You know what irks me? When I tell strangers I had a gastric bypass procedure and they immediately assume I had the Carnie Wilson-Al Roker surgery and that all gastric bypass surgeries are the same. Well let me give you a quick education in the world of weight loss surgery (WLS). They are not all the same! There are like 15 variations on the procedure, with different complications, long-term outcomes etc. I wonder as I get farther out from this life changing event if I won’t feel the need to have to explain my surgery to everyone. It’s like I just don’t want people to think I have suffered. I feel like a born again Christian who wants to witness to every stranger on the street about the joy I now have in my life being able to eat NORMALLY and not have to obsess about everything I put into my mouth. I never have to diet AGAIN!

I had a procedure called a duodenal switch. In a nutshell, they made my stomach look like a banana instead of a football. They did not create some two tablespoon pouch and I kept my Pylorus which is the muscle that regulates food dumping out of the stomach into the intestines which means I can eat sugar and not get sick. Then they created a “Y” out of my intestines. Food comes down one side of the Y, bile down the other. Your body needs to mix food with bile to absorb fats. In my body, it only mixes at the bottom part of the Y instead of the whole intestines. So I only absorb about 20-30% of the fat I take in. Yes kids…. That means I can eat LOTS AND LOTS of butter and not have to worry about putting on weight!!! The only thing I absorb completely is SUGAR. Did you know that you begin to absorb calories from sugar as soon as it hits your tongue? Sugar is the one thing that is absorbed from mouth to anus nonstop. Anyway, the reason you don’t hear more about this surgery is because: 1) There are only about 50 doctors in the world who do it (it’s technically difficult) 2) [get ready for a big shocker here folks] Doctors make more money doing the other surgeries because they can do them faster and they don’t require as much patient followup!

Anyway… this surgery is like Heaven to me. If I told you that there was a pill where you could eat anything you wanted and never gain weight, would you want it? Yeah well for me, I found it. It’s just not a medical pill intervention, it was a surgical intervention. I eat completely normally. I can put away a medium sized prime rib at the Outback Steak House. Last night I ate a WHOLE big Cadbury chocolate bar with Almonds. I love my surgery! And it loves me! You can click here to see before and after pictures of me. Scroll to the bottom to see the latest. (I swear to you I didn’t realize I was that fat!)

I do have to take 2 multivitamins a day and lots of calcium. Also, since I live in Seattle, land of the no sunshine for 7 months out of the year, I take extra vitamin D. But otherwise, all my blood work is NORMAL. I was diabetic before this surgery too and this cured my diabetes. My cholestrol is 102. My blood pressure is 120/60. I mean the fact I am now normal sized is nothing compared to the health this surgery has given me. My children now have a lap to sit on.

Can I go on record saying that this WLS has made me a better mom? It has. More energy, more opportunities for my kids. I didn’t even realize the opportunities I was missing out on for my children as a fat mommy.

So if you are 100lbs overweight and have “written off” surgical intervention…. Email me. Explore some more. My quality of life is way better now then it was before. I’ve lost 160 lbs and can eat anything I want. Life is good.

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