Other considerations -the Genes thing
There have been some other considerations in coming to the conclusion that gastric bypass may be the solution to my current and possible, or rather probable future problems. When my father read my first blog post he said that I should mention him as well, in fact he wrote me:"You can, you know!".
Physically, body-wise, I am almost a copy of my father, and don't understand me wrong, I am proud of it. In fact, we both are in some ways copies of his father too, my grandfather. We are not too tall, but not exactly short, broad shoulders, wide hands, short fingers, with a waist and middle of the body which expands further than most. We look big, but not morbidly obese like some of the people who are seen on those shows.
This body type though brings a number of problems with it, exactly those which I mentioned that my prof warned me for.... Diabetes at later age, blood pressure problems and with those two as a nice base, a whole list of other problems tend to emerge.
My dad has worked hard his whole life, spent many hours at work every day and now that he is at an age where he should be able to profit from those years of work, his body gave up on him, step by step, with diabetes and blood pressure being the major players. He now has to spend half a day a week just preparing his pills for the week to come, one pill sometimes to negate the negative effects of the previous one. He sits at the table, with lists and boxes of pills and fills plastic containers with his morning, lunch and evening pills for the week to come. He in fact takes pills five times a day, try to beat that!
On top of all of the problems he has, he also has been suffering from sleep apnea for the last two decades. In fact, he was one of the people in the early batches treated by professors for this disease. When he was diagnosed, sleep apnea was not as commonly know as it is today. It basically means he has to sleep with a machine next to his bed which forces wind through the windpipe, as he would not be able to breathe by himself whilst asleep and probably suffocate in his sleep. And here we go withe the genes again, apparently my great grandmother was diabetic as well, as is my father's sister, as was my cousin.
My father also has to take pills which he has adopted as his P-pills, which have him urinating frequently during most of the day with only like ten minute breaks in-between toilet visits. He has to take those P-pills two days out of three. That makes that he now has to plan his week accordingly for anything else he wants to do, including shopping, doctors visits, visiting friends or even have friends visiting him. He now has one grandson, and he and my mother have the grandson at home for one day a week, but even that he he has to plan ahead of time, it really isn't all that easy.
And then there is his heart, had problems since birth with taht one, but also suffered from irregulat heart beats and high bloodpressure at times.
I totally admire how he keeps this life going, and I realize very well that if it were just for himself he may have given up already, but the fighter he has always been, and the provider for the family he has been, he doesn't give up that easily. He wants to be there for all of us, including his only grandchild, grandson. We all love him dearly and hope he sticks around for many more.
But emotions aside, what I see in my dad now, will probably not be far from my reality unless I change things for myself. So now I have some choices, some options presented to me.
To the contrary of popular belief, I do not eat big heaps of food, in fact, I eat very little and may even skip meals from time to time if I am not hungry. I will wholeheartedly admit I eat "wrong" though, I eat what isn't the healthiest of foods and I am also a sugar junkie, carbonated rinks, candy, chocolate and the finer combinations of all as well. So obviously, option number one is to cut all of that and then I will lose the weight. Easier said than done, and probably impossible if "we" are totally honest about that. Have done it in the past, but gradually all comes back, after months or even years.
Do more sports, people tell me. Yes, an option, but not easy either as doing sports with my body isn't that easy to start with, and injuries would become plenty as I am quite competitive when I do sport. And sport makes me hungry, so vicious circle if you ask me, and not my solution.
But to be honest, in cutting all the good stuff out of my life and adding plenty sports, eating only what is healthy, I think i probably could ( ok, let's be honest, I KNOW I could) achieve the same results over time as the gastric bypass surgery could bring me.
Two things though:
1) I know somebody who lives that way and although he seems happy with it, I really don't think I could be, the way he lives.
2) One of the profs told me that I have now passed an age barrier where the above solution would very very hard to achieve, as when we get older it gets harder to maintain the sports level, and our metabolism also naturally slow down as well...so even harder to achieve, He claims that if i were to lose all the wieght at this age, i would probably have everything back by the time i turn 60.
So taking all of the above into consideration, I think I am making the best decision, with the gastric bypass solution.
Oh, I had spoken to the profs as well about possible other operations, similar to gastric bypass, like for instance the gastric band, a rubber band which is placed around the stomach. There are even newer and even less invasive techniques as well popping up. Prof said that the gastric bypass is now a thirty year old technique, improved with better technology over the years, but there is no other technique which delivers the same amount of history to build on. In other words, we now have people who have had this surgery thirty years ago and we know that they are still fine today, so it is a proven technique, there are little or no surprises left.
That is also why the prof said that, listen, this operation is a major operation, and it carries risks like any other major operation, but if you weigh these against future health risks, well, basically, he can't tell me what to do, but those are the facts.
And again, with the knowledge of all the above, what do you think? Am I not making the correct choice?
Today I am one month pre-operation.... In one month time it is my turn, a scary thought now, but hopefully I will be able to laugh it away at the next Christmas dinner :-)
There have been some other considerations in coming to the conclusion that gastric bypass may be the solution to my current and possible, or rather probable future problems. When my father read my first blog post he said that I should mention him as well, in fact he wrote me:"You can, you know!".
Physically, body-wise, I am almost a copy of my father, and don't understand me wrong, I am proud of it. In fact, we both are in some ways copies of his father too, my grandfather. We are not too tall, but not exactly short, broad shoulders, wide hands, short fingers, with a waist and middle of the body which expands further than most. We look big, but not morbidly obese like some of the people who are seen on those shows.
This body type though brings a number of problems with it, exactly those which I mentioned that my prof warned me for.... Diabetes at later age, blood pressure problems and with those two as a nice base, a whole list of other problems tend to emerge.
My dad has worked hard his whole life, spent many hours at work every day and now that he is at an age where he should be able to profit from those years of work, his body gave up on him, step by step, with diabetes and blood pressure being the major players. He now has to spend half a day a week just preparing his pills for the week to come, one pill sometimes to negate the negative effects of the previous one. He sits at the table, with lists and boxes of pills and fills plastic containers with his morning, lunch and evening pills for the week to come. He in fact takes pills five times a day, try to beat that!
On top of all of the problems he has, he also has been suffering from sleep apnea for the last two decades. In fact, he was one of the people in the early batches treated by professors for this disease. When he was diagnosed, sleep apnea was not as commonly know as it is today. It basically means he has to sleep with a machine next to his bed which forces wind through the windpipe, as he would not be able to breathe by himself whilst asleep and probably suffocate in his sleep. And here we go withe the genes again, apparently my great grandmother was diabetic as well, as is my father's sister, as was my cousin.
My father also has to take pills which he has adopted as his P-pills, which have him urinating frequently during most of the day with only like ten minute breaks in-between toilet visits. He has to take those P-pills two days out of three. That makes that he now has to plan his week accordingly for anything else he wants to do, including shopping, doctors visits, visiting friends or even have friends visiting him. He now has one grandson, and he and my mother have the grandson at home for one day a week, but even that he he has to plan ahead of time, it really isn't all that easy.
And then there is his heart, had problems since birth with taht one, but also suffered from irregulat heart beats and high bloodpressure at times.
I totally admire how he keeps this life going, and I realize very well that if it were just for himself he may have given up already, but the fighter he has always been, and the provider for the family he has been, he doesn't give up that easily. He wants to be there for all of us, including his only grandchild, grandson. We all love him dearly and hope he sticks around for many more.
But emotions aside, what I see in my dad now, will probably not be far from my reality unless I change things for myself. So now I have some choices, some options presented to me.
To the contrary of popular belief, I do not eat big heaps of food, in fact, I eat very little and may even skip meals from time to time if I am not hungry. I will wholeheartedly admit I eat "wrong" though, I eat what isn't the healthiest of foods and I am also a sugar junkie, carbonated rinks, candy, chocolate and the finer combinations of all as well. So obviously, option number one is to cut all of that and then I will lose the weight. Easier said than done, and probably impossible if "we" are totally honest about that. Have done it in the past, but gradually all comes back, after months or even years.
Do more sports, people tell me. Yes, an option, but not easy either as doing sports with my body isn't that easy to start with, and injuries would become plenty as I am quite competitive when I do sport. And sport makes me hungry, so vicious circle if you ask me, and not my solution.
But to be honest, in cutting all the good stuff out of my life and adding plenty sports, eating only what is healthy, I think i probably could ( ok, let's be honest, I KNOW I could) achieve the same results over time as the gastric bypass surgery could bring me.
Two things though:
1) I know somebody who lives that way and although he seems happy with it, I really don't think I could be, the way he lives.
2) One of the profs told me that I have now passed an age barrier where the above solution would very very hard to achieve, as when we get older it gets harder to maintain the sports level, and our metabolism also naturally slow down as well...so even harder to achieve, He claims that if i were to lose all the wieght at this age, i would probably have everything back by the time i turn 60.
So taking all of the above into consideration, I think I am making the best decision, with the gastric bypass solution.
Oh, I had spoken to the profs as well about possible other operations, similar to gastric bypass, like for instance the gastric band, a rubber band which is placed around the stomach. There are even newer and even less invasive techniques as well popping up. Prof said that the gastric bypass is now a thirty year old technique, improved with better technology over the years, but there is no other technique which delivers the same amount of history to build on. In other words, we now have people who have had this surgery thirty years ago and we know that they are still fine today, so it is a proven technique, there are little or no surprises left.
That is also why the prof said that, listen, this operation is a major operation, and it carries risks like any other major operation, but if you weigh these against future health risks, well, basically, he can't tell me what to do, but those are the facts.
And again, with the knowledge of all the above, what do you think? Am I not making the correct choice?
Today I am one month pre-operation.... In one month time it is my turn, a scary thought now, but hopefully I will be able to laugh it away at the next Christmas dinner :-)
thrifty: thirty I guess :-)
ReplyDeleteI think it's a very courageous decision on your part (doing surgery of any kind) and you don't need to justify to anyone. I wish you all the best of luck and a speedy recovery.
ReplyDelete