Two years ago today, I hauled my (then) 344 pound self over to a hospital and underwent Gastric Bypass Surgery. Sixty-five days later, I had lost sixty-five pounds and over the next year, another 40 or so went with them. Actually, my weight has fluctuated a lot in that time — which I'm told is not unusual — but I've basically lost a hundred pounds of me.
To answer the two biggest questions: No, I have not regretted it for one second. And no, I still do not recommend it for all. Not everyone will have as easy a time as I had. I think I got lucky and it also helped that apart from weighing way too much, I was otherwise in excellent health. When you hear the percentages about how many people die or have severe complications from that surgery, you need to remember that some who have it are in pretty bad shape before the operation.
I do recommend that if you need to lose that kind of poundage, you at least look into the possibility of Gastric Bypass…but there are some people who'd simply be better off to go another route.
My body continues to change. My taste for sweets mysteriously disappeared in January of this year. Certain odd muscle aches still pop up now and then, especially when I've been too busy to go see the Physical Trainer. Every now and then, I eat or drink too fast and I have to stop and breathe slowly for about five minutes to regain my equilibrium. These are all minor negatives. It's all still a lot better than when I was at my peak of 365.
Everyone in my life has pretty much gotten used to the new, smaller Evanier…so I get fewer and fewer odd reactions. I think my favorite moment — and I think I told this here before — was when I went in to appear in a video documentary on Mel Blanc for one of those Golden Age of Looney Tunes DVDs. I was in the make-up chair being dolled up and the lady applying the Max Factor to my face asked me if I had an older brother. I told her no. She said, "About a year ago, I made up a guy who looked a lot like you except that he was older and fatter." That alone was worth the price of the surgery.