Area residents turn to surgery for help with weight
Weighing in at 414 pounds, 26-year-old Joni Bird decided she had to do something drastic or she would never win her lifelong battle with obesity – she underwent gastric bypass surgery and has lost 184 pounds. The Dunbar native said that the surgery wasn’t bad, but the lifestyle changes afterwards were difficult. “The surgery definitely helps you, it’s the greatest thing, but you have to change your lifestyle and you have to be committed,” she explained.
Bird said her transformation didn’t happen overnight. It took time, dedication, eating healthy and plenty of exercise. Noting she constantly monitors how much she eats, what she eats and she exercises daily.
Gastic bypass surgery is the combination of two surgeries – the restrictive surgery and the malabsorptive surgery. The restrictive surgery is a procedure that involves making the stomach smaller by removing or closing a section of it. This procedure limits the amount of food intake and causes the “full” feeling.
The Malabsorptive surgery shortens the length of the small intestine and or changes where the intestine connects to the stomach limiting the amount of food that is digested or absorbed thus causing “malabsorption.”
Prior to her surgery she ate anything that she wanted to eat and said that food was a great comfort to her, but those habits changed instantly after the procedure. “I was only allowed to have clear liquids for a couple of months,” she recalled. Today, her food portions are smaller, she’s picky about what she eats and she loves to exercise.
“I average one to three hours of exercise every day. It’s a lot of time, but I know that by doing this I’ll lose more.”
Like many others, Bird had tried different diets and different diet programs, but she never had long-term success and feared having additional health problems as a result of her obesity. Her surgeon, Dr. Khaldon Alsaadi, said, “Obesity is not a cosmetic problem, it’s a health hazard.”
Alsaadi said that people can be heavy, but if its muscle that’s weighing them down, then they aren’t overweight. “People should know the definition of obesity. It’s an excess portion of total body fat,” he said.
Alsaddi, like many physicians, uses the Body Mass Index (BMI) to calculate how much of a persons total body weight is comprised of fat. He said that anyone who has a BMI of more than 40 is considered morbidly obese and they are the likely candidates for gastric bypass surgery.
He said that obesity causes more than 300,000 deaths in the United States and costs the country more than $100 billion annually. According to Alsaddi, more than one-third of the American population is considered obese and more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight.
“There is a difference, you can be obese, morbidly obese or overweight and your physician can tell you in what category you fall,” he said.
Alsaadi said one concern with obesity is the co-morbid conditions. “They are health problems that are associated as a result of being obese.”
Fifty-three-year-old Ronald Cross of Scottdale said he is very familiar with health problems that were a result of being overweight. “I had blood pressure problems, diabetes, back pain and difficulty walking before I had the surgery and lost the weight.”
He said he opted to undergo surgery but was somewhat hesitant to the idea of it. “I just didn’t like the idea of it. Going through the surgery and having all that pain, but it really wasn’t that bad.” But unlike Bird, Cross experienced some complications after the surgery.
“My heart rate went sky high, but it was probably my body reacting from the shock of the surgery,” he said.
Alsaadi said that complications of the surgery exist and it’s a procedure that should only be used as the last resort for weight loss. “It’s a lot of surgery. A fairly extensive procedure but one’s that performed on a frequent basis.”
Since his surgery, Cross lost 90 pounds and regained 25. But unlike Bird, Cross doesn’t exercise, but eats less.
“I’m just happy that most of my other problems aren’t so bad now,” he said.
Cross said that his blood pressure is now stable, his back doesn’t ache as often and he can get around much better since he’s lost the weight. But, he warns that it’s not the easy way out. “This isn’t the easy way out, it’s difficult,” he said.
Bird agreed, noting that having the surgery wasn’t as bad physically as it is mentally. “It’s more of a mental struggle than a physical struggle because you want to eat and you can’t.” She explained that after the surgery she didn’t feel hungry, but she still wanted to eat realizing that eating was an addiction.
“Some people have addictions like drugs and alcohol. My addiction was food. When I was happy, I ate. When I was sad, I ate. When I was depressed, I ate. Now, that’s why I exercise so much – I needed something to replace it and fill the void,” she said.
She added that the weight loss has had a great effect on her and now she does things that she was never able to do before. “I can actually run after my son and catch him. I have more energy to play with him, and now I get to jump on the trampoline with him, he loves his new mommy,” she said.
All in all, both Bird and Cross are happy with the results of the surgery and both say they will continue to work at weight loss as they both fear the complications that come with being obese, and according to Alsaadi, women have it tougher.
“Women tend to be more overweight than men as they age and they burn less energy when resting than men do.” He added that there are many causes for obesity including psychological factors such as boredom, sadness or anger and sometimes happiness that can trigger over eating. Medications, illness and environmental circumstances can be significant factors in weight gain too and they are also reasons that some people put weight back on after having the surgery.
Alsaadi said some of the health hazards that are associated with obesity include stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic back pain, sleep apnea, arthritis and gall-bladder disease and that anyone interested in weight loss or anyone considering surgery as a means of weight loss should really research and educate themselves before making any decisions. “There is no quick-fix and there is no easy way out. The best plan is a healthy balanced diet and daily exercise,” he said.