Better not tell James “Chriss” Scovil, Jasmine Blocker or Blocker’s two sisters that bariatric surgery is the easy choice for losing weight.
All of them can tell you that’s not true.
You don’t just wake up one morning and schedule surgery the next week.
There are a series of preliminary steps to follow that are likely to take three or four months. They include:
• Meetings with a dietitian to learn how having part of your stomach removed from the digestive process changes your eating and drinking patterns for life.
• Having one or more sessions with a mental-health professional to determine whether conditions like depression and anxiety need to be addressed.
• Getting a full explanation of the surgery from the surgeon who will perform it.
And then there’s the period just before surgery, typically two weeks, when your diet will consist of clear liquids. Plus several weeks afterward when your body goes slowly from clear liquids to solid foods.
Forbidden food is taunting.
“I still had a 17-year-old son I had to cook for at home,” said Blocker, a registered nurse at Winter Haven Hospital. “When I’d be cooking something in the kitchen or he’d get up and start cooking sausage, that would smell so good.”
Plus there are weekly Sunday dinners with her parents, Perry and Ernest Blocker; and sisters Teria and Shandra Blocker. Each sister had gotten weight-loss surgery before her and, while sympathetic, sometimes couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease their older sibling while she was on liquid or pureed diets.
Scovil, a chef, didn’t have family to cook for daily.
Having the surgery right at Thanksgiving, however, the Davenport resident did forego preparing the traditional holiday feast for his friends that has been known to include 12 pies. He promises it will return next year.
He resumed walking the day after his surgery, discovering with delight he soon could cover the same distance as before but in less time.
The combination of reduced food intake and exercise has paid off.
Scovil, 56, said he’s gone from Triple X large shirts to medium ones; and from 2XX-large pants into small ones.
He weighed 289 pounds when he first saw the bariatric surgeon in 2020. On March 21, he weighed 192 pounds.
He said he has lost more than 100 pounds four separate times before the surgery, using programs like Nutrisystem and Herbalife. He would keep the weight off for a few years but then regain it. At one point, he weighed 368.
“You start to think '’m never going to lose this weight, so why bother,’” he recalled. “It kind of leads you into depression.”
He wanted a more permanent solution.
His weight loss has been consistent, said Marianne Lehman, program director of AdventHealth Heart of Florida’s bariatric weight-loss program. She cautions patients not to be discouraged, however, if they hit a temporary plateau.
Blocker had her surgery Feb. 25. She was the second person to have it at Winter Haven Hospital, which began its program last year.
Lakeland Regional Health instituted a program this year.
Interviewed three weeks later, Blocker had gone from 296 pounds to 264 pounds and was elated. At her June checkup, she’s expecting reductions in medicines she takes for diabetes and hypertension.
Those chronic conditions were one motivation for her to commit to bariatric surgery. Turning 40 was another.
“I said, ‘I need to do something with my life. I want to make my health a priority. I want to live as long as possible.’”
Her sister Shandra, one year younger, had the surgery in December. So far, she’s lost 50 pounds. Teria, 33, who had it six years ago, lost 200 pounds, Blocker said.
Scovil was able to discontinue his blood pressure medicine as he lost weight.
“I’m living in this body and I see it every day, but it’s hard to believe I did it,” Scovil said. “I feel a love for myself now I didn’t have before.”
Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robinwadams99@yahoo.com
The Link LonkApril 06, 2021 at 05:03PM
https://www.theledger.com/story/lifestyle/health-fitness/2021/04/06/its-not-easy-2-patients-share-their-experiences/7005114002/
It's not that easy: Two patients share their experiences - The Ledger
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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