Weight Loss surgery if often view as the “cheat surgery” by the media and the “healthy” public. People with the surgery are force to lie, because other people view them as weak, or cheaters. Is it cheating, if you have a heart condition and they have to create another means for your blood to travel thorough your body?
Most people that get the WLS are sick, with diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep-apnea, have limited mobility, and basically are dying little by little. So tell me how is that so different than treating cancer or a heart problem?
However that's not the real issue. The real issue are all this reality TV shows showing people that are severely obese, and all their health problems, using WLS s a last result. Yes they show how the surgery is done, and what it does to the body. However, they fail to communicate to the public the process to get there. They always present the patient 4 months later, and how much they lost with the surgery. The fat doesn't just melts away. That gives an impression of the weight being lost as a breeze and effortless. They don't show the diet, the rigorous plant, the exercise, and the pain, and several medical issues that happens with the surgery. I have several friends that had the WLS. They are all succes stories. However they have a journey to get there. They have countless sleepless nights, dealing with pain, and fear of they might die.
It is day 8 since I had surgery and I might of have one good night sleep. I been bloated, in pain, sick, I cant take showers on my own because of fear I'm going to pass out because I'm so weak. My legs are bruised and my arms too from the compression socks and the IVs. I haven't leave my house in 7 days because every time I get up i get short of breath and dizzy. No worries, because apparently it happens to almost everyone that gets the surgery. Plus, I have anemia. Lets not mention that 9/10 people will need cosmetic surgery to remove the excess skin from their bodies, because it might cause rashes, and infections.
Also for me, because every surgeon is different, I have 7 days of all liquids, and protein shakes, then I go to stage 2: where I eat soft foods, including tuna, chicken, but mushed. Then after seven weeks of that diet, I start regular food. Never being able to eat sweets, alcohol, and high fat contents again. I have to take vitamins for the rest of my life, other wise i can get malnourished.
When I started this journey in June 3013, I weighted 286 pounds, Before the surgery on November 26, 2013 I weighted 256. Today 12/4/2013 I weight 249 and going down. I am very glad I did this, even thou i question my decision every day, because I just miss the food. But I am doing something for my health and I don't feel like I have cheated, nor took the easy way out. No sir... I am earning every single pound I loose with pain and sacrifice.
Not every body got bless with an awesome metabolism or a healthy heart, That is why, doctors and researches work so hard to investigate new methods to make us healthier. And if working hard to loose wight, be in constant pain, and not being able to eat what you want, its cheating? We need to redefine the word succes then.....