Are you still married? Seems like you and your wife need to quit smoking together. I have a feeling it’ll help with your apnea and asthma and then perhaps make you feel a little better, letting you get some exercise in.
You say you don’t have support - but it looks like you need it. Quitting smoking and changing your habits is a really tough road to go alone, especially if you are living with someone who is going against what you want to do.
I have no medical knowledge on gastric bypass but I am going to assume that if you don’t quit smoking no reputible doctor is going to do the surgery for you. I’m not so sure that your biggest problem is even your weight. I’m a woman who is your height and has weighed more than you and I experienced none of thos problems.
Talk to your doctor about getting help for quitting smoking. Doctors LOVE to help people quit smoking. Insurance companies love it too. Make your wife get on board as well or you’ll never get there.
As my weight loss group leader says, Gastric Bypass surgery is the last station on the line, pretty much your last option for severe weight loss. There is one earlier station you might consider - protein sparing modified fast. This is, in effect, a liquid diet of from 500 to 800 calories per day, doctor supervised, and in many cases it is at least partially covered by health insurance. I did this and lost 140 pounds in 8 months, and have kept it off for over 6 months now.
Advantages -
If it doesn’t work, you can still do the surgery
Fast weight loss which is self-encouraging (I lost 50 pounds in the first six weeks; after that about 5 pounds a week was average until I was pretty close to my goal)
Most programs come with followup maintenance programs to help you keep it off.
Hunger is not a problem for most people after the first couple of weeks, if they follow the program strictly and don’t cheat (all cheating does is make you hungry without making you satisfied).
No time off from work, etc. No recovery time.
Smoking is a separate issue, and if you can’t quit right now, you can still do the modified fast while smoking (although they don’t recommend it).
Success can get you off of meds for asthma, sleep apnea, even diabetes.
No side effects, again if you follow the program (you have to take Potassium liquid supplement which can taste a little nasty, and you need to take a fiber supplement)
Save money on food (meal replacements only, no real food).
Simplicity, no meal planning, when you eat meal replacements only.
Besides the risk of side effects directly from the operation and recovery, surgery does not guarantee that you won’t gain the weight back as your body gets used to the change. Lifestyle changes are required to keep the weight off no matter what method you choose. If you are going to do lifestyle changes anyway, why not try a much less invasive approach. I was considering bariatric surgery before I discovered this program (my BMI was 42) and I am so happy I didn’t have to go through that.
One disadvantage, if your insurance does not cover it, a doctor-supervised modified fast can be expensive (all those doctor visits, and lab tests once a month). Do not under any circumstances try this without a doctor’s supervision (you can order meal replacements from a variety of online sources). There are risks associated with this kind of weight loss plan; a doctor’s supervision will minimize them.
I don’t know how to direct you to find a program in your area. If you email me I can give you the URL of the program I used (SF bay area), and they might know of a program in your area, they are very knowledgeable.
This is something I have done with much success, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering bariatric surgery. Good luck,
Longtime lurker here, making my maiden post. Qwakkeddup’s question is the one that made me decide to pay my $14.98.
I had gastric bypass surgery on May 1, 2006. It is the single best thing I ever did for myself. I have lost 65 pounds and have gone from a size 26 to a 14 - and I can even get into some size 12s. I’m not done yet, either; my weight continues to drop at the healthy rate of about 7 pounds a month. My eventual goal weight loss is 100 pounds. I expect to keep losing until I am about a size 8. The surgery I had was a laparascopic Roux en Y (RNY for short.)
This surgery has done wonders for me. I feel and look 30 years younger. I am energetic, light in my feet and have a joined a gym. My husband loves the new me and it’s second honeymoon time around here. My boss, co-workers and friends are treating me with newfound respect. My only regret is that i didn’t choose to have the surgery a few years ago.
I hope the bolding is acceptable, just highlighting the parts I am commenting to specifically.
Every time she and I have attempted to quit together, WW II breaks out. She bought cigarettes the first day and hid them, would lock herself in the bathroom to smoke. Lie to me. Hide the ashtray under the bed, couch, you get where this is going. When I quit for 2 1/2 years, It was on my own. Her own Mother who was living with us enforced the rule about smoking outside. Wife could not even ride in my vehicle, first thing she would do is light up. I would have to drive her somewhere in her car, with the windows down in the middle of winter. Her mom waited till I was out of the car to smoke. When she passed away, the rules no longer applied to my wife.
If I decided for surgery, I would hope it would force me to change my eating habits. I wasn’t always like this. Smoking is killing me, I have no illusions about that. Please believe me, I have tried. Since my succesful stretch failed, I have had no better success than 1 week without. I have made up my mind to try again. I will follow the same routine that was so successful all those years ago. Three days to cut down, fourth is cold turkey. My wifes response when I told her, “Oh, SH*T”
It was a fantastic experience for me. I had zero complications. I was off my CPAP machine & HBP medications within 45 days of the surgery. My surgeon is Dr. Michael Nusbaum in Livingston, NJ (not sure where you’re located)
Not in the least.
I was off work by doctor’s orders for 6 weeks (I had my done laparascopically). I felt ready to go back to my desk job in 2 weeks; we compromised on 4 weeks.
I had lost 100 pounds by 6 months. I’m now almost 2 years post-op and have lost 152 pounds from a high of 334.
Not long. I gave up carbonated drinks as soon as I got my insurance approval. I was on clear liquids for a week after surgery. Next came a week of “other” liquids (pureed soups, runny mashed potatoes, etc). Then soft foods (custards, eggs, soft meats). Then onto “regular” food. Everyone has different tolerances; chicken was my mortal enemy for a while, yet I could eat steak with no difficulties. Today, you’d never know I had the surgery. I don’t eat sugar, lots of “white” or processed carbs, a little rice & pasta, hardly any white bread. I eat like a “normal” person eats.
I cannot stress the the helpfulness of www.obesityhelp.com If you’re not a member yet, I suggest you join up (free). There is a world of information there including various boards (DS, RNY, lapband, men, grads, and even a board for complications, which you should be aware of as well). The link to my personal profile there is - Pamela Porter's Weight Loss Surgery Support Wall
If I can answer any questions, please feel free to ask them here, or email me.
Absolutely. My surgeon required a psychiatric evaluation before even going forward, along with a boatload of other tests (cardiac, pulmonary, sleep, etc)
Thank you for the links and good wishes, Saw your Before and After shots, looking good. Sorry to read you are having problems with picture thieves. I am probably going to bed soon so I will have a closer look at Obesity help tommorow.
I also looked up my BMI, 43.3 from three different sites. Does that mean anything besides extreamly obese??
Basically, anyone more than 100 pounds overweight or with a BMI of more than 40 is considered a candidate for weight loss surgery.
When you are talking about that degree of obesity, it is very rare for someone to be able to lose it through conventional diet and exercise, much less maintain teh weight loss for life.
I am a medical student and we just had a lecture today on the topic of weight loss and weight loss surgery. Only about 10% of people who start on a diet are still compliant with it a year later, so just imagine how few people can truly make a lifelong change without any backsliding.
I myself have had a weight loss procedure known as the Lap-Band back in 2003. I have lost about 160 pounds thanks to it. I chose to go with the lap-band for a few simple reasons. First and foremost, it has a much lower mortality rate than the bypass surgery (the statistic I was given today at my lecture is that the lap-band surgery has a 0.1% risk of death whereas the gastric bypass has a 1% risk of death). The band is also easily reversible, since it is just a band that goes over the stomach that can be easily taken off if necessary, whereas trying to reverse a gastric bypass can be a risky procedure.
This webpage shows a diagram to explain what the band does exactly: http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com/tecmain.html
It has worked out very, very well for me. My life is pretty normal now and many days I don’t even think about having the band…I just have the happy side effect that I feel full on much, much less food than I used to.
If you think you might be interested in the lapband you can find a lot of people who have had the procedure done here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com
I had a Roux-En-Y procedure done on Fat Tuesday in 1998. The laproscopic procedure was not done here then so the surgery was very painful. I was 5’3" and weighed 300 lbs. They had me back on my feet – despite my protests – the next day.
I began losing right away. It just seemed to melt away. When I began to shop for new clothes, I always tried on clothes that were too big. I think I lost 100 pounds in ten months. Eventually, I lost a total of 150 pounds that I have kept off.
At one point I did begin to regain because of a compulsion to eat. My psychiatrist put me on a medicine called Topamax. That helped me to cut back on compulsive behaviors such as eating, smoking and shopping. I smoke only half a pack a day.
I did quit smoking completely before I had the surgery, but took it up again afterwards. I think I could quit altogether if I put my mind to it since I am taking the medication for compulsive behaviors. (My eating didn’t have anything to do with a lack of discipline. Compulsion is a very different thing.)
I breathe better and my blood pressure is lower. I feel like doing more things. Of course, I can walk now. Before, I couldn’t walk across a department store without stopping.
The biggest change is in my “self-talk.” I don’t think abusively about myself anymore. And I don’t entertain the negative thoughts of other people about me.
This was the best decision that I’ve made for myself.
I had tried many other ways of losing weight and was successful at losing. But I always regained.
I eat almost anything that I want to eat, but I eat small portions. If I overeat, there is hell to pay. I take a lot of food home from restaurants.
Are there any long-term studies on this procedure? Can anyone say with any accuracy what life might be like for you 20 or 30 years down the line?
The relative newness of the procedure scares me, but in your shoes I might go ahead with it none the less. Being obese is a tremendous barrier in life. Then again, I might give dieting one last shot. As you implied earlier, isn’t GB just enforced dieting? From what I’ve read, you’ll feel sick if you take more than 2 or 3 bites quickly, so you’re going to be uncomfortable, sightly hungry and inconvenienced your entire life. You really could do that with a life-long diet. But if you just can’t manage to do it with a diet, then I’d risk the complications of surgury.
My best friend of 10 years is 150+ pounds over weight and it just kills me every time she loses some weight and then goes off a diet. She’ll resume her normal over eating within days. Then she’s disappointed because the weight loss was temporary. I’ve been though so many of these cycles with her. There’s this “now I’m done!” feeling at the end of a diet that is so deceiving. Everyone has to regulate their weight their whole life though, one way or another. I’ve often thought that diets wear her down, and that there’s this vast, complex psychology of obesity that I just can’t understand (I’ve been thin since I can remember). She won’t get the surgury, though I wish she would. It’s the biggest issue in her life. Good luck whatever you decide.
IANAD, but its not that new. My grandfather had the surgery when I was a senior in HS, and I graduated in 1986. They combined it with gall bladder surgery. It was not laproscopic then.
He threw up, a lot, for a few years, but the weight came right off him. He was quite clear that he threw up when he ate too much, though, and accepted it as the price of having done so. He’s 76 now. (Yes, my grandfather is quite young, my father was an adopted older child, so there’s only 12 years difference in their ages.) It stayed off, too - and my 20 year HS reunion is this year.
He did regain just a little bit, maybe 10-20 lbs, from his “perfect weight”, but chemo last year took that off and he’s keeping it off. (Cancer totally unrelated to the surgery, BTW, and he’s in remission and doing great now.)
So just my anecdotal experience, but 20 years later Grandaddy is doing just fine.
I’ve never had gastric bypass but I know several people who have. For most, it’s worked at making them lose weight and keep most of it off.
But I know two people who are back at the weight they had before (or at least the volume). One of them is a doctor and he has real trouble waddling through doors. Both of them have always eaten their fill or more (they’ll scrounge up every last bit on the plate and use bread to wipe the last drops of soup). GB makes your stomach smaller - but if you fill it every single time, it grows back up.
Can you eat less than your fill? If you can’t, GB won’t really help.
Obesity is a *mental * problem, not a physical problem. When a person ops for GS, they are applying a physical solution to a mental problem. The mental problem remains after the surgery.
Completely agree.
One of the problems with diets is that people think of them as temporary. They say, “I’m going to go on this diet and lose 30 lbs.” That’s not the way it works. Losing weight and keeping it off requires a permanent lifestyle change. Most fat people are not willing to make permanent lifestyle change in their eating habits.
I had gastric bypass surgery November 2003. This is not something that you should enter into lightly. It is not an ‘easy way out’ option. For me it was a life and death situation not only related to weight. If there had been other options I would have taken them.
Requirements vary depending on insurance companies. The main requirement is at least 75-80 pounds overweight, with at least two co-morbidities. You have to prove that you have been on a doctor supervised diet for at least six months, most insurance companies want a year, and this has to be proof not just your say so. The battery of tests that you are put through will ensure that you are serious about the surgery. Most doctors require that you stop smoking and they can test you for nicotine in your system to make sure that you have stopped. Some doctors require you quit three months before surgery, my doctor required a year.
I was out of work six weeks, could have easily gone back after two but wasn’t sure what to ask for. I’ve had no problems other than dumping. I can’t do sugar it makes me sick. You will have to constantly watch your diet. You can regain the weight, not because you can eat a lot at one time, but you can ‘graze’ all day and gain the weight back. I have friends that have gained at least 40 pounds back.
You will have to exercise at least three times a week. You will have to get in a minimum of 60 grams of protein a day and 96 ounces of water each day. If not you will suffer from muscle breakdown and dehydration. This is not self-choice this is a has to deal. Multivitamins every day, B-12 and a calcium supplement, bloodwork done at least once a year are givens for life.
This surgery saved my life. No doubt. I was on 13 pills a day, with other health problems that I won’t go into. I have lost 145 pounds and have maintained my goal weight now for over a year and a half. I keep my eye on that scale. Two pounds and I’m increasing exercise and checking the diet. I won’t gain it back because I won’t let myself get there again.
One thing to consider…you don’t absorb food/meds like normal people and there are a lot of medications you cannot take, especially pill form, because they don’t stay in your system long enough or they will errode your tummy.
Lots of things to consider. This is not easy, but it does give you a starting place, which is what I needed. It will always be a constant in your life and you will have to work on it daily, just like normal size people have to work at theirs.
Only consider this as your last resort.
I had gastric bypass surgery (laproscopic) done 6 1/2 weeks ago. I am 5’2" tall and weighed close to 260 lbs. For five years I had suffered from type II diabetes. My knees were killing me.
My dieting history began in fourth grade when my pediatrician put me on Tenuate diet pills. Since then my weight has been up and down…mostly up from my early 20’s on. I was slender in high school and college, then got married and whoosh…the more badly he treated me the fatter I got.
As an adult, I have had exactly two reprieves…losing enough weight to be considered slender. I have the curse of “a pretty face”, so people would always say, “You have such a pretty face…” Yeah. I know when they trailed off what they were thinking. “If only you could lose some weight.”
I have been on hundreds of diets. No one could ever hate me more than I have hated myself. “If I only had more willpower…”, “If only…”. Yeah. I have enough willpower that my second marriage is a success, that I returned to college and graduated Summa Cum Laude, that I own a successful business that just celebrated it’s tenth anniversary…that I am worthy of good friends… Only the fat was/is my obsession and no matter what else is/was good in my life the fat negated it. It held me back…it’s been my demon.
Earlier this year I decided that I’d had enough. I didn’t want to live anothe day fat. I couldn’t diet anymore…I just lost hope. So, I cut my wrists.
Thank God I didn’t succeed in killing myself. My husband and I decided that I was going to have this surgery even though our insurance company had turned us down for the past year. “Why have money if you can’t spend it on what you need?” he said. So we paid close to $30,000 out of pocket.
Prior to the operation, I had several meetings with the surgeon, a psychologist and registered dietician.
The surgeon told me that for a few days following the surgery I would feel as though I’d been hit by a truck. He was right. I hurt like a son of a bitch, but they were not stingy at all with the pain medication.
Even though it hurt, I was up and sitting in a chair the evening of the surgery. The next morning, I was walking up and down the halls. It wasn’t easy, but, hey, I wanted to get out of the hospital ASAP.
They kept me for four days because I had a 101 + fever that just wouldn’t go down. One of the things they were concerned about was pnemonia, so I had to blow into this respiratory exercise thing-y every hour. That hurt! But, it had to be done…
By the third day, the IV was the thing that hurt the most! They took out the drain in my belly which felt weird…like a giant snake they were pulling from my guts. But, I have to admit, I laughed when the surgeon did it. (I love my surgeon…he’s got talent and bedside manner which I appreciate very much!)
My blood sugar levels dropped considerably, from the 260’s to the 150’s then the 130’s…some days to as low as 113. Something strange did happen. I didn’t wear my contact lenses in the hospital (I wear gas permeables). Oh, I had my glasses, but didn’t wear them much because there wasn’t anything I wanted to see that clearly. (I couldn’t concentrate enough to watch television or read.) When I did put my glasses on, I noticed that things looked fuzzy, but chalked that up to the pain meds.
But, when I got home and put my contacts back in I noticed that things were really, really, really fuzzy. I tried putting my glasses on on top of the contacts and things were much clearer. So, off I go ASAP to the opthalmologist who said that my prescription had nearly tripled. Turns out that high blood sugars swell the lenses in your eye up. The low sugars had changed the lenses in my eyes. So, I am still going back to the opthalmologist nearly every week getting a new eyeglass prescription. Thankfully the prescription is going back to where I originally was. But, you should have seen the Coke bottle lenses on the glasses I had to wear the first couple of weeks post-op.
I only took pain pills for a few days after I got home and that was only late at night. I had trouble sleeping for the first few weeks as well. But that passed. I think it’s because I couldn’t lie on my left side or on my stomach and I’m a stomach sleeper. But, that passed as well. Now I can lie on my tummy.
Right now, I am “weirded out” with the changes in my body. I have completely lost my appetite. I have to force myself to eat the foods the dietician has recommended for me. It’s hard to believe. ME? Not hungry? Wow.
My pants size has gone from a 24 to a 20 and my shoe size has gone from a 7 1/2 to a 6 1/2. That’s after losing just over 40 lbs. Unbelievable.
I went back to work a week after the surgery. But I have a home office, so I was able to quit when I was tired.
I am a clinical psychologist, and as part of my work I do psychological evaluations for clients who are considering gastric bypass surgery. Although people who are obese are more likely to suffer from psychiatric illnesses such as depression than those who are not obese, obesity itself is not a psychiatric illness. Your statement makes no sense.
I’m about this far → ← from taking you to the Pit over this. Not all obesity is caused by overeating (i. e. gluttony). Medication got the ball rolling for me, as well as my wife. Inactivity as a result of a physical problem such as arthritis is another. Non-diabetic endocrine problems are a third.
Mix that with a culture that rewards sedentary lifestyles, and your statement about obesity being a mental problem begins to reek of the stuff that comes from the north end of a southbound bovine.
My boss, co-workers and friends are treating me with newfound respect. My only regret is that i didn’t choose to have the surgery a few years ago.