6-Month Followup to the Surgery

Today was my six-month followup. I had my surgery, open roux-en-Y, on April 7th. I met with my surgeon today to see how things were going.

So far things seem to be progressing just fine.

He said that skin removal isn't something to consider for another couple years. "If you jump the gun and get it removed too soon then continue losing weight you'll have more excess skin, and two operations get quite expensive," he said. Which, of course, is true. Disappointing, but true.

I saw a chart on the wall for BMI that put me at very obese. There was still a high label of fathood that I no longer fell under, but it said I wouldn't be at a "healthy weight" until I reached 165 pounds. Ugh!

In the conversation with the doctor he said he didn't see me reaching below 200. I don't know if this is a challenge or not. I knew that bariatric surgery isn't meant to lose %100 of the excess weight; Roux-en-Y enables most patients to lose something like %70 of the excess weight, so you're still fat, just not as fat.

Still that was kind of disappointing to hear though.

He said that my weight loss from when I started out has been enough that I should be seeing many increased benefits already; mobility, comorbities like sleep apnea and related health issues should have dropped, my risk of joint diseases, heart disease, certain cancers, etc. should all have dropped significantly, he said.

The entire weight loss shouldn't stabilize for another year or so. Until then...just try to stick with exercise and eating sensible portions.

That's my progress update for the surgery. Six months later, still alive. Still very stressed. And still seeing the insurance-mandated psychologist to help in dealing with my food-related...and life-related...issues and try to head off the depression and stress that life entails now that I really don't have my old friend "Big @#$ Pizza with Extra Extra Cheese" to console me.

Tomorrow will be weigh in. I hope that it will bring good news.