I've been asked by a couple of people how I am losing weight, so I thought I would explain the procedure I had. This is going to be a much longer post than normal, so bear with me.
In a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG), most of the stomach is surgically removed, leaving a pouch about the size of a medium banana. Unlike Gastric Bypass Surgery (GBS), the intestines are left alone. Sleevers have fewer problems with malabsorption of vitamins because we still have the intestines so the body can absorb the vitamins. The only vitamin I take sublingually, because a pill doesn't get absorbed in the stomach anymore, is a daily B-12 pill. I could also get a shot but that would require one more trip to a doctor. Every day I take multivitamin capsules, Vitamin D, Iron, calcium supplements, and the B-12 sublingual pill.
The VSG is a tool that makes following a healthy eating regimen easier because with the stomach goes a lot of the nerves (hormones?) that cause a person to feel hunger pains. The hunger pains do not go away; I am hungry as I type this. The difference is that I do not want some huge breakfast. I eat a small meal every 3-4 hours, which is how we are supposed to eat but rarely do.
People who might say we took "the easy way out" by having VSG, or any bariatric surgery, aren't familiar with what Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) patients do. We still eat sensibly, still work out, still think about what we eat. As my nutritionist explained it, the pouch controls the quantity, I control the quality.
I had the lap band in 2006 and it worked for a while then I found ways to cheat the band. Ice cream slides down quite nicely with the band. I found myself eating foods that would slide past the band, not foods I should be eating. After avoiding my doctor for over a year because I felt like such a failure, I finally had to give in and see him because I was having band slippage and discomfort. My band was removed in an outpatient procedure on June 22, 2011. It was hard not to indulge in birthday cake on June 20, but I was giving myself the gift of health and it seemed a fair trade-off.
I weighed 300 pounds on the morning of August 4, 2011. The number sticks in my mind because it was such a "round" number. This morning, a little over seven months later, I weighed 247.6. I could not have stuck with a "diet" this long. The sleeve is more liberating than the band because I don't have to constantly worry that something I eat is going to get stuck and come back up. That is not a pleasant experience. With the sleeve, I eat protein first because that takes the longest to digest and gives the feeling of "fullness." I can eat some breads, though I'd rather fill my pouch with something other than bread. Unless, of course, we're talking garlic bread! Ha! Ha! I can visualize a medium banana, so I eat accordingly. I can usually make two meals out of an order at a restaurant, so I order what will "keep" for the next day. Though I can order off the appetizer or child's menu, those foods are not usually the type of food I want to eat. The child's menu at most restaurants consists of fried items or something else I don't want to eat. Sleevers do not drink with their meals and we wait 30 minutes after a meal to drink. This was actually one of the biggest adjustments for me. We don't drink with the meal for two reasons, take your pick. Drinking with the meal makes me full and I don't get in the protein I need, or drinking washes the food through our stomachs more quickly and we don't reap the benefits of feeling full nor do we absorb the vitamins in the food because it washes through the stomach too quickly. I am supposed to eat 60-80 grams of protein every day to help retain muscle while losing weigh.
Seven months out I still have not experienced the hair loss many do. My hair does feel thinner, but I haven't noticed any globs of hair in the drain or on my pillow. Getting in the protein and biotin (in my bariatric multivitamins) helps alleviate the hair loss issue. I am a firm believer in taking the bariatric supplements through Celebrate Vitamins or Bariatric Advantage, not some Flinstones gummy vitamin. Bariatric vitamins are formulated to meet the needs of WLS patients. A couple of months ago my nutritionist told me I could start taking vitamin capsules and not the chewable vitamins. Yay!
The VSG surgery was done in my doctor's surgery suite at the Puget Sound Surgical Center. They kept me overnight to monitor my breathing. With my obesity came severe sleep apnea. I sleep with a CPAP machine and hope that I can stop using it someday, though I sleep better with it.
I have heard various stories from people about what they had to do to prepare for the surgery. Some have had to lose weight in order to have the surgery. What's up with that?! To prepare for my surgery, I had to follow a low carb diet (35 grams of carbs or less per day) to shrink the liver. As my doctor explained it, the liver is kinda like a stiff baseball glove. By eating fewer carbs, the liver is forced to excrete stuff it normally holds on to, causing the liver to shrink and become more pliable. The doctor needs to manipulate the liver during the surgery and needs to be able to move it out of the way. Sorry if I'm not explaining that right.
If anyone who might read this has any questions, please feel free to give me your email address and we can correspondent in more detail.
It's another good day!
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