Hm well I just realized a lot of people do not know the basic stuff about this surgery. What it is, what is done, eating afterward. I think I am going to do a quick 101 for those people.
So skip this post if you already know it all.
In a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which is what I am having, the stomach is made smaller by creating a small pouch at the top of the stomach using surgical staples. The smaller stomach (which I will be referring to as my "pouch") is connected directly to the middle portion of the small intestine (jejunum), bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine (duodenum).
This upper portion of the small intestine (duodenum) is where carbs and sugars are processed. In this surgery, the pouch is directly connected to the middle portion of the small intestine (jejunum), bypassing the duodenum completey...hence the name bypass. lol.
Photo of what my stomach will be set up like after:
This will help me lose weight in 2 ways:
- Decreasing the amount of food I can eat (my stomach will initially hold about 1/8 of a cup of food at MAX, gradually expanding to about 30cc of food. An average stomach can hold about 1.5 liters of food.
- Since the duodenum is bypassed, sugar and fats are not an option for me to process. If I do eat something with more than 6g sugar / serving (or 6g carbs), I will get sick and have something called dumping syndrome.
Following the surgery, I will have an intense post-op eating plan. Rather than bore everyone with details now, I'll just say it will consist of protein, protein and some more protein. Lots of liquids, broths, pureed meats, etc.
Sorry I did not post about these basics earlier. Hopefully now everyone feels pretty informed about what is really going on.
3 comments:
Very interesting! How does your body regulate sugars and fats? Can it digest *any* sugar or fat? It seems like this surgery will take you from one end of the extreme to the other; what fats/sugars/others will you need to be careful to get enough of post-surgery?
Good questions :)
Natural sugars are totally digestible. After 4 months, I am allowed fruit, for example. It's the complex refined sugars that will give me problems.
I will be eating lots of lean protein, which contains enough fat to exist :) But it's also pretty much straight muscle weight, so there are dangers of losing *too much* weight. We are stressed to eat 3x a day whether we feel like it or not.
As for vitamins, I will have nutritional deficiencies forever. There's a vitamin regimen including monthly B12 shots, a daily multivitamin, 1200mg calcium/day and 40mg of iron. This will prevent me (ideally) from being too malnourished.
Hope that answers your question (somewhat).
dara,
you are very brave! i commend you for doing something to change your life even though it is scary.
i'll be thinking about you tomorrow. i'm sure everything will go by the book.
<3
jo
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