“Congrats, you won Gastric Bypass Surgery”

The day finally came for me at Kaiser when my fav nurse practitioner (NP) got so busy with patients that she let me go.  I attempted to try a few other NP and got frustrated.  Most of them had the personality of a sea sponge.  After chatting with the member services group, they suggested one NP that was very similar to my original NP.

I was late to my first appointment with her.  She came into the examination room and told me she was shocked I even got an appointment with her, as she was not taking new patients.  Being that she said “I will take you on but let me tell you about myself”:

Next time don’t be late.  I like to be on time with all my patients and if you are late then you throw all our schedules off. (fair enough)

There are 3 things I focus on in my practice -

1. Hypertension (great I want to get off my High blood pressure meds)
2. Diabetes (even better, I am borderline type 2)
3. Obesity (wonderful, I am on a quest to move more and shrink)

So, we carried on a wonderful conversation about what I have been doing for my health.  That my goals match perfect to her focuses and how frustrated I am with the lack of progress I am making.

Then she announced to me (like it was the most wonderful thing in the world or like I just won the lotto)

Sample of Successful GP

“based on your weight, YOU ARE A CANDIDATE FOR GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY, whoo hoo!  Ok, she really didn’t say it that way but that is how I heard it.  I felt like a semi truck just hit me.  So many thoughts were running around my head…WHAT, do I have to loose that much weight?  How did I let myself get this fat!  This can’t be true!

Now I want to say that a few of my friends have had this surgery.  It was a great success for them.  It even saved some of their lives.  But for me, this was not the way I wanted to go.  I don’t take to any surgery well.  I also couldn’t imagine being limited to what or how much I could eat for the rest of my life.  I knew it was not an option for me.

I expressed my shock to her with tears in my eyes.  She said, “Ok then lets start on a plan that will work for you”.  She gave me a list of diet plan websites to visit and we started on setting goals (something I do very well with).

I left her office, got in my car, drove 3 blocks and pulled over to sob.  5 mins later I pulled myself together and at that point made a commitment to never be in the category of gastric bypass surgery again.

I found a great site that can help you make your own decision about Gastric Bypass Surgery. Gastric Bypass.com – Your Guide to Weight Loss Surgery