Tonight, I went to the bimonthly support group meeting at Palmetto Richland. One of my contacts where I used to post at the Bariatric Eating message board told me about it, and now I've attended three times.
There was a disproportionate number of lapband people there, which made it somewhat less useful for me. However, the biggest news is that there were two eight-year RNY post-ops. Wow! It was amazing listening and learning from them.
One of them had a lot of complications from her surgery which were, according to her, brought on by mistakes made by her first surgeon. I have no idea what kind of complications she had or what mistakes he may have made. What was fascinating is that she said that even after seven additional abdominal surgeries to correct various problems, she would still choose to have the surgery because now, she has a life. That is a powerful testament to the wonders of this surgery.
At eight years out, she's had minimal regain. You can tell she has a lot of excess skin, but she is still normal-sized. She works out regularly and eats according to the same diet she started off with eight years ago. She said that even 8 years after surgery, she still feels like she doesn't belong in regular clothing stores!
I found this woman very inspirational.
The other eight-year post-op had a lot of interesting - but scary - thoughts to contribute. She lost over 120 pounds after the surgery but regained 50, and has since lost over 20 pounds of her rebound weight. Her dad also had the surgery but has regained all of his weight. He can eat just as much now as he could pre-op! Her main point is that the further out you get, the less the surgery does for you. She feels like she's on her own again. This wasn't my first time hearing this from a long-term post-op, but it's still jarring.
Because regain is my worst nightmare, I found most of this post-op's comments horrifying instead of inspiring. One positive thing she said was that she still no longer eats certain "bad" foods like pasta, white bread, and rice. She isn't even tempted by them.
Of course, this begs the question - if you were eating right, why did you regain 50 pounds? Is some regain inevitable?
I don't think it's inevitable, but statistically, it's likely. Most WLS patients regain between 10 and 20% of what they lose. It's sobering, yes...but it doesn't stop me from wanting to go forward (my surgery is next Tuesday). Even if I do have a bounce back, I am going to be in a much better situation than I am now. And I can lose 20, 30, maybe even 40 lbs "on my own", once the surgery stops being as helpful as it is at first. But I can't lose 200 lbs on my own, which is what I am dealing with now.
ReplyDeleteOh Kelly, congratulations on your upcoming surgery! You are right of course - I mean, the goal should be to stop being morbidly obese for health reasons. I remember that before surgery, I would have been thrilled just to get close to 200. Now I'm aiming much lower than that. It's funny how you get addicted to the idea of becoming "skinny" once you get started.
ReplyDeleteI think once I get to goal I'll be okay with regaining 10-15% of what I lost. I just don't want to be one of those who regains 50+ pounds.