It's been a long time since I wrote here. Last time, I wrote that I was considering having weight loss surgery and I was waiting for an appointment with the surgeon. Well, I'm no longer waiting or considering. I had my appointment with the surgeon and I decided to go ahead with the surgery. I chose to have gastric bypass surgery because I consider it the safest and most efficacious option short and long term. With a gastric bypass, the surgeon creates a small pouch by cutting the stomach. This new pouch will become my new stomach and since it contains 10 to 30 ml (1–2 tbsp) or approximately the size of a thumb, it will limit greatly the amount of food that I'll be able to ingest in addition to diminishing the absorption of food. Hence, nutritional deficiencies are a side-effects of the surgery and I'll need to take supplements for the rest of my life. For more detailed and scientific information on gastric bypass and other weight loss surgical procedures, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_bypass_surgery and http://www.weightlosssurgery.ca/.
This is a very personal decision and one that should not be taken lightly as there are several risks and side effects associated with this type of surgery. If you are considering having weight loss surgery, I strongly recommend that you talk to a good doctor and read a lot on the subject in order to make the best decision for you.
My surgery will be on August 31st, so exactly two weeks from today. I don't know if this is standard but starting today and up until the surgery, I was instructed by my surgeon to follow a liquid diet, Optifast, in order to reduce the size of my liver for surgery. I started the diet today and it is going to be hell to follow that for the next 2 weeks. I'm only allowed 4 Optifast shakes per day + water. That's it! Fortunately, the shakes don't taste too bad, kinda like uncooked vanilla cake batter. Nevertheless, I know I'm going to starve and go crazy!! I do apologize in advance to anyone I may come in contact with in the next two weeks as I'm guessing that I'll be in a pretty foul mood. Apparently, this is the hardest part of the whole process. We'll see and I'll try to keep you updated on the whole shebang.
Today, the fact that I won't be able to eat the way I used to hit me. I guess it's because of this liquid diet thing and not being able to eat as usual. Given that eating was more to me than just the absorption of nutrients in order to stay alive, I'm kind of forced to face these things. First of all, eating is a pleasure for me, which is totally fine. To my knowledge, there's not a word in English to describe someone who relishes in the pleasures of food and eating. At least, there's no non-pejorative word like we have in French. In French, we have "gourmandise" and being "gourmand", which is a lot nicer than the English equivalent of gluttony and being a glutton. So I'm "gourmande". I love to eat and to cook. But I must admit that on top of that, I use food as many other things: soothing, distraction, avoiding, etc... So not having my go-to fix will be an interesting challenge.
Until next time...
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