Importance of Support Groups after Gastric Bypass Surgery

This is a great artice about a reporter who realizes just because he had gastric bypass surgery, it is still an addiction.  His insightful reflections remind us that we all need support to keep us on track after surgery.

My story: Support system is key to reporter’s gastric bypass success
By Chris Bergeron/ Daily News Staff (Tuesday, October 3, 2006)

Lucio Tomich’s initial 170-pound weight loss after gastric bypass surgery was one of the reasons I had the same operation two years later.

As a reporter covering Framingham, I saw Lucio on several occasions and knew, like me, he was losing his battle with morbid obesity.

My weight affected virtually every aspect of my life, including my health, my work, my marriage and my self-image.

And, like millions of obese Americans, I struggled ineffectively to change a condition that threatened my professional and personal future.

During a 9-year period starting in 1994, my weight ballooned from a manageable 230 to nearly 400 pounds for reasons I only somewhat understand. According to the standard Body Mass Index, my weight placed me in the upper 1 percent of obese people worldwide.

I knew I continuously overate from personal and work-related stress. I knew I’d never learned to adjust from a physically active youth to a sedentary adulthood nor incorporated healthy nutritional habits into my lifestyle. Yet as my weight soared, I couldn’t understand what was driving me to gorge on foods I knew were bad for me and didn’t need.

I had to admit I was gripped by an uncontrollable compulsion I couldn’t change even with help from doctors, nutritionists and psychiatrists.

Like many obese people, I felt trapped in a deep depression that seemed to preclude hope. I lost 50 pounds at Weight Watchers and gained it all back and more.

I recall Lucio telling me in 2001 he was going to have bypass surgery and it piqued my curiosity at a time that surgery was growing in popularity.

When I next saw him more than a year after surgery I was amazed by the dramatic change from his prior weight to someone who seemed to be winning a battle that still consumed me.

After I was diagnosed with Adult Onset (Type II) diabetes, I totaled my car on the Mass Pike when I fell asleep at the wheel because of weight-related sleep deprivation.

When I decided to have gastric bypass surgery in May 2003 at the Faulkner Hospital, Lucio’s initial success was one of my decisive reasons.

In 18 months following surgery, I dropped from about 395 to my present weight of 250 pounds.

Without the surgery, which I believe saved my life, I feel I could not have escaped the predicament of obesity on my own.

Why did I keep my weight off and why did Lucio regain his?

There are no easy answers. I credit my weight loss to my wife, a former doctor in China, who provided around-the-clock physical and emotional support for months on end and prodded me whenever I regained a few pounds.

I also developed a strange off-and-on aversion to many foods I used to enjoy that now induce nausea if I taste or smell them.

I’ve come to believe surgery prompted inadvertent hormonal changes that killed my appetite beyond surgically reducing my stomach capacity to the size of an egg.

As a reporter, I have dealt with many alcoholics and heroin addicts and in the past considered them "weak" or blamed them for a lack of willpower to solve their problems.

I want to think people should be responsible for their lives. Yet I now believe some forms of morbid obesity are overpowering addictions that require significant medical and psychological intervention and years of support.

All obese people are not "weak" or "lazy" gluttons. I know the shame those judgments bring.

Gastric bypass surgery is a costly procedure. Studies have shown that controlling obesity has economic benefits by reducing insurance and medical expenses and permitting people to work more effectively.

A lifelong problem can’t be reversed overnight.

The key to post-surgical success is consistent follow-up and long-term support. Gastric bypass patients must do their parts, but hospitals and insurance companies must provide a safety net to see them through the likely complications.

Looking back, I attribute my ability to keep my weight off to a supportive family and physical changes still beyond my control.

I think Lucio Tomich deserves the help to learn to help himself.