Do I regret it? Not at all! Unfortunately, after the gastric bypass operation, I became really ill for a few months with D&V and an infection, and only once in these few months did I regret having this operation. The infection and illness were not connected to the operation at all, but at the time it was easy to blame it ! Since then I have never looked back, the pictures here speak for themselves:
This picture of me was taken in September 2008, 8 months after my surgery – at this point I had lost around 8 stones, but now I’m up to 10 ½ stones. I have lost a whole person from inside of me literally!!
Do I miss the foods I used to enjoy so much? I had terrible cravings in the beginning for a bacon and mushroom buttie, something that I have always enjoyed on my day off once or twice a week. I did try to eat it once and boy, did it come back up quicker than it went down. I cannot tell you the last time I had or craved for one, now I don’t miss them at all.
What is life like now? I still go out for meals quite regularly, and yes, I leave ¾ of the meal but I do really enjoy what I have. In general I eat whatever I want; much of it is a soft diet as sometimes I can struggle with hard meat (beef, steak, pork etc) – I’m OK with chicken and fish though!
What about alcohol? I am now a very cheap date!! I can get quite merry on 2 glasses of wine and drunk on 3, although I am not a drinker generally and some months don’t have any alcohol at all
What do others think? I was very secretive about my operation, and only told 4 people prior to my admission. I told my children 5 months after the op (my son didn’t realise I’d lost weight, but lads don’t do they!) – I had probably lost about 5 stones at this point. My daughter hadn’t seen me as she lives abroad - I didn’t tell her till I went out to see her 5 months after my op and she could not believe how much I had changed. I am still secretive and under 20 people know the real reason for my weight loss
And my size? Well, I’ve gone down from a size 32/34 plus to a size 16/18, and now my rings have gone down 3 ½ sizes as well - I have had them made smaller twice. As well as having lost over 10stone, another strange thing is that I have lost a shoe size - I used to be a size 9-10 in shoes and am now a size 8! My weight loss has slowed right down now, and I don’t lose a lot each week, probably ¼ - ½ lb per week now and I am very happy with this.
So, yes - this does change your life and you need to go into this operation with your eyes very wide open and with a lot of information at your finger tips. It’s not a quick fix and you have to put in the work to get the result, but for me it worked where nothing else did! I learnt a lot about myself through this - what I could eat (and what I certainly couldn’t eat) along the way, what helped what didn’t.
I think one of the main things if you are thinking about the gastric bypass or have had it is to talk to someone who has already been through it - warts and all and - is willing to help and support other folks who were struggling or just needed some support along the way. I’m in regular contact with a group of such people, and it helps me on my way as well!
Carol
April 2009
