Senior Citizens and Gastric Bypass Surgery

The latest research is showing that senior citizens and teenagers are benefiting from gastric bypass surgery as much as middle aged adults. The study showed that adults over 60 did not have any more complications than anybody else.

Senior citizens also saw a decrease in blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. They experienced positive affects on their sleep apnea, acid reflux disease and the surgery has been know to extend the life of their knees and hips.

Weight loss surgery is performed on over 150,000 people a year in the United States and only about 1 to 2 percent of these people are senior citizens, but that number is expected to increase in the future.

Deciding to have gastric bypass surgery is a difficult decision to make, but it is a decision I am glad I made.

Gastric Bypass Surgery Risks

Gastric Bypass Surgery Risks

Gastric bypass surgery is considered major surgery and like all other major surgeries, it is not without its risks.

An infection of the incision or a leak from the stomach into the abdominal cavity at the location where the intestine is connected are two of the biggest complication with gastric bypass surgery. With all surgeries you are at risk for pulmonary embolisms (a blood clot in the lung). Gastric bypass patients are also at risk gallstones, anemia and osteoporosis.

About 1% of all people that have gastric bypass surgery will die from it.

The following conditions may occur after having a Roux-en-Y procedure:

• Your stomach staples may pull loose
• You may have hiccups and bloating due to the bypassed stomach enlarging.
• You may develop ulcers or hernia.
• Problems with nausea and vomiting may exist due to a narrowing between the stomach and the intestine.
• Iron deficiency and even anemia may become a problem.

You will have to decide if these risks are worth taking for the benefit of being able to return to a healthy weight. Fortunately, I did not experience any of these side effects as a result of having this surgery.

The Benefits of Lap Band Surgery

Lap band surgery is a type of gastric bypass surgery that is relatively new to this country. It is relatively simple compared to the other types of gastric bypass surgery that have typically been performed in the past.

Simply put, this procedure is performed by placing a band around the upper part of the stomach through a small incision in the abdomen. This procedure is much less invasive than the more commonly performed Roux-en-Y procedure.

Some of the benefits of having lap bad surgery are:

• Shorter hospital stay (no more than 48 hours)
• Shorter recovery period (3-7 days)
• No stomach incision is required
• No staples are needed in the stomach
• The stomach size can be changed without surgery
• The procedure can be completely reversed, if necessary

At the time I had my surgery, my insurance company would not cover lap band surgery. I believe you will see that changing due to the growing problem of obesity in this country. I also believe the cost of lap band surgery will be less than the cost of ongoing medical care for a person that has all the normal medical problems associated with being overweight. I think that the number of lap band surgeries performed in this country will rise as people seek a solution to their weight problem.

Eating Enough Calories after Gastric Bypass Surgery

One thing most people do not consider after having gastric bypass surgery is how severely their calorie intake will be restricted. It takes at least 800 calories to function properly and 1000-1200 is better.

For the first two months following surgery, you will be doing good to be able to eat 400-500 calories daily. With this being the case, you are probably going to find that you are very tired. It is very important that you make every calorie count and that they all be calories with nutritional value.

At that early stage, your protein intake is going to be your biggest concern. At that point in time, after my surgery, everything I ate was protein. The shakes are very convenient and most of them have at least 20 grams of protein per shake. You just have to watch the sugar content, because a lot of protein shakes are also high in sugar (they are trying to cover up that taste).

I also ate a lot of tuna and salmon. My dietician wanted me to have at least 60 grams of protein daily. Cottage cheese, salmon and tuna are all very high in protein. I ate all of these things pretty much right from the beginning. I remember pureeing salmon two days after I was home from the hospital. It wasn’t like I thought it would be (I am not sure how I thought it would be), but it worked for me at the time.

The first few months are rough, but if you do what you are told and what you know you should, there is going to be a thinner and healthier you on the other side.

Recovery After Gastric Bypass Surgery

The first two months after my surgery was the most difficult, but this is true of most any surgery. My surgery was done lapriscopically and I had five, one inch incisions that had pieces of tape over them that fell off after a week.

I was granted six weeks of disability, something my employer was not thrilled about and they actually tried to get me to change the date to suit them. They did eventually see it my way. I did return to work after two weeks and worked half days for a week and then returned to work full time on the third week. If your job is physical, you may need the whole six weeks. I sit behind a desk.

These are your food options for the first two weeks; protein shakes, baby food or pureed and strained food. Sounds delicious, doesn't it. This sounds boring and it is, but trust me, solid food can be very painful. About a week after surgery, I began eating soft foods and chewing the heck out of them. This not what is recommended, but when I told the dietician she seemed almost pleased. I guess this meant I was progressing normally.

You gradually add different foods as time goes on and you should be able to eat almost everything at the end of two months, except the dreaded sugar. Although at this point, sugar does not cause me lot of problems. So once again, it is up to me to control my sugar intake.

I tend to stay away from foods that are really firm, such as; steaks, hamburgers and some chicken breasts. Learning to eat again is a process and I feel am very lucky. I am able to enjoy most everything I did before, just a whole lot less of it.

Gastric Bypass Surgery at a Glance

Have you been considering having gastric bypass surgery and you want a general idea about what might be involved? Gastric bypass surgery has become very popular today and has restored the health of many of its recipients.

Gastric bypass surgery reduces the size of the stomach and allows food to bypass some of the small intestine. Gastric bypass surgery causes you to become full more quickly and as a result you will consume less food. Fewer calories are absorbed as a result of part of the small intestine being bypassed. This process will lead to rapid weight loss, especially during the first 6 months following the surgery.

The Roux-en-Y is the most common type of gastric bypass surgery today with the lap band quickly growing in popularity. The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery is performed by reducing the stomach to a small pouch by stapling the stomach. This small pouch is connected to the middle part of the intestine. This will cause the rest of the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine to bypassed.

Both types of gastric bypass surgery can be performed either lapriscopically (through small incisions with a scope) or through and incision in the stomach.

Gastric Bypass Surgery and Losing Weight

When I first started researching gastric bypass surgery, I was under the impression that losing weight would be a piece of cake. Not true. I had about 130 pounds to lose and I figured all I had to do was have the surgery and the pounds would just drop off.

In my case, the first 60 pounds was pretty easy. After all, my stomach was the size of an egg. How much food could it really hold. But as time goes on, things change. The stomach, being a muscle, will stretch and you will soon find you will be able to eat more. At least this was true in my case.

After that first six months, I felt I was no different than anyone else as far as losing weight goes. Now I had to work at it and heaven forbid, I even have to get off the couch and move around once in a while.

In the pre-op classes I took, they told a lot of horror stories about how sick sugar was going to make me. I wish that were true and don't get me wrong it does cause some people to suffer from dumping syndrome, but not me. I sometimes wish it did bother me to eat sugar that way I would be less tempted by it, but I have very little ill effects from eating sugar.

I have come to the realization that losing the rest of my weight is going to be all about making peace with my relationship with food and having a good plan to deal with life on life's terms.

Gastric Bypass Surgery and My New Life

I have decide to take this journal in a little bit of a different direction and talk about things that are little bit more personal to me. I had gastric bypass surgery September 7, 2005 and I consider that the first day of the rest of my life. Things have changed tremendously for me since that day.

The first 2-3 months are not easy, but it kind of reminds me of child birth in the respect that as time passes you tend to forget the pain you went through to get where you are today. As time goes by, you begin seeing the rewards of the pain and suffering you endured early on. Today, I almost go as far as calling my gastric bypass surgery a gift from God, because my life has changed so much for the better.

I know longer have high blood pressure and I do not take any medication for weight related issues. I no longer have sleep apnea and my sugar levels are more normal. These are the medical things that have changed.

I have more energy and I can cross my legs again. This is something that people that are not obese take for granted, but not having been able to do this for so long, it is a small thing that I take great pleasure in being able to do again. There are many small things that everybody else takes for granted that have become part of my life.

Gastric bypass surgery has been a life saver for me and hopefully it will increase my life for many years, but there are also many misconceptions the general public has about this surgery. More about those tomorrow.