Upon sharing some of my articles with a few friends, one in particular approached me after noticing the piece I did on Gastric Bypass Surgery. Revealing to me what I had never known, she opened up about her experiences with Weight Loss Surgery. The short term success, the long term complications, and her own look back on the past and how important it was that she should have listened to her doctor’s advice, maybe paid more attention to the classes she took post-op. In general, being able to go attend and change her way of thinking… that she was an exception to the rule. She requested that I write this article for her, so she can share it with her friends and fellow surgery patients with the hopes that maybe someone will peer the light at the waste of the tunnel before it’s too late to change their post-surgery habits.
After jumping at the chance to do an interview with Rebecca, a 40-year old mother of 2 from North Carolina, we made plans to get the ball rolling. My first step was to read a few posts of hers in a Yahoo Group that she is subscribed to that allows people who have undergone Weight Loss Surgeries to meet and part their stories with each other. Gaining some basic knowledge of the road she traveled that brought her to the point she is at now, I realized that I knew almost nothing of the surgery in particular that she underwent. So, I spelunked around the internet trying to gain information about Distal RnY Weight Loss Surgery. After almost an hour of searching, I came away nearly empty handed. Only one page offered any insight to the surgery at all, and it still didn’t give me more than a small handful for this interview. So I went through and read the article again. And I was able to glean one small piece of information from it, the actual name of the type of surgery that Rebecca went through. Roux-en-Y (RnY). This opened up the gateway quite a bit, and I was able to pick up the following information about the surgery itself.
It turns out that the Roux-en-Y surgery is one of the most popular types of Weight Loss Surgery performed (hard to fathom when I had such a hard time obtaining information about it). A person who hasn’t undergone this surgery uses a normal function for digestion. Ingested food enters the stomach, then travels to the small, then large, intestines. Someone who hasn’t had Weight Loss Surgery is able to eat larger portions of food because the small intestine is able to absorb more fat and calories than a person who has had the surgery. This form of Gastric Bypass Surgery creates a small pouch in the stomach that restricts the patient from being able to consume as much food as they had before. Sometimes the surgery is commenced with a rather large incision across the abdomen, or in the case of Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y surgery, five smaller incisions are made in the patient’s belly.
The small pouch that is created in the stomach can be done with either a plastic band, or by methods of stapling. Once the pouch is created, it is connected to the middle part of the small intestine, bypassing the duodenum, or the beginning portion of the small intestine that connects to the stomach. The duodenum spot of the small intestine is the portion that absorbs fats and calories that you ingest. With this place bypassed, and the connecting area from the stomach pouch to the newly bypassed area of the limited intestine being so limited, you will be able to reduce the amount of fats and calories that you can bear, aiding in the loss of unwanted weight. And, with the connecting dwelling being its new size, it will also win longer for the food that you eat to fully reach the small intestine, making you feel fuller longer. Most pouches created are around 6 oz. in general, compared to normal stomachs that range from 24 oz. to 64 oz. The Distal part of the surgery comes into play when the amount of minute intestine that has to be bypassed is determined. Proximal RnY is performed when there is less than 150 cm. of intestine to be bypassed, although I have found a few links claiming it to be less than 100 cm. Distal RnY is the procedure used when more than the 150 cm. (or 100 cm., depending on what site you are looking at) of the small intestine has to be bypassed in order for the stomach to connect to an area that has bypassed the complete duodenum.
Before commencing the interview with Rebecca, let me suggest that you take a look at her story by clicking here (I put this on my blog for myspace to protect her privacy; messenger ID’s and e-mail addresses that were previously shown before I moved it). This will give you an overview of what her journey has been like, and might retort some questions that I don’t ask her during this interview.
CP: What was the final event in your life that convinced you to choose Weight Loss Surgery as an option?
Being 26 years old-fashioned and wanting to be able to participate in my children’s lives instead of participating from the sidelines. Besides, when you can no longer fit into the booths at a fast food restaurant, that is a pleasing good sign that you need some help.
CP: What other avenues had you explored before settling on Weight Loss Surgery?
Diet pills, Weight Watchers, pretty much every type of weight loss program that was available. None of these processes were successful for me, I would lose 10 pounds with one and then fetch 15 back on binge eating.
CP: Was the surgery covered by your insurance company?
Absolutely. I had to meet my out of pocket, and the rest was covered entirely. If I had met my deductions prior to the surgery, it would have been 100% covered.
CP: How much did the surgery cost, total?
I never really saw the bills, but if I’m not mistaken my surgery was $21,000 to $22,000 back in the 90′s.
CP: What kind of pre-op information did you receive before you went under?
That’s the net. I went into this absolutely blind without any information or education about what to expect. No one I knew had the surgery, and in fact I was the first person in my area to have it done, and a lot of it was trial and error.
CP: Were you linked to any support groups before you had the surgery performed?
Again, absolutely nothing.
CP: Briefly give an overview of the injure you felt after the surgery, how long it lasted, how it was eased.
Basically, the actual incision site for a while, but the psychological harm lasted a whole lot longer than any of the short term pains from the surgery. I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t eat so a lot of it was anger at not being able to keep anything down. For the first 2 years, the only food that I could keep down was stewed tomatoes and beets.
CP: How much weight did you initially lose after the surgery, and what was the lowest it dropped to?
I started at 326 lbs. and dropped to 204 lbs, which was my lowest point.
CP: At what point did you start to gain the weight back? Are you mild under your pre-surgery weight from years ago?
I’m still under within at least 25 pounds from my pre-surgery weight. Probably in my 6th or 7th year, I would gain 10 lbs and still be able to lose it. But once I packed on 30 lbs, it was downhill from there.
CP: What was the most difficult thing for you to endure after the surgery (change in diet, energy level, etc.)?
The hardest thing to deal with was psychologically wanting to eat like everyone else, but only being able to eat 2 or 3 spoonfuls.
CP: What is the worst long term complication that you have had since the surgery?
Anemia, definately. Pernicious anemia, along with iron deficiency anemia. With these types of deficiencies, I have to go to the hospital for 8 hours every 3 to 4 months for iron infusions.
CP: If you had the chance to do the surgery again, would you go for it?
I honestly don’t think I would, not with the health problems I am enduring now. I’m obese again, but on top of that I have a lot of health problems that I didn’t have before.
CP: What would be the most important thing you could tell someone who is looking to go for the surgery?
Do your homework. Talk to others who have had the procedures done. Go into this with an open mind, thinking that this is going to be no picnic. If you have no clue what you are going into before the surgery, you will wake up one day and think “Oh my Lord, what have I done to myself? “
For those who are indeed looking into Weight Loss Surgeries, please make distinct that you are well informed of what you are getting into before you proceed. Not all scenarios end in this way, but it has been proven that not everyone can successfully lose the weight after the surgery and manage to keep it off. Sticking to a strict diet as prescribed by your doctor, making sure that you are eating at regular intervals and not “grazing” (eating randomly with no set meal in mind, such as snacking), and exercising can set you on the right path to Weight Loss Surgery success.
If you have found this article helpful, feel free to pass it on to friends who are looking for Weight Loss Surgery options.
Related Posts
Filed under Stomach Stapling Risks by on Sep 6th, 2011. 
If you are trying to lose weight but have tried countless diets and various workout regimens only to not receive the results you are looking for, looking into different weight loss surgery types could be the answer you need. Not everyone will experience success when dieting or exercising so they decide to turn to surgery to remove excess fat from their body.
There are a variety of different weight loss surgeries available today for people needing to purchase excess fat from their body. One important fact is that doctors do not recommend weight loss surgery as the only diagram of losing weight. It should be used to target suspect areas of the body that cannot have fat removed by just dieting and exercising.
One of the most popular surgeries available today is the restrictive surgery. This procedure includes making a person’s stomach smaller by removing a section of the stomach or closing it’s a section off to limit the amount of food that can enter the stomach. This means that you will become fuller quicker and will eat less food. This can support to slice your weight and help you remove fat from your body. Other weight loss surgeries include stomach stapling, a tummy tuck, liposuction and grand more.
No matter what the procedure is, doctors recommend that you should not expend weight loss surgery as your main method of losing weight. Why? It is unhealthy. If you have exhausted all other methods to losing weight then one of these procedures might be best for you. Doctors will not perform these procedures on people that are grossly overweight. Instead, doctors will perform one of these procedures to help someone that is in generally good health.
People eligible for these types of weight loss surgeries include those that are in good health, that are not grossly overweight, they do not have a heart predicament, they do not have a blood flow problem and they have exhausted all other weight loss options. These types of surgeries are not cheap either.
They cost anywhere from $2,000-$5,000 apiece and are not covered by health insurance because they are considered cosmetic by health insurance companies. For a handful of these procedures, a patient will have to have it performed by a cosmetic surgeon; not their normal physician. So, if you are considered weight loss surgery, make clear your health is in tip top condition and you have money saved for such a plot.
Related Posts
Filed under Stomach Stapling Risks by on Apr 27th, 2011.
If you are trying to lose weight but have tried countless diets and various workout regimens only to not receive the results you are looking for, looking into different weight loss surgery types could be the answer you need. Not everyone will experience success when dieting or exercising so they decide to turn to surgery to remove excess fat from their body.
There are a variety of different weight loss surgeries available today for people needing to remove excess fat from their body. One important fact is that doctors do not recommend weight loss surgery as the only method of losing weight. It should be feeble to target suspect areas of the body that cannot have fat removed by just dieting and exercising.
One of the most popular surgeries available today is the restrictive surgery. This procedure includes making a person’s stomach smaller by removing a section of the stomach or closing it’s a fragment off to limit the amount of food that can enter the stomach. This means that you will become fuller quicker and will eat less food. This can help to crop your weight and attend you remove fat from your body. Other weight loss surgeries include stomach stapling, a tummy tuck, liposuction and worthy more.
No matter what the procedure is, doctors recommend that you should not use weight loss surgery as your main method of losing weight. Why? It is unhealthy. If you have exhausted all other methods to losing weight then one of these procedures might be best for you. Doctors will not perform these procedures on people that are grossly overweight. Instead, doctors will perform one of these procedures to help someone that is in generally good health.
People eligible for these types of weight loss surgeries include those that are in excellent health, that are not grossly overweight, they do not have a heart problem, they do not have a blood flow problem and they have exhausted all other weight loss options. These types of surgeries are not cheap either.
They cost anywhere from $2,000-$5,000 apiece and are not covered by health insurance because they are considered cosmetic by health insurance companies. For a handful of these procedures, a patient will have to have it performed by a cosmetic surgeon; not their normal physician. So, if you are considered weight loss surgery, make positive your health is in tip top condition and you have money saved for such a procedure.
Related Posts
Filed under Stomach Stapling Risks by on Feb 14th, 2011.
Upon sharing some of my articles with a few friends, one in particular approached me after noticing the piece I did on Gastric Bypass Surgery. Revealing to me what I had never known, she opened up about her experiences with Weight Loss Surgery. The short term success, the long term complications, and her own look encourage on the past and how important it was that she should have listened to her doctor’s advice, maybe paid more attention to the classes she took post-op. In general, being able to go back and change her way of thinking… that she was an exception to the rule. She requested that I write this article for her, so she can share it with her friends and fellow surgery patients with the hopes that maybe someone will see the light at the end of the tunnel before it’s too unhurried to change their post-surgery habits.
After jumping at the chance to do an interview with Rebecca, a 40-year aged mother of 2 from North Carolina, we made plans to get the ball rolling. My first step was to read a few posts of hers in a Yahoo Group that she is subscribed to that allows people who have undergone Weight Loss Surgeries to meet and piece their stories with each other. Gaining some basic knowledge of the road she traveled that brought her to the point she is at now, I realized that I knew almost nothing of the surgery in particular that she underwent. So, I spelunked around the internet trying to gain information about Distal RnY Weight Loss Surgery. After almost an hour of searching, I came away nearly empty handed. Only one page offered any insight to the surgery at all, and it level-headed didn’t give me more than a small handful for this interview. So I went through and read the article again. And I was able to glean one petite allotment of information from it, the actual name of the type of surgery that Rebecca went through. Roux-en-Y (RnY). This opened up the gateway quite a bit, and I was able to pick up the following information about the surgery itself.
It turns out that the Roux-en-Y surgery is one of the most popular types of Weight Loss Surgery performed (hard to fathom when I had such a hard time obtaining information about it). A person who hasn’t undergone this surgery uses a normal function for digestion. Ingested food enters the stomach, then travels to the small, then vast, intestines. Someone who hasn’t had Weight Loss Surgery is able to eat larger portions of food because the tiny intestine is able to absorb more fat and calories than a person who has had the surgery. This form of Gastric Bypass Surgery creates a petite pouch in the stomach that restricts the patient from being able to consume as mighty food as they had before. Sometimes the surgery is commenced with a rather large incision across the abdomen, or in the case of Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y surgery, five smaller incisions are made in the patient’s belly.
The small pouch that is created in the stomach can be done with either a plastic band, or by methods of stapling. Once the pouch is created, it is connected to the middle allotment of the small intestine, bypassing the duodenum, or the beginning portion of the small intestine that connects to the stomach. The duodenum area of the small intestine is the portion that absorbs fats and calories that you ingest. With this area bypassed, and the connecting area from the stomach pouch to the newly bypassed area of the small intestine being so small, you will be able to reduce the amount of fats and calories that you can acquire, aiding in the loss of unwanted weight. And, with the connecting area being its new size, it will also take longer for the food that you eat to fully reach the small intestine, making you feel fuller longer. Most pouches created are around 6 oz. in general, compared to normal stomachs that range from 24 oz. to 64 oz. The Distal part of the surgery comes into play when the amount of tiny intestine that has to be bypassed is determined. Proximal RnY is performed when there is less than 150 cm. of intestine to be bypassed, although I have found a few links claiming it to be less than 100 cm. Distal RnY is the procedure used when more than the 150 cm. (or 100 cm., depending on what site you are looking at) of the tiny intestine has to be bypassed in order for the stomach to connect to an space that has bypassed the complete duodenum.
Before commencing the interview with Rebecca, let me suggest that you take a look at her tale by clicking here (I put this on my blog for myspace to protect her privacy; messenger ID’s and e-mail addresses that were previously shown before I moved it). This will give you an overview of what her journey has been like, and might answer some questions that I don’t ask her during this interview.
CP: What was the final event in your life that convinced you to choose Weight Loss Surgery as an option?
Being 26 years old and wanting to be able to participate in my children’s lives instead of participating from the sidelines. Besides, when you can no longer fit into the booths at a fast food restaurant, that is a pretty estimable sign that you need some help.
CP: What other avenues had you explored before settling on Weight Loss Surgery?
Diet pills, Weight Watchers, pretty much every type of weight loss program that was available. None of these processes were successful for me, I would lose 10 pounds with one and then gain 15 relieve on binge eating.
CP: Was the surgery covered by your insurance company?
Absolutely. I had to meet my out of pocket, and the rest was covered entirely. If I had met my deductions prior to the surgery, it would have been 100% covered.
CP: How much did the surgery cost, total?
I never really saw the bills, but if I’m not mistaken my surgery was $21,000 to $22,000 back in the 90′s.
CP: What kind of pre-op information did you receive before you went under?
That’s the catch. I went into this absolutely blind without any information or education about what to expect. No one I knew had the surgery, and in fact I was the first person in my area to have it done, and a lot of it was trial and error.
CP: Were you linked to any support groups before you had the surgery performed?
Again, absolutely nothing.
CP: Briefly give an overview of the pain you felt after the surgery, how long it lasted, how it was eased.
Basically, the actual incision site for a while, but the psychological pain lasted a whole lot longer than any of the short term pains from the surgery. I didn’t know what I could and couldn’t eat so a lot of it was anger at not being able to keep anything down. For the first 2 years, the only food that I could keep down was stewed tomatoes and beets.
CP: How much weight did you initially lose after the surgery, and what was the lowest it dropped to?
I started at 326 lbs. and dropped to 204 lbs, which was my lowest point.
CP: At what point did you start to gain the weight relieve? Are you still under your pre-surgery weight from years ago?
I’m still under within at least 25 pounds from my pre-surgery weight. Probably in my 6th or 7th year, I would gain 10 lbs and level-headed be able to lose it. But once I packed on 30 lbs, it was downhill from there.
CP: What was the most difficult thing for you to endure after the surgery (change in diet, energy level, etc.)?
The hardest thing to deal with was psychologically wanting to eat like everyone else, but only being able to eat 2 or 3 spoonfuls.
CP: What is the worst long term complication that you have had since the surgery?
Anemia, definately. Pernicious anemia, along with iron deficiency anemia. With these types of deficiencies, I have to go to the hospital for 8 hours every 3 to 4 months for iron infusions.
CP: If you had the chance to do the surgery again, would you go for it?
I honestly don’t deem I would, not with the health problems I am enduring now. I’m obese again, but on top of that I have a lot of health problems that I didn’t have before.
CP: What would be the most important thing you could tell someone who is looking to go for the surgery?
Do your homework. Talk to others who have had the procedures done. Go into this with an inaugurate mind, thinking that this is going to be no picnic. If you have no clue what you are going into before the surgery, you will wake up one day and think “Oh my Lord, what have I done to myself? “
For those who are indeed looking into Weight Loss Surgeries, please make sure that you are well informed of what you are getting into before you proceed. Not all scenarios end in this draw, but it has been proven that not everyone can successfully lose the weight after the surgery and manage to keep it off. Sticking to a strict diet as prescribed by your doctor, making clear that you are eating at regular intervals and not “grazing” (eating randomly with no set meal in mind, such as snacking), and exercising can site you on the right path to Weight Loss Surgery success.
If you have found this article helpful, feel free to pass it on to friends who are looking for Weight Loss Surgery options.
Related Posts
Filed under Stomach Stapling Risks by on Oct 23rd, 2010.
Ear stapling has been around for a long time as a way to lose weight. It is drawn from the acupuncture theory, which identifies acupuncture points in the ear requiring certain areas to be punctured in order to invoke weight loss.
The ear stapling diet starts by inserting a small steel staple between specific acupuncture points in the ear; generally in the inner cartilage region. The staple then provides pressure to those points that lead to the stomach, which sends a signal to the brain telling it the stomach is rotund, thereby eliminating cravings.
Only one ear is required to be stapled, although some people have both ears done. Once the staple is placed in the ear, it can remain in there from two to six months, depending on how long you want to leave it in. People having this procedure done have said that it is similar to getting your ears pierced. As of 2009, the ear staple design can cost anywhere from $60 to $85.
The average weight loss associated with ear stapling is around two to five pounds per week, although there are no scientific studies to prove this. This procedure has also been effective in reducing hot flashes, sugar cravings, heartburn and migraines. More weight loss occurs when paired with a healthy diet and exercise.
Ear stapling does not generally require any qualifications. Practitioners are not required to have any medical training. There are many risks associated with ear stapling; one of them being infection. If the staple is left in the ear for a long amount of time and not properly cleaned, you can get an infection in the outer ear that is not only painful but can cause permanent scarring. Another risk of ear stapling is that the staple can drop out and possibly enter the inner ear causing damage to the ear and eardrum.
The practice of ear stapling led to many fraudulent practices which opened up in certain areas. These unlicensed and untrained people did not need any medical training to do the procedure. In 2006, the area medical board of Mississippi ordered the closing of 14 businesses offering ear stapling after there were reports of people getting serious infections from the procedure. This then led to the decision in Mississippi that ear stapling is considered acupuncture, which can only be performed by licensed physicians.
If you want to get ear stapling done, make determined you find a qualified practitioner or talk with your doctor for information and advice.
“Ear Stapling to Lose Weight.” Healthy Women’s Healthy Living Goals.
Andrew Weil, MD, “Ear Stapling Acupuncture for Weight Loss.” DrWeil.com
“Ear Stapling Review.” Diet Spotlight.
Related Posts
Filed under Stomach Stapling Risks by on Aug 5th, 2010.