Algae

What were you told prior to surgery about life after surgery that was not entirely true or was not the entire story?
Although I feel that my Dr's seminar was very informative as well as this message board, there are many aspects of my new life I was not prepared for. I was not prepared for how easily eating something that doesn't agree with me can take me out with such intense pain for hours. How feeling full is now in my chest not in my belly. How incredibly important it is to stay hydrated.

What do you wish you had fully understood prior to surgery that you did not and what do you believe would have put you in the best possible position to succeed after surgery?
As I stated before, the Doctor was very informative and I am extremely happy that I choose to have the surgery. And it has been stated here many times but I still to this day have a hard time wrapping my head round it. NEITHER THIS SURGERY NOR THE WEIGHT LOSS WILL MAKE YOU LIFE BETTER!!!!! OMG I cannot stress it enough and am still struggling with it. Now I am just a much thinner me but struggling with poor eating habits and all my other vices that I have had for decades. It didn't improve my marriage, my parenting skills or my relationship with others. It is a weight loss tool and that is all it is. You still have to do the hard work.

What information, if any, was missing in the lead-up to your surgery that gave you unreasonable expectations or that led to disappointment in the months or years since surgery?
None that I can think of.

I'll be subscribing to this thread. Thank you for bringing this up. I am pre surgery but I have an interesting prospective. I have been feeling a bit like an imposter my entire process for getting qualified for surgery. This, WLS, is supposed to be the like the last house on the block. We were supposed to have tried and failed miserably at the weight loss thing and never had any long term success at losing weight, but this has not been my exact story.
In 2005, I lost 140# without surgery. I discovered that I have a sensitivity to gluten and sugar and I stopped eating junk food. I didn't exercise but the weight literally fell off my body. I was lighter than I had been my entire adult life. I went from 320# to180# in about 8 months probably averaging about the same clip as a bypass patient I'm imagining. I had some feelings of euphoria, but mostly I felt like a live electrical wire. My comfy fat, my safe place to hide from the world was suddenly gone and I felt as if I was practically electrocuted if I would even brush by furniture too hard. I had trouble sleeping with the new sensations of my knees, ankles and toes rubbing together aching for their familiar cushion and I felt horribly uncomfortable if anything including clothes touched my newly discovered clavicles. I cried at random and inconvenient intervals. I stayed at this low weight for a VERY short time and hovered comfortably at 200 for many many years.
I was never prepared for and have never heard ppl taking about how to just be and reside in a body, newly formed and considerably smaller. How do we really listen and hear and feel in a body with new sensations and dimensions? How do we become like the normies I call them, those people who never ever gain weight while we constantly were ballooning up and dieting down the scale?
What were/are we to do with our one life outside of food? I know I have the tendency to want the newer, sexier, more interesting route to any destination, like success with even WLS can't just be about plain old (following the prescribed) diet and exercise, can it? I'm still wondering if the surgery is just the newest thing for me. I switched my surgical consideration from sleeve to bypass for this very reason. Because if I'm going to do it, I need to go old school. With me it had to be vegan, raw, paleo and Crossfit. Zero to sixty. Never just walking, always training for the half.
What happens when the proverbial dust settles and it's not about the food anymore and the weight is lost? When the life I thought weight loss or this surgery would fix is still going forward unchanged? Sitting in this empty space with myself without support and resources or a clue is what made maintenance so elusive and probably so for most people who've lost massive amounts of weight with or without surgery and gained it back. Will having had a glimpse of being thin for a while make me a better bariatric patient, more compliant? Perhaps, or maybe not but at this stage in the game I can't take anything for granted but these are the questions that are clearer in hindsight and that I need to formulate a plan for now on this side of surgery.

@@Sara Kelly Keenan LC Thank you for this topic. At my support group everyone was all champagne and roses and I know life isnt like that. I am a planner by nature so I like to think thing through and plan for the good and the bad. I am scared and overwhelmed at the possible path of my new life. I want to hear all kinds of stories...both good and bad so I can know what I am getting into. I know I will struggle greatly at loosing my best friend (food) so the more I can work through it now the better. My final appointment to submit to insurance is about 2 weeks away. Thanks

Last night I attended the bariatric support group meeting of my local medical group. There were 35 people in the room including a staff nutritionist and the Procedure Scheduling Coordinator. The attendees fell mostly into three groups.


The first group were people going through the process of being approved for surgery. The second group had received surgery recently and were in the first few months of reducing. The third group were people who had surgery about a year ago and had lost a substantial amount of weight. And then there was me. I was the only one there who'd had WLS more than a year ago (2003 is certainly more than a year ago!).
As I listened to the discussion, what struck me was that the main voices in the room were those in the honeymoon period. Most speakers were less than a year out from their surgery, had lost a tremendous amount of weight and were very euphoric.
The theme that dominated the session was that it is smart for the prospective patient and those in the first few months post-surgery to surround themselves with people who have only positive things to say about their WLS, only read positive message boards and blogs, and keep away from any 'negative' perspectives.
I make a point of spending time on message boards where people are struggling with their weight-loss surgery. I need to be able to understand their challenges in addition to those I have personally faced. As a Life Coach I need to see why and how people struggle and how they get beyond it. In addition to benefiting me professionally, this helps me on my own journey to maintain my goal weight when my old thoughts and behavior patterns re-appear.
I spoke up to the group last night because I think it's important for all of us to focus not only on the positive, but also to acknowledge the land-mines that anyone can experience after weight-loss surgery. Otherwise, the opportunity is lost to learn from the struggles of others and avoid avoidable pit-falls.
Weight loss surgery is an amazing tool for change, but it isn't good for everyone. Attention to some peoples' bad post-surgical experiences is an opportunity to balance the information given (or not given) by the those with an economic incentive to sell surgery. For example, at last night's meeting there was a woman (who has been approved for surgery in November) talking about how she looked forward to the end surgery would bring to her desire to eat in stressful situations. The professionals in the room were silent.
I said to this woman, "Many weight-loss surgery patients still battle the tendency to eat when stressed." I told her that she shouldn't expect the surgery to eliminate the desire to eat when stressed and that it would be wise to begin to create strategies now for dealing with her stress after surgery.
I told her that in my experience and in the experience of many of my clients, the stressful situations that triggered the desire to eat in the past are still very present after weight-loss surgery. With the loss of food as an ally and a slimming body that can feel vulnerable and unprotected in the world many turn to drugs or alcohol or force unhealthy foods down their throats looking for a de-stressor or comfort.
Last night's discussion leads me to ask you, the BariatricPal veteran, the following questions:
What were you told prior to surgery about life after surgery that was not entirely true or was not the entire story?

What do you wish you had fully understood prior to surgery that you did not and what do you believe would have put you in the best possible position to succeed after surgery?

What information, if any, was missing in the lead-up to your surgery that gave you unreasonable expectations or that led to disappointment in the months or years since surgery?
I don't pose these questions to be negative, I want as many people as possible to succeed with their surgeries! I want to clear the air and "add to the record" about what weight-loss surgery does and what it will NEVER do.
So, those of you who have had surgery, what do you want those considering surgery to know?

I'm actually a stay at home mom, but my hubby works at Baker Hughes.
I'm excited for you!! And me!! Lol
Let me know when you hear the good news!! ( :

Earlier this year an intriguing new study provided all of us working in industry with some invaluable insights into the link between depression and obesity.
Conducted by Dr Aurelie M Lasserre of Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, the study revealed that the atypical subtype of major depressive disorder is linked to greater risk of obesity; a link that’s not found in other subtypes of the illness.
The Study
The study was a prospective population-based cohort study that included 3,000 randomly selected Lausanne residents with a mean age of 50 years-old (53% women).
At baseline, 7.5% of the 3,000 participants met the criteria for MDD, with 37% having had a previous major depressive episode. Of these, about 10% experienced atypical depression and melancholic episodes, while 14% experienced purely atypical episodes.
The Findings
Dr Aurelie M Lasserre and her team found that the subjects who experienced atypical episodes of MDD tended to have a higher increase in adiposity [fat] than those with MDD, and were nearly four times more likely to be obese.
"For the clinician, the atypical subtype deserves particular attention, because this subtype is a strong predictor of adiposity," reported Dr. Lasserre. "Accordingly, the screening of atypical features and, in particular, increased appetite in individuals with depression is crucial."
The report, published in JAMA Psychiatry came to the conclusion that atypical MDD is a strong predicator of obesity, while those with melancholic, combined, or unspecified major depressive disorder (MDD) showed no greater risk for fat-mass gain than those without any form of MDD. The researchers found no evidence for medication or physical activity affecting the link between adiposity and atypical MDD.
“This study emphasises the need to identify individuals with this subtype of MDD in both clinical and research settings,” wrote Dr. Lasserre. “Therapeutic measures to diminish the consequences of increased appetite during depressive episodes with atypical features are strongly advocated.”