Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello,

My mother has asked me to post this, so I’m asking with her permission (in fact at her request).

She’s had all manner of health problems these past few years after an accident where she shattered both her kneecaps. At what she thought was a dietician appointment on Monday (she has a massively under acted thyroid and no vitamin D absorption, but the meds aren’t working) she found herself instead with a surgeon having gastric band surgery scheduled.

So, obviously the shock is one thing to her, but I think she’s really struggling because she has nobody to discuss it with. She’s planning on telling five people... and seemingly you lot. She knows that you e helped with questions I’ve gad in the past, and I think is just at a loss with what to make of it.

Anyway, her specific question is, if Nybody gets had had it or knows someone who has had it: how are you/they getting on? She said for six months she can have a cup of food, liquidised at first, but how do people feel/get on 6, 12 months down the line and beyond? Is life easier/more difficult, etc.

Apologies, as I know this is a bit of a weird question, but I had a look to see if there were post surgery groups online, but a) I am not sure she wants LOADS. of (maybe conflicting?) input, b) I don’t think she’s ever used an online chat board, and c) every group I did find met in person, rather than online.

I’ve told her there will quite likely be nobody who can answer, but said I’d ask anyway.

As always, thank you x

Not sure how much info you'll get from Beex, but https://www.reddit.com/r/GastricBypass/ exists.

Thank you. I’ll have a read through before sending her there/any specific links, just to make sure I’m not sending her anything awful. I don’t want to hide any truths from her, but I think your mind doesn’t balance things up quite right when you’re looking at things like future surgery.

Like, one of the things she said was how much of life do people miss out on not sharing meal times? And that’s true. But also, it’s true that she’s missing out on far more life at the moment as she can’t leave the house, so what she’d get back is potentially far more.

I just so t think she can think objectively at the moment as she has the meeting on Friday (I think) and has another meeting g tomorrow to discuss the details and schedule surgery (she said there are two types that the hospital does, and they will tell her tomorrow which type she will have).

Hi Meems, one of my team at work had gastric surgery (not sure if it was a band or a bypass) and it has made a huge difference to her. Her husband underwent it recently too.

I can post in a bit more detail later, on how it seems to have gone.

Forgive me if I'm way off but I assumed that once a band has been fitted you'd just eat smaller portions of the same food along with everyone else?

You have to liquidise it, I think.

There are certain foods you have to avoid after the liquidisation stage is up, too.

(I do know someone who's had a gastric band but not really well enough to ask them questions.)

From what I understood from what my mother was told, Protein drinks and clear liquids for a couple of weeks, then soups and liquidised foods, then soft foods eaten very slowly for a few weeks, solids after 4-6 months.

Thank you x

I know it's not the same but one of my wifes friends was hypnotised into thinking she had a gastric band.

Obviously it did nothing.

Bit adjacent to your mum's question but how has she ended up having risky surgery scheduled seemingly without proper advice/counselling beforehand? Might be worth pushing back on this a bit first?

That tickled me more than it should!

Jade, at work, was a pretty big girl and was trying for a baby and was basically told that it'd need to be IVF, and that she was too big for much chance of success even with that (she must have been well over 100 kilos).

After the surgery she could only eat drink very very small volumes and, had to do it very slowly too. Incredibly slowly, in fact, one small sip at a time. I believe she started with protein shakes and then gradually moved up to liquified food and now finally very small bites.

She's had to change her working hours to fit in a longer pair of breaks so that she can get enough food and water.

She's lost heaps of weight, 50 kilos I think, and very quickly. She says she feels great and has so much more energy, feels far more alive. On the downside, she keeps having to buy new clothes.

Early days but the IVF has worked and she's pregnant so it's been, in her words, the best thing she ever did.

Wow! That’s an amazing story from beginning to end. What a wonder. Oh, thank you. I shall post this to my Ma as I think it will just make her happy, and it’s full of hope.

I don’t know, really, but I think the waiting lists are so huge that the counselling, etc comes after. I asked her when she thought it might be, and she said around new year, but I don’t k ow if they’ve given her a guideline on the waiting time or if she is just guessing.

I know that she has to go and watch a film about it at some point. (Which may be what is happening tomorrow. I’m not entirely sure, and I think her head was spinning so much when she had the last appointment that I’m not entirely sure she knows).

my brother had a gastric band fitted quite a few years ago, I think katie was 2 at the time so that would be 7 years ago
I find it hard to remember how long it took, but my brother definitely eats the same thing as everyone else, just less (like orders pizza but eats 1/3 of one, goes out to dinner but orders small portion or no dessert etc)
there are a few things that don't agree with him completely like fizzy drinks, but he has told me this varied per person as he was in a "batch" of ppl who went through all the prep and info together
oh and he's on a load of good quality vitamins as he doesn't absorb everything quite as well

I must say I find the lack of prep for you mother shocking. Alex had so many appts before hand and he did protein shakes for two weeks before as prep and group info meetings before and after the surgery
like I said I'd say he's 7 years on and still very happy he did it and has often urged me to do it as well
the only thing for him is that after the initial huge weight loss (also about 50kg I think) he would have liked to lose a bit more and he's finding it incredibly hard to lose more then that, though he's kept that weight off which is superb

Wow, that’s brilliant.

Thank you all so much. I’ve just called my Ma, sent her the responses and she’s feeling both a lot more positive and more armed with what kind of questions to ask tomorrow.

She genuinely sounds a lot less confused and a lot calmer than this morning, so it genuinely means a huge deal.

My ex had one. Was done by the guy in Southampton. He's pretty famous.

I'm on phone ATM but I'll try to remember to post about it more on the PC later.

OK from memory.

My ex had hers done by a guy in Southampton. It was private, she paid around £6k for it. My ex had no self control at all, and basically ate all day. So she had it done to lose weight. TBH the way she treated her body I am amazed she lived to tell. All she used to eat were things like lamb fat (didn't want the meat) and egg yolks (used to leave the whites) and chocolate and crisps. So at first apparently it worked very well. Apart from the fact she spent most of the day puking. We couldn't eat out, couldn't eat in, etc. So in the end all she ate was chocolate and crisps. Which if you are determined enough you can get plenty past a gastric band and pile on loads of weight. Hers had a fill port which they inject fluid into. You could kinda feel it under her skin. Problem was each time she changed her mind it was £150 and a trip to Southampton. At one point it was so tight that she just spent all day puking. She ended up with an iron deficiency and had to have quite a lot of the fluid it in removed. When we split up she was a size 21, though I wasn't exactly skinny either and even though I told her I didn't mind ('cause I don't, at all) she was always paranoid about it all. Oh and she always had acid reflux and had to take Omeprazole (sic?)

The surgery itself from what I learned is pretty safe enough. However, you do need to realise that you are going to have to make quite serious lifestyle changes afterward. However it's all kinda daft, because as I've explained if you really want to eat all day there are ways to cheat. Chocolate, for example, once made into a paste simply glides past the band like it's not even there.

I suppose it's kinda like any weight loss surgery. There is no magic bullet, it needs to be a small part of a much bigger change. Like, you really need to change your lifestyle and exercise and eat better with it for it to work.