[jiffypop]

these two posts have really been on my mind. heller's has stuck with me for a number of reasons. mostly because i'm not quite sure what she means by 'easy.' is it 'easy' because for the first time in our lives, practically, if we follow the rules, the weight comes off? especially the first 6 months or so. IMO, that makes it EFFECTIVE, not necessarily easy.

is living with the nutritional deficiencies easy? i have an iron deficiency that's proving VERY hard to correct, even with huge amounts of iron. it's not easy. but it's not the end of the world.

some folks i know have had adhesion surgery after 2-3 years. so complications can happen later. is living with this threat easy? we each have to decide that for ourselves. one woman is down to about a size two, but had to have the surgery reversed because of ulcers and nerve damage. she did EVERYTHING she was supposed to. and she's not angry, she's grateful that she's now small, but she feels awful and now she's afraid of weight gain.

those of us who were lucky to avoid such problems... and the problems that mandy is enduring, and the ones that debkay suffered... we were LUCKY, i think.

we're living with uncertainty. and that's not easy for me. i just want to tilt the odds in my own favor these days.

the hard part, as heller has pointed out, is the AFTERWARDS. when we now have to 'work' at keeping the weight off. hmmm. no matter what route we chose, we'd have to do this same kind of work. but for us, at least now, the attention to diet and exercise - following 'the rules' - works! and for all of us, no matter what we did, it didn't work before the surgery.

now with the knowledge of insulin resistance, we stand a better chance of keeping the weight off. but speaking as someone who now has to turn her eating habits around, IT'S HARD!11 and it's not all about the food. it's all that HEAD WORK to view it as fuel, not comfort, or reward, or stress relief, or whatever.

and in order to keep up with what i have to do to lose and to maintain the loss, i've had to give up a few things. i haven't read a book in more than 2 years because my reading time is now gym time. i rarely call friends, and even less often see them. i no longer cook, for a number of reasons, including the fact that i can't really trust myself to spend more than 5 minutes preparing something.


i have to go to bed now.. here's a link to an interesting article on wls risks... will write more tomorrow... i promise.

and mandy.l.. don't give up hope... i'm glad you're home. and i'll write more to you tomorrow. just gotta get some sleep...
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....7095230890.xml

[peach pit]

Jiff, Thank you for pointing out all the complications that can and do happen. People need to know and I believe I did allude to complications without going into details. I knew when I posted on the easy way out thread that you disagreed with me. We are sisters, not clones.

When I posted on that thread, I was speaking of my own personal experiences and I stick by them.

I went into wls surgery in relatively good health. I went in as a relatively "light weight". I picked Jiff's surgeon knowing that if he could pull her through it with flying colors that I was pretty darn comfortable that I would be ok. And I was, am.

Compared to the years of constant and tortuous traditional dieting and the emotional angst involved, for me, yes, wls is effective and for ME it is easier. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. Wls has made it possible for my diet training to be effective. I work at making it effective, I get results although they may be slower than many, it gives me peace of mind and confidence to keep going. Yes, I did struggle to break out of the 200's but I eventually DID do it and compared to what I did before surgery this, for ME was successful and easier.

Your mileage may vary.
peach

[Chickadee]

My question is: if WLS really is the "easy" way out, what's so wrong about that? If that's a true statement, does that necessarily make WLS (the "easy way") a bad thing?

I mean, if you were driving and found you could take a shortcut to get to your destination instead of your usual route, you would still get to the same place - right? That's a good thing. And sometimes, it's easier to get lost on that longer route because there are twists and turns and road closures. Some of us might never get there on that long route, even though we have the best of intentions. So, to me, this isn't an easy way out, it just makes the most sense for me based on my history of detours and twists and turns. I'll take the shortcut that I've been lucky enough to find.

So far Lapbanding has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. No complications, just good results and a lot of hope for the first time in a very long time. If that's the easy way out, so be it!

Chickadee

p.s. anyone who says WLS is the easy way out never had to do a bowel prep or barium swallow!

[hellerd2003]

Despite the risks (and I do have some post-op side effects, and my DH who had bypass surgery just had panni removal and is still unable to sleep in his own bed), I'd do this surgery annually, because it was successful. Weight loss was "easy". It's the MAINTENANCE-- the same stuff I had problems with BEFORE surgery . . . the "diet and exercise" song-and-dance . . . that is HARD.

The point in writing the original post was not to make people feel badly about their choices . . . I hope no one took it as such. It was written because it has begun to surprise me lately that people get so bent out of shape when others mention surgery as being "easy". Why do we take those statements as being a negative? Why do we let it shame us? Insanity is defined as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. By continuing that "hard" and unsuccessful diet and exercise pattern, we would have no success. By choosing to love ourself and take a "shortcut", we had success. It may be easy, sure . . . but it was also smarter. So if someone thinks I took an easy path-- more power to them. I know it was the RIGHT path. Who cares if it was easy or not?

And that was the thinking behind the original post. :-)

Have a good day!

[hellerd2003]

Pookie-- I understand the fears of any surgery-- surgery is a major decision. DH's father died during an outpatient hernia repair surgery. Any time you're undergoing anesthesia, there is a risk.

This helped me out when I was pre-op, though. There was a study done in Denmark that followed two groups of people who were morbidly obese. The first group attempted to lose weight via diet and exercise. The second group had gastric bypass surgery. At the end of 7 years, the groups were analyzed for success rates, risk factors, complications, etc. The group that attempted to lose weight via diet and exercise had a HIGHER death rate than did the surgery group. Remaining morbidly obese is a greater risk than having the surgery.

That was the thought I held onto as I was wheeled in. I knew that my death-day was a matter not of "if", but just "when". And I wanted my "when" to be as far away as possible.

Good luck to you in your journey!