Why Gastric Bypass?

With all the joys of being overweight, there are many issues a girl of my size has to deal with.

I have been on my diet for 57 days. That should be long enough to break my bad habits, and it is slowly working.

Issue Number 1- I was at the doctor's this past week, and I was thrilled to be able to show her that I had lost 24 1/2 pounds, but she wasn't as thrilled as I was.

I am still having some major complications in my life with this infection and it is starting to become a life or death situation. That is the joyous news my doctor passed on to me.

She didn't say, hey it is great that you've lost this much weight, keep it up...No, she said you know I think you need to consult a weight clinic about having gastric bypass surgery.

Wow! I used to dream about the day that I could have the surgery, thinking this is the easy way out, but no the doctors always told me just to follow a healthy diet. Now, she suggests that I may want to do this and all of a sudden I am confused.

What does a person do when faced with this situation? No, I didn't eat more, I started doing research. Here is what I have come up with.

Gastric bypass surgery alters your stomach permanently. Once you have this done, there is no reversing it. The complications one gets from this is so frequent that many people have to have recurring surgeries to fix problems from the surgery. My insurance company at this point will not pay for my surgery, but even if I could get it approved they will not pay for any complications arising from gastric bypass. 1 in 200 people die from complications and typically within the first 30 days. You lose up to 75% of your body weight within the first year, but put 50 % of it back on within 5 years.

The fact that I have a nearly untreatable infection doesn't make me want to jump on the band wagon any quicker to go through with this. Losing weight, while it may improve my overall health will not improve the infection situation, it may actually make it worse because of all the excess skin I would have hanging, which my insurance company will not pay for.

I think I have made my decision. I want to keep trying to get the weight off on my own. I am off to a good start and I am starting on my 10th week and I am still going strong!

Weigh in this week was a tad disappointing, I only lost 1/4 of a pound but I didn't gain so I have to look for the little victories.

I am headed back to the gym this week to resume my workouts, I am hoping for a better week this week.

So until next time, I hope to lose nothing but weight and gain nothing but knowledge!