My Bariatric Surgery I

Last year, following many years of dieting frustrations, with few successes and far more failures, after many pounds lost, but a lot more gained, after years of collecting clothes on the way down, only to be worn on the way back up, I started to explore the idea of surgery.  I must emphasize that I was not considering a cosmetic surgery.  Indeed, I am confident that a 90 Kg person looks far better that 130 Kg person (apologies all heavy people, but heavy is not beautiful), but that was not my primary motivation.  Not even the secondary.  Medical problems go hand in hand with obesity.  Diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension for starters.  And there’s plenty more where that came from.  My main motivation was medical.  The other was ability.  The ability to take longer walks and hikes, the ability to go on a bike, the ability (or at least the perceived option) to spend more times with my children and loving family.  Quality years, not quality hours.

A co-worker, who miraculously shed all his excess weight in a few months told me following a compliment, that he went through a sleeve gastrectomy surgery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeve_gastrectomy).  He explained the procedure to me, and in no time, I started reading about it, understanding it better.  I went to see the head of the Bariatric Surgery clinic at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, Israel.  Dr. Ivan Abraham Schwartz.  Dr. Schwartz, a surgeon with the unit for obesity at the hospital took me through the options.  There were three.  The first option, the lap band, a silicone ring placed on the stomach to create a smaller one and by that limiting the contents of the stomach.  The other was sleeve gastrectomy, a procedure which creates a sleeve in the stomach, accomplishing the same results with the additional benefit of removing the part of the stomach which generates the “hunger hormone”.  The first is reversible, the second isn’t.  There was a third option called malabsorbtion, which creates a bypass between the stomach and the intestine, which moves out most of the consumed food directly to trash.  The last one is considered to be a new kind of procedure, and is mostly considered for people who suffer from morbid obesity.

I chose the sleeve gastrectomy because it was a one time procedure (lap bands require adjustments by injecting saline water into a port which is just under the skin and is located with X-Ray or ultrasound), and because of the side effect of removing the hunger hormone (at least temporarily – research shows that the stomach learns do it later in life).

During the month of December, I went through a battery of tests.  Physical and mental.  Blood tests of all kinds.  Kidney and liver functions, oesophagus and stomach functions.  Mental readiness for a major operation.  Heart and lungs, blood coagulation function.  And then, once all tests were submitted, I received a letter in the mail inviting me for hospitalization before surgery for January 3.  I was excited, of course, as well as anxious.  I was looking forward to it, while hoping it will never come at the same time.  Mixed feelings.  I thought it was the right decision then, and I know it was the right decision now.  I must admit, there were times in between the decision and the surgery that I was much less confident.