Morbid Meanderings Mean Much - Gastric Bypass Surgeryby Heather Long | More from this Blogger 01 May 2006 04:30 PM Yep, that's a title that's guaranteed to get your attention. Unfortunately, we live in a world where weight can get out of hand. It can become unresponsive to your lifestyle and dietary changes. You can even find that dieting is a misery that either a) doesn't work, b) harms your health, c) leaves you feeling worse or d) al of the above. Luckily, modern medicine has achieved some interesting and downright amazing results over the last fifty years. Fir performed in the 1950s, the gastric bypass has spent the last two decades becoming a successful surgery that helps patients to achieve lower BMIs and healthier lives within 18 months of the surgery. Gastric bypass has two goals as a surgery. The first goal is to reduce the volume of the stomach, essentially limiting how much food it can hold and dramatically reducing the amounts needed to fill the stomach. The second goal is to shorten the amount of time it can take for the food to go to the intestines. Patients who have received the surgery will find that their stomachs can no longer take very large meals nor does the stomach participate in digestion. The effect is rather immediate in the dramatic reduction of appetite. The food will also bypass the majority of the intestines and the liver. That means most of the nutrition you get from eating will also be dropped dramatically. The difference, literally is limiting the 7 feet of intestines down to only a small section (about 50 cms). Severe Surgery - Severe Measures If you are imagining that this is a severe procedure, you are correct. This surgery is just the first step in what will be several measures you will have to take afterwards. You are literally circumventing your own body and its natural biology. Recovery can take a couple of months. During the first two or three days after the surgery, you will likely not want to eat. However, you will also be limited to clear fluids - like water - in the first couple of days so that your stomach and intestines can heal from the bypass. After that, you need to spend a couple of months retraining your internal systems to handle the changes the surgery has initiated. Your Dietary Changes You need to remember that after the surgery, your stomach will hold only about 8 ounces of food at a time. It will also not be able to digest it as before (by pulverizing the food) and you will need to stay on soft solids six to eight times a day during those first few weeks. You'll need to make sure you add nutritious fluids to your diet to maintain hydrations as well as helping you maintain your vitamins and minerals. Gastric bypass can provide fantastic results for people who imagined that they were never going to be able to lose weight. However, this procedure should not be undertaken lightly. It requires a strict adherence to the recovery and even after you have recovered fully, your diet may need to be limited or modified to make sure you get the nutrients you need in the manner that you can digest. However, gastric bypass does provide an option for those who have been unable to lose weight in any other fashion, returning their BMI levels to a healthy number and reducing appetite to where a healthier diet is more manageable. It's important to always consult a physician at length prior to deciding on such a procedure. Learn more about Heather Long  Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago. Relevantweight loss tags christmas | weight loss | baby | children | Kids | holidays | Coupons | Scrapbooking | pregnancy | Food User Comments  Lisa P (24013) 02 May 2006 12:25 PMGood article, but some things have changed over the past few years. When I had a gastric bypass in 2001, my stomach was reduced to holding one (1) ounce. I was in the hospital for 2 days. I stayed on clear fluids for 3 days and then began integrating heavier liquids and baby food into my diet until I could tolerate solids - which took a few weeks. My sister-in-law had the same surgery in 2005. It was an outpatient procedure and she was eating solid foods that very same day - as per her doctor's orders. More and more gastric bypasses are being done these days and that means more doctors with better experience and a knowledge base that is growing by leaps and bounds.  Heather Long (16954) 02 May 2006 12:59 PMThanks for the info there, Lisa. I'm going to see if I can actually interview a counselor or physician that performs gastric bypass in order to get a more accurate and timely view!  Laura Torres (3958) 04 May 2006 04:47 AMI always thought gastric bypass was something of a miracle for those it helped, but then the only person I ever met who had the surgery said it "ruined her life." I was very surprised because I'd only heard good things, but she said she wouldn't do it over in a million years. I only spoke to her briefly, so I don't know exactly why she felt so strongly that it was a mistake...she mentioned that she feels sick all the time and the pleasure of eating was gone, but surely there must be more to it than that.  Libby Pelham |
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