Monday, August 18, 2008

Thinking about gastric bypass surgery? Think again!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26076054/ Sure made my 6-day-old Nutri-System diet a lot less odious!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jay, I'm a long time reader, but this article made me want to finally post. For one thing, it's highly slanted toward the negative. And yes, there could be definite problems afterwards. What they don't really cover in the article is how much of the weight regain/illness was a result of what the patient did or didn't do as opposed to a failing of the surgery.

FYI: I had gastric bypass 3.5 years ago. Prior to the surgery I researched, researched, researched. Then, 6 months with a nutritionist and counseling. This is not a quick fix. Surgery works, but only if patients act proactive by taking control of their diet, exercise habits and mental outlook.

I've never had a problem (other than those of my own doing), I exercise daily and I'm still at my lowest after surgery weight. My sleep apnea is gone, off of blood pressure and diabetes meds, and my energy is through the roof. It takes effort and, I kid you not, it is a daily struggle to do the right thing.

As far as divorce statistics, a lot of pre-ops had difficulties to begin with, but may have lacked the confidence to do anything about it. My husband married me at my largest, but we still act like newlyweds.

Didn't mean to hijack your blog post, but if someone was considering surgery this article could scare the poop out of them. Research, ask questions, make the right choice for you.

Jay Moreno said...

I'm truly happy for you.

However, from the statistics I've seen, and from personally knowing three females in one household in Kingsland who have all had the surgery and knowing of the problems they've had, with all due respect to your research and taking control, I doubt very seriously that any of that had any thing whatsoever to do with your better outcome. More likely, you had a more skilled surgeon than most. In that sense, you were just plain lucky.

With the exception of cosmetic plastic surgery, I doubt that there is any other type of surgery where such a high incidence of morbidity would allow the practitioners to stay in business.

Frankly, this article SHOULD scare the poop out of them.