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Gastric bypass is no joke

January 31, 2011 on 1:30 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

I have a friend who just had gastric bypass surgery this past week, and she’s having a hard time.

She misses food. She says she’s hungry. She feels lost.

Boy, I can so relate to what she’s going through.

Telling someone what it’s like to have gastric bypass surgery is like trying to tell someone what it’s like to have a baby. Meaning, you can describe the effects all you want, but you can’t really understand it until you go through it yourself.

That’s why I never, ever recommend someone should have the surgery. It has to be an individual decision, one made after lots of research and soul-searching takes place. I’m glad I had it done, and ever with all the complications I endured, I would absolutely do it again. But no, I would never tell anyone to go through with it.

Having the surgery is a shock. I didn’t realize how much I used food as a comfort; I always thought of my eating as a weapon of self-destruction, never something that made me feel better. But just after surgery, still in the hospital, I wanted a Mountain Dew so bad. I realized how I used soda to calm me down, to make me feel better. And now, I couldn’t do that. And like my friend is now, I was just lost.

It gets better. You just have to grit your teeth and get through it, day by day. It takes a while, for sure. But eventually, you do find a way to eat and you do enjoy food again. In fact, eating is so much more enjoyable when you know it’s not killing you.

If you’re thinking about having weight loss surgery, read all that you can. Find people who have had it done (they are everywhere!) and ask them about their experience. Go into the process with your eyes wide open before making a decision. This is a major life change, and it is not going to be easy.

But for me, it’s been totally worth it.