Hindsight I

Hindsight IS 20/20 Vision
Gastric Bypass Surgery… 19 years later: Part 1
June 13, 2011
June 1992, the 24th, I think, I followed through on a decision I had made months before, and that was to have gastric bypass surgery. The process took months before the actual surgery date because, at that time, anyone who wanted to have the surgery had to be approved and recommended by their primary physician, and meet certain criteria. First, you had to be at least 100 pounds overweight. I met that condition fairly easily, weighing well over 300 pounds after the birth of my last child in 1990.
Next, you had to be fairly certain that you weren’t going to have any more children, since the surgery would have to be reversed if your body had to nourish a child. My doctor remembered laughingly that I had insisted on signing the paperwork for tubal ligation in July 1990, four months before my last baby, my son, was born. He cautioned me against signing the papers so early, because, he said, he was hesitant to predict the outcome of the pregnancy. My first pregnancy, when I had my daughter, had ended with her twin being stillborn, and he had wanted me to operate on a wait-and-see basis. I assured him then that, “even if this baby is a spider-monkey, nothing else is coming out of this body”. I did then (and still do) describe pregnancy as the closest thing to alien inhabitation that the human body would ever experience. In short, I hated being pregnant so much that I never wanted to do that again.
The last condition, but one of the most important was the psychological evaluation. The surgeons had to be sure that you could handle the changes of body and mind that went along with the surgery. There were several meetings, workshops, and evaluation tools that had to be completed. After all, it would involve a lifestyle change, not just a change in diet. I admit that was the part that bothered me the most. I had been fat since I was a child. I was used to being fat. I was in my comfort zone with a bowl of rice pudding or a plate of fried chicken. For several weeks after the surgery, my diet would contain no solid food… just instant breakfast, juices, and plenty of water. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that, but I was willing to try. After talking to my doctor, who assured me that he had faith in me, I was ready.
My husband and I had been discussing what was going to happen, and he left the decision entirely up to me. He had married me when I was a big girl, and he was quite satisfied with the woman I was. He had also seen my mother’s struggle with weight… complete with diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, and all her other ailments, and he didn’t want me to suffer like she did. I don’t think he was any too happy about my being “skinny” either… that is, not until I lost the weight (but that’s another story). The bottom line was, he loved me for ME, could have cared less about my weight, and that was all I needed to know. One thing that really bothered me was that I had never shopped anywhere other than plus sized shops or I had made my own clothes. My goal was to be able to shop anywhere I wanted to. I didn’t want to be skinny, just NOT FAT.