No pain & humiliation, No gain.

There is a popular perception that the type of surgery (gastric bypass) I have elected to undergo is somehow an easy way out. A method for lazy people to become thin. That perception does not align with reality in anyway. I have completed a sleep study, I am both invigorated and exhausted.

This issue with the surgery is that its not in and of itself the end of the process. A gastric bypass will affect you for the rest of your life, however it will not in and of itself keep your weight off. Even to get to that point though, unless you are very wealthy, you have to undergo 3, 6, or 12 months of supervised dieting, this is where some are caught out because if you loose enough on the diet you will be denied the surgery. Then you need three clearances, a cardiac clearance, a pulmonary clearance, and in many cases a psychiatric clearance or nutritionist clearance.

The sleep study was for my pulmonary clearance, the would like to know if you have sleep apnea before you go under the knife. The main problem with a sleep study is that you are expected to go to sleep wearing sensors all over your body, then they put a Bane like mask that forces air into airway half way into the night. If you do anything like get a normal amount of sleep the day before your study, you won't sleep very much. The result is somewhat paradoxical, how do you get data about a persons sleep if they aren't really sleeping?

Anyway I do have sleep apnea, more than likely, but it will not keep me from having the surgery. The interesting thing about this process is that you are poked and prodded to within an inch of your life, before they let you go under the knife. You then endure a review of your psychology from someone who give you a battery of tests then spends an hour judging you. My clearances will be done by the middle of august, from there its the last month or two of a supervised diet, then I will get a surgery date.

My friends, do not worry that I am going to go around evangelizing weight loss surgery after I have had it done. The truth is that its a hard choice and its not for everyone, if you are willing to endure the humiliation and pain, the prods and the frustration, then maybe it is the right option for you. But if I have learned anything in my years on this planet its that there is no one size fits all solution, everyone must use the understanding of themselves and their situation to make the best decision that they can.