CityView Magazine

more than the size of a golf ball. Non- starchy vegetables, like green beans or salads, should be no bigger than your fist. Rebecca now eats three meals a day. Before surgery, she would eat on the run all the time. Not anymore. Now, meals are much more deliberate and planned. Every day, 365 days a year, Rebecca eats two boiled eggs for breakfast. Like many people after bariatric surgery, she lost a lot of hair and now eats enough protein to keep her hair and to maintain her muscle mass. Lunch is a can of chicken and a cup of Breyer’s light yogurt. Rebecca prepares dinner for her husband and son and eats a small portion of whatever they’re having. Because her stomach is so small, Rebecca does not drink beverages with her meals. In fact, she doesn’t drink within one hour before or after a meal. If she does, it makes her feel sick. Rebecca says she can drink alcohol, within limits. She can drink one glass of wine or a mixed drink, but it affects her quickly and intensely, before she even finishes the drink. She does not drink any beer or carbonated beverages. A former Mellow Yellow fanatic, she hasn’t had a single soft drink since surgery. Carbonated beverages would swell her stomach and leave her feeling hungry, so they are off limits. Rebecca has known her husband since they were in kindergarten together. They have been together through thick Complications M ost patients do well after bariatric surgery with few complications. Rebecca was an exception (she’s one in 100). About eight months after surgery she developed a small bowel obstruction, a painful condition where adhesions, or scar tissue from the surgery, entrap part of the intestines, blocking flow. Symptoms are pain, nausea and vomiting. After a surgical procedure known as “lysis of adhesions” she was back to new. Then, one year to the day after that procedure, Rebecca developed a volvulus, a condition where a loop of the bowel becomes twisted. After surgery, she recovered and went home from the hospital three days later. One week later, Rebecca developed high fevers and was diagnosed with a pelvic abscess. This is a collection of pus and bacteria that needs to be drained. After one day in the hospital, she was as good as new. She’s had no further complications since. CityViewNC.com | 59 and thin (literally), and have been married 16 years. “This surgery makes a strong marriage stronger and a weak marriage weaker,” Rebecca says. “Surgery is not going to fix your relationship.” In some cases, there is jealousy in marriages after a spouse has had the surgery, but Rebecca says her husband and son have been nothing but supportive. “I consider December 17, 2004, my new birthday,” she says. “People treat me differently – the majority of people. I’ve lost friends. I was the funny fat girl, the largest of the group, now I’m thought of as competition. I’m more confident, and I’m happier. I get more attention from men. A part of me wants to become angry (about that), but in this society thin is most acceptable.” Rebecca no longer has high blood pressure. Her cholesterol and sugar levels are perfect. Her knees don’t ache, and she rarely takes anti-inflammatory medications. She does take a multivitamin, iron and calcium with vitamin D twice a day, and will for life. She’s active, fit and happy. When she goes to the beach, she wears a swimsuit. She’s 35, five feet two inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said recently, “next to my son.”CV Dr. Lenny Salzberg teaches and sees patients at the Southern Regional AHEC Family Medicine Center.

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