MM - BBGC - Life After WLS

Yummy - Get yours now!

 
 

Does it matter?

  

^{(Image - Natalie Dee)}

 I got this comment on a post recently - 

"I stopped reading your blog a short while back, because I guess I just didn't want to hear that there were ANY problems associated with WLS... I was living on cloud nine, losing weight, feeling pretty good, and those increasing shakes and dizzy spells, sweating and near fainting didn't seem like such a big deal at first. Now I'm starting to worry, because it's pretty obvious to me that something is going on..."

I have to be perfectly honest -  this comment floored me.  

(I realized the commenter was probably a little dragged down by my postings at the time - when she was having a REALLY GOOD result, and didn't want TMI.  I get that.)

And, when I get those 'un-subscription notifications'?  I wonder - for half a second - what did I say?  Did I offend?  (Yes, I know I offend.  I offend Baby Jesus and Your Surgeon ALL the time.  I am sorry.  A little bit.)

But, I forget to consider the fact that someone might click away, stop reading, unsubscribe and move on because of something I have shared, or, over-shared.  

I think it's that I believe that other people should be simply able "take it" when reading the good stuff, the mediocre stuff, and the "OH MY GAWD THAT COULD HAPPEN TO ME?!" stuff.   I mean --- you're HAVING SURGERY.  YOU ARE CUTTING YOURSELF OPEN FOR THE SAKE OF LOSING WEIGHT --- you have got to have some strength.

Frankly, I don't know how anyone goes through elective surgery without being aware that "shit happens," but then again, I have seen some REAL WINNERS having this heah surgery, and, well, never mind.  I mean, you can have an ingrown toenail get infected and die, same goes for any part of your body.  

Bodies are fragile.  Intestines were never meant to be re-routed, but when they are?  

MAGICAL THINGS HAPPEN! LIKE MASSIVE WEIGHT LOSS!  LIKE DIABETIC REMISSION!  LIKE THROWING AWAY THE WALKER AND DOING A 5K!

Sometimes, it is totally worth the risk!  But, sometimes, it gets screwy!  Like I said, shit happens.  Figuratively and literally, after weight loss surgery.  

Even in the beginning (circa spring 2004) I did not concede to the sunshine and butterflies WLS club.  I never felt like "I PUFFY HEART LOVE MY GASTRIC BYPASS AND I WANT TO DRY HUMP IT 4-EVAH!"  I felt like it was something medical, that I DID, to LOSE WEIGHT, and I hoped to hell it would "work" and by that I simply meant that I would LOSE THE WEIGHT.  I never really thought about anything else.  I wanted to be "thin."  (I'm not.  See how that works?  LOL.)  

I knew of risks, I had to sign off on a few consent forms (which I am trying to get in my possession now, just to see what it is that we were told in 2003/2004) that shared some dirty deets about WHAT COULD HAPPEN.  

I was aware of some things, but others, not at ALL.  

"What the hell just happened to me?"  

There is a huge amount of learning I did on my own, and it's juuuuuuust starting to help me out now.  I wished there was more information out there -- for myself and my peers ---  good, bad, or indifferent!  It's all about knowledge!  

WLS'ers are a new "breed" of altered human --LOL - think about it --- there are things to learn!  Studies to be done!  I just cannot understand the 'sticking your head in the sand' syndrome that happens with so many of us.  

I  should be used to it by now.  Someone asks a question, and I tell them the truth, and the fingers go in their ears,

"LA LA LA LA, I'm not listening, that won't happen to me!  I follow my surgeon's rules/don't eat sugar/don't use a straw/never took an ibuprofen/didn't have a Diet Coke, because that's why you pass out, Beth!" 

Yes, I have been told that I have medical problems, because, I simply Do It Wrong.  *smile*  No, I mean that.  "You have seizures because you don't follow your rules.  You don't use your Tool."

Let me show you my TOOL, honey.

Look at this blog.  It is built upon a foundation of doing it all wrong.  O-o

But, what do you say when it's YOU?  After you've been Swearing It Would Never Happen To You?  What then? One day - your little unicorn gets shot down, and you come running, "nobody ever told told me that could happen!  NO FAIR."   

Educate yourself.   Be prepared for when "shit happens."