He is in the final stages now of getting approved. Its been a long process, but he thinks his surgery will take place in September.
I'm concerned about him for several reasons.
1) The doctors want him to lose weight before the surgery and during his last weigh in, he actually gained 8 pounds. They want his BMI under 50, and right now it is 53. He is going to have to lose 35-40 pounds on his own and I'm not sure if they will go ahead with the surgery if he doesn't.
2) My brother is a heavy drinker (to be honest, an alcoholic) and I don't see that changing after his surgery. My understanding is that the effects of alcohol are intensified after surgery and I'm concerned his drinking will lead to lots of complications.
3) He told me that for 30 days before surgery they will put him on a liquid diet. He said this was "so the organs will shrink giving the doctors room to operate" (thats what he said, don't know if its true..it certainly sounds fishy to me). Anyway, knowing my brother, I don't know how will he will be able to follow this.
4) He is under a tremendous amount of stress. Seriously incredible levels of stress (dealing with health issues of his wife, day to day issues with our elder parents, etc.).
Maybe I should just have trust in the doctors and that if he goes through with this, that everything will be okay. However, I'm worried that something might go wrong.
Any advice/ reassurance/ or other thoughts from someone that has gone through this? I want my brother to be healthy and I totally support him chosing WLS.