It just dawned on me that last Saturday marked twelve years since I had Gastric Bypass Surgery and lost…well, it's hard to say how much weight I lost. I lost a large amount between the time I decided to have the surgery and 5/26/06 when I actually went under the knife or the laparoscopic tools or however you'd phrase it. That was because I began to change my eating habits including the abandonment of all carbonated beverages.
After the surgery, I ate almost nothing for a few weeks without the slightest craving or ill effects. The rate at which pounds evaporated slowed as I began eating again and various after-effects of the surgery settled down. At one point though, I realized I'd lost 72 pounds in 72 days — or maybe it was 75 pounds in 75 days. Something around that. In the morning, Carolyn would wake up, look over at me and ask, "Who are you and why are you in Mark Evanier's bed?"
My weight went up and down as is the norm with everyone…and I guess the best answer to the "How much did you lose?" question is just to say I'm now 90 pounds under my top weight and five or six waist sizes.
What I'm remembering today is something that was said to me before the surgery by the doctor who helped me through the process. I was in pretty good health back then. I was just too large to fit into the world in which I was trying to live. He said, "If you have this surgery now, you'll breeze through it because all your vital signs are great. If you have it in ten or twelve years, you'll be doing it to save your life and you'll have a much rougher time of it."
He was right. I didn't exactly "breeze" through it. It was more like a stiff wind with gusts up to 40 MPH. But it was a lot easier than if I'd waited until, say, now. That doctor no longer practices and doesn't want me mentioning his name but he reads this blog and I want him to know how grateful I am to him for all the wisdom and caring he bestowed on me. May you all have a doctor who's that good at what he does.