Troy had gastric bypass surgery and he is doing much better. I want to add the letter he wrote to family before because it says alot of his feelings and I think it is important...
Hi All,
I wanted to let you all know of a new adventure in my life. As I’m sure you all are aware, my health has not been all that great this past few years and most of the problems are centered around my diet and weight. I’ve been going through a program through my medial insurance this past year to help work on those issues. One of the choices at the end of this program is to have gastric bypass surgery. After seeing what success Melanie has had with her choice to do this six years ago, I’ve decided to do the same thing. My choice to do this is based on the health benefits compared to what I am experiencing now and what is eminent if I don’t make drastic changes in my lifestyle. This surgery is not a cure. It’s not a magic wand that makes everything better. It is simply a tool to jump start me into a life change that over this next year or two I need to make permanent. Melanie was helped by this surgery in losing a lot of weight. That was a temporary tool to get started. It has been her continued lifestyle changes that have made her health get so much better. Before her surgery, it was very hard for her to be motivated and even able to do the things she does now which keep her healthy. I’ve seen this with my sister in law over the past year since she had her surgery. It’s weird to see these two go workout and run on a daily basis. They have worked harder than anyone I know in making the changes needed to get to a healthy weight and keep it. Had they made the decisions not to do this surgery, I am sure they would still be in their other less healthy state today.
I just thought that I would share this with you all as I am going to be having my surgery first thing Monday morning in San Bernardino. I’m hoping to be home from the hospital in a day or two after the surgery. I’ve taking off about 20 pounds this year in preparing for the surgery as well as getting my blood pressure and other things under more control prior to doing this. Kaiser has a good approach to this and wants it to go as smooth as possible so they have a program that takes about a year to go through before they can consider you medically optimized for the surgery.
When Melanie had her surgery, she had several people including siblings that had some frustration with her having it. Some thought she was “cheating” to lose weight and others just did not understand why anyone would go to such extremes. I’ve lived through it for the last six years and have seen such a great benefit from her choice to do this that I am glad to be making this choice. I’m not doing it to change my looks. Those things don’t bother me much and don’t affect how I view myself or the world around me. I’m doing it for my health and for my family. I love what going through these changes has done for Melanie over the past few years and am looking forward to this new journey for me.
Here is a basic run down of what they are doing during surgery and what I’m preparing for if you are interested:
The next two weeks after Monday I will be on liquid only diet drinking protein drinks and strained soups, and the like. The third week I start on foods that are the consistency of baby food (Yuck). After that on week four, I get to start introducing solid foods to my diet again. It’s almost like a baby graduating to new foods in sequence. I will then start being able to eat small meals and will have to manage my diet to make sure I get the proteins and nutrients needed from the smaller portions of food that I will be able to eat. The surgeon will take a small portion of my stomach and separate it from the rest creating a small pouch (my new stomach) about the size of an egg. They then attach that to the intestines about a third of the way past where the stomach is connected. This bypasses most of the portion of that system that absorbs the fats and sugars from foods. This way I don’t only eat less but not as much of the sugars and fats can be absorbed by my system. They actually leave the rest of the stomach in tack and attached to the upper part of the intestines so that the enzymes and such are still created and continue to do their job in that system.
I’ll be off work for a couple weeks at home to recoup and deal with that part of the process. This is a pretty good sized surgery so there are of course risks involved. The risks however of continuing down the roads I am currently on with my health are even more risky. We have talked these things over with our doctors and children and we all feel it to be the right decision.
I do apologize for the novel I just wrote on this. I talked with Mom and Dad about this a few times over the past year and again the other night and asked them to not mention it as everyone is dealing with many things right now and this is of little consequence in my opinion to all the trials, struggles and even happy things that we all are facing and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. As I thought about that today, I decided that I should share it anyway as you all are part of my support in many ways and if you could remember me in your prayers for Monday morning, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and I love you guys,
Troy
That is basically the past two weeks. It has been a ride and I am happy to say that he is healing nicely and he is loosing weight as well.
This is Thanksgiving week and although my family will not all be here I am very thankful that they are mine and that they are all well and happy. I hope and pray that they are safe and well and that they are able to have a fantastic day. Treya will be going to Jordan's house and they will be spending Thanksgiving together. That makes my heart happy.
Nate was just called to be a zone leader in Scotland near Edinbourgh. He is excited and scared but he will do awesome. I am so proud of him and of his accomplishments. He is a good boy.
Well there is always so much more to say and I will add some more later.
For now bye
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