Written by Melinda
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
“Do you regret having gastric bypass surgery?”
This question was presented in a similar fashion recently on another forum. Many of the folks (except 2) were less than 3 yrs post-op. And of those folks, under one year post-op. They are in the “everything is great! I feel great! Weight loss is great! Wow, this is great!” mode. (Gawsh I wish I had those days back). The weight is melting from their still obese bodies and they feel it is the best thing they have ever done. I don’t blame them! I was that way too.
But, we’re not talking about other people’s responses. You came here to read about ME, Recovering Fatty. And, here is MY answer. Before you read further, however, I must tell you that there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. I’m not advocating a right or wrong way… I’m just going to lay out all the thoughts inside my head on the subject.
First, my answer is: Yes. No. Yes. No. No, yes yes no!!!! ACK~! You’re confusing me!! It’s too late in the day to make my head hurt!
In other words, the answer depends… it varies… on WHAT? On how I feel and what kind of day I am having!
Perhaps the entire post should have been prefaced with this statement: “I am a person who is easily swayed by feelings/emotions. I change my mind and opinions as often as the weather in Missouri changes!” There are days I feel great and have lots going on. I may be meeting with other wls folks, and feel a tremendous surge of support and be on top of the world! And then there are days when my neuropathy rears its ugly head and I am reminded of how I was treated at the neurologist’s office. I wonder “What have I done to myself long term by having wls?” And, a few weeks ago, I had a real sober awakening that REALLY caused me to do some thinking.
I met a new online friend. Come to find out, she lives near me. We met at Starbucks (Hi, Heather if you’re reading this!). She’s much farther out from surgery than me (6 yrs). As we drank our coffee, she shared her health issues that were a DIRECT result of having RNY gastric bypass. She, too has been to many doctors who either (a) don’t know how to help or (b) won’t help her because they don’t want to “own” the fact that wls had anything to do with it. She feels that she might be viewed as “negative”. To someone who just showed up on her blog, and didn’t read enough posts, oh sure maybe they could come up with that conclusion. But to spend five minutes with her, HECK NO! She is one of the sweetest level headed folks I’ve met in a long time. And, she wants to get her information out there to help others who ARE already experiencing or may experience vitamin deficiencies.
My answer today is that yes, I am glad for wls. It helped change my life. Today, however, I feel pretty good except for the tingling in my right foot. I also feel relieved after having met with Dr. S.Y. Ghodsian ( Dr. Bariatric) at the Vegas M&G, who went over my lab work and wrote down exactly the labs I need to ask my physician to order. I shared my history, especially with the foot drop/neuropathy and neurologist who basically thought I was crazy. He said that it was a good thing I had met with a neurologist who ruled out MS and other neurological disorders. I now have a good idea of how to proceed at this point with my vitamin troubles.
But had you asked me a few weeks ago, after having met Heather and hearing of her deficiencies, and then fearing my own outcome… I must admit that I was questioning this wls thing. I sat across the table from Heather and I asked, “Are you my future?” We both come to the conclusion, we hope not.
But for today… Yes. And, as Tim prefers to remind me: I had health issues prior to my wls. It seems I’ve just traded one set of health problems for another set.
