Step 4 the 3 hour class

Okay now step 4 will be the most consuming step before the actual surgery. As it is a 3 hour class on the gastric bypass surgery, what they believe living with it after will mean, what they surgery actual does, how you will be in the initial  days, weeks and months after.

Now I am here to tell you what the 3 hour class really is. It is 3 hours crammed into a small room with more over weight people than you have most likely ever been around at one time. The room is unbelievably hot and uncomfortable, Then you have two of the skinniest people you will ever meet standing at the front of the room trying to teach you about what to expect and what your diet will be like for the rest of your life. You are given a file with 20 sheets of paper that will become your guide after the surgery. They give you sample menus for every step after the surgery as you will not be eating solid foods for 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery. They give you a total breakdown of the surgery what organs are involved and just what is truly going to happen. During this class they promote questions and learning but at the same time no where during the class will you get to actually talk to someone that has gone through the procedure or is currently living with eating and life after bypass. You will be in a room with people who are younger and older than you. With people that when you look at them you will most likely say do they really need this, as they don't look all that over weight. You will be in a room with people your most likely never going to see again after that class as no where during this whole journey do they recommend people staying in contact through email lists or messengers or something. Yes they give you support group info that you can use. But I know for me personally it would have been nice to stay in contact with people that were going to be going through the exact same steps at the exact same time as myself. But oh well you live and you learn and it is something I am going to suggest when I go for my first follow up appointment with the dietitian. Which is on January 15th.

What this class did do for me was actually teach me some stuff I had no idea about. Like how your digestive track works normally before surgery and how it will work after surgery. I am not saying the class is a waste of time as it really isn't, all I am saying is that I think the class could be preformed in a more organized and informative and more comfortable setting. I am saying go to the class and truly listen.

If you really want to succeed you really have to know that your lifestyle is changing and you have to embrace it. It was while waiting for the class to begin that I met a girl, extremely nice, very friendly Jamaican girl who has obesity related health issues, she has diabetes and so her doctor told her to have the surgery. I do not think she really was going into with the right mind set. She was talking about how she was not going to change the way she lived or ate just cause she was having the surgery. It is that type of attitude though that will lead to pain and failure. I can tell you right now that if you don't chew everything till it is pretty much mush in your mouth before swallowing you will be in for nothing but extreme pain and discomfort and will most likely throw up. I am learning this from experience. Even when I think I have chewed every little bit up to the smallest it could possibly be there have been times where I get so sick till I throw up cause it still wasn't small enough.

It is also during this class that you learn you need to have a support group behind you. Your friends and family have to be on this journey with you if your going to succeed. You really can't do it alone. Cause they need to understand that your not being rude if you don't eat what they cooked or if you can't go out to dinner with them cause there is nothing on the menu that is safe for your to eat. They have to support that your eating habits and foods are going to change. It is at this class that you will learn that your new lifetime diet will be High High protein low to no carbs and as low to no sugars as you can get. They aren't saying you will never have a cookie, cake, pie, chocolate bar again, just that you will only be having the minnute as possible, just to get the taste in your mouth really. As it is also at this class that you will learn about something called dumping syndrome.

Dumping syndrome, what is it you might ask. Well it is where  you eat things your body really can't tolerate anymore and it tries as fast and as painful as possible to get it all out. Everyone is different and different foods will cause your personal dumping syndrome. But the dietitian suggests that for most people it is fast food highly greasy or highly sugary like candy, cakes, chocolate, donuts stuff like that along with fries and deep fried crap. Thankfully I have not so far encountered this and I plan to not if I can help it. I don't relish the thought of being on the toilet with a bucket in my hand puking and poohing till the sun don't shine anymore...lol Yes I know it is a graphic picture but there really is no other way to describe dumping syndrome.

There really isn't more to say about this step in the journey. Just one more step and then it is surgery.