Gastric Sleeve

I am a male soon approaching 40.  I have a family history of obesity.  Before surgery I weighed 230 lbs.  It was as if my body liked that weight.  It was hard to gain more and impossible to loose any.  However I knew from others in my family that is happy weight would slowly increase over time.  I fully expected to weight 270 by the time I turned 60.

It just wasn't what I wanted.  I studied and studied and I don't want to go into it all here, now.  But it boils down to this, people are pre-disposed to being over weight.  It can be overcome by will power, however in studies 99% of people who lost 50 lbs or more regained it in 5 years.  Vegas would love those numbers.  More over studies have shown those who have lost that much weight feel more hunger than others, and use fewer calories.   The body is trying to regain the weight.  It is fighting the mind.  And I have learned over the years the heart usually beats the mind.

So I could fight natural instincts for the rest of my life or I can find a more root solution.  Well this year the long term results on a new surgery came out, Gastric Sleeve.  It has better weight loss results than radical surgeries like RNY.  And it has fewer complications than the band.  But what hit me most was surrounding the issue of hunger.  2/3 of the patients were saying they were no longer hungry, and some times forgot to eat.  The other was from a Japanese researcher who said he found that patients of the "sleeve" were missing almost all hunger hormone gherlin.

This was encouraging.  My Body Mass Index was 34.  I have horrible heart burn, and snore, but I doubt I could talk an insurance company to pay for the surgery.  Most insurances require a BMI of 35.  However most doctors require a BMI of 30.  My wife said it had to be a doctor in the USA.  However I needed a doctor I could afford.  I found Dr. David Kim.  However I was told there were others in Dallas area who are also in the $12,000 range.  Texas has tort reform.  So I guess Texas is the place to be.

-------
Kim seemed very kind and intelligent, no beating around the bush.  I like that.  He also has a large staff who are very confident.   With all those salaries to pay He must do quite a few surgeries a week.  Still no complaints.
-------

Before the surgery they have to live off protein shakes.  They say this is to shrink the liver so it is out of the way durring surgery.  The shakes were good, but got old fast.  Before long I preferred water.

Before the shakes I was 230 lbs, after I was 219.  Not bad, but if I had to do that the rest of my life I would prefer to be fat.

In the next post I will talk about the surgery.