So many people have asked me how much weight I have lost during this pre-op phase. So far its 7.6kg. They then go on to say, “Hey, maybe you should just keep doing that and don’t need the operation”.
The operation does 2 things. Firstly it reduces the stomach size to that of a banana (100–150ml). Secondly, it changes the hormones associated with eating, being hungry and being satiated. This 2 weeks (ok, 1 week and 3 days so far) really sucks and if there were no end in sight I can’t imagine I would be able to continue. I’m really not that strong and have very little will power.
That said, there are some apparent downsides to the operation. Heres what I can think of.
- With a stomach size of 100–150ml and a can of coke being 375ml compressed it will never be able to work again.
- You cannot drink within 30 mins of eating or all the liquid will back up behind the food and fill you up even faster.
- Lunch will consist of 1/2 a sandwich, not the usual 2 that I may be eating now.
- Business lunches (which I have quite a few of) will consist of a small part of an entree and thats it. For the Americans reading this, entree in Australia has the original meaning of small starting meal, not what you seem to call it.
Now, this sounds bad I admit however
- What I ate before is obviously too much (even though it didn’t seem like it)
- After discussing this with a number of people post-op, they tell me that it too freaked them out but they consider that normal now and are always happy after eating.
- Not a single person (repeat, NOT ONE) of the people I’ve discussed this procedure with who have had it done, even people who have had quite severe complications, regret getting it done. 95% seem to say its the best thing they have ever done and 5% said it didn’t solve the problem but its helped.
The only downside I really am concerned about at this stage is with eating so little, its very important to be able to get enough protein to sustain yourself. This can be achieved with some of the protein drinks that are out there or just being careful enough to make sure you have meat, soy etc at least once per day. I don’t this is really too much to deal with for being able to live longer.
If I just stay on this pre-op diet (as suggested) I could probably live for a very long time its just that doing this would make you want to die.
This reminds me of the old statistic that says that married men typically live 3 years longer than single men. The reason its funny is that married men are normally more willing to die. :-)
