Hi there!
I see you have made the decision to no longer let weight be a controlling factor in your life. Congrats! Be proud and glad you are fortunate enough to get to this point. I am two and a half months post op and I feel great! I am down 50 pounds to 157. My eating habits and lifestyle have also changed. I no longer LIVE to eat. I enjoy all my favorite foods just in smaller portions.
In the beginning, I struggled with trying to cheat and eat spicy foods, and I discovered spicy no longer loves me. I had diarrhea for awhile and I learned the hard way. Hang tough and stick to the post op diet.
We all go through the "changes" associated with WLS. Current research in the New York Times points out the benefits of surgical weight loss as a treatment for diabetes.
In plain terms, weight-loss surgery currently provides one of the most effective therapies for diabetes, with patients seeing extremely high rates of improvement. Not only that, the surgery can provide similar levels of improvement for patients suffering from other obesity-related conditions, including high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis, asthma, acid reflux, infertility and high cholesterol.
The obesity rate in Tennessee increased more than 90 percent over the past 15 years, and in 2011 we ranked as the fourth most obese state in the United States by the Trust for America's Health and
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Despite these encouraging clinical trials, the simultaneous epidemics of diabetes and obesity cannot be cured with weight-loss surgery alone. Surgery is one small component of the overall success for weight management and diabetes remission. Patients who undergo these treatments must make lifestyle changes paired with good nutritional habits following surgery and a commitment to exercise.
That being said, weight-loss surgery can be considered as a treatment option before patients reach a point of last resort. Recently, the food and Drug Administration approved a lower recommended body-mass index threshold for Lap-Band surgery. The revised recommendations now allow patients who are:
•40-60 pounds overweight to get the procedure, whereas before patients needed to be
•80-100 pounds overweight.
These changes, combined with the encouraging results of the recent clinical trials, ultimately mean more and better options for patients.
I myself am a RN and I read your post and instantly went to the diagnosis of diabetes before I had even finished reading it. Sometimes we have a family history and our lifestyle choices speeds up the progression of the disease. But you can fight back and diminish the effects of diabetes!
Best of luck,
ginamarie3