determination to stick with it. There is no overnight or quick solution as we know, even having a gastric bypass has far reaching repercussions on the patients body and lifestyle.
Imagine not being able to have a large meal ever again? Sitting down on a special occasion, letting your hair down and splurging. We have all done it, there is something deliciously naughty about it, especially if it becomes a rare treat rather than the norm. Once a gastric bypass operation has been performed, you are not physically able to take on anymore than a small cups worth of food at any sitting. You soon know if you have had too much as you will be reaquainted with that food as you vomit.
Is this to become a standard procedure I wonder? A procedure that is available to people who could lose the weight themselves, assuming they are given the support they need? I totally advocate it for the super morbidly obese, people whose bodies no longer functional in terms of exercise and people who are close to suffering serious medical complications because of their weight. I would just hate to see this kind of drastic action being abused in any way. Of course, it is ultimately down to the health professionals to draw up strict and controlled guidelines as to how they manage the requirement for this surgery and who should and should not be sanctioned it. I think that our doctors and health professionals really should focus more time and investment on weight loss coaching, perhaps this can be a better option within our doctors practices? Heavier people SHOULD have somewhere else to turn.
The implications are far reaching for the patients who do go ahead with the surgery. It helps them lose the weight but the sacrifices are massive and the recovery is prolonged in terms of retraining themselves to eat smaller portions and realising that gorging large meals is no longer an option.
Do we know if there are any physiological side effects? Only time will tell I guess but bariatric surgery is firmly in the public eye now. Raised awareness of it's existence means that more people will consider it as a resolution to their weight problems. I don't know whether it is the best way to go about such a life changing process for people who could do it naturally, should they be armed with the tools to do so.
Perhaps I am being short sighted? Nevertheless, as I said before, what works for one person might not for another. We are a mixed bunch, with that diversity comes different preferences and choices
R xxx
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