Strictures what are they and more
I am suppose to have surgery in March, any advice would be welcomed.
I can't address the strictures question but regarding the eating comment. When I was early post op, my DH ate some left over pizza for lunch. It smelled great but I realized that I could enjoy the smell without tasting it and it was alright from then on. Many things do not taste good anymore, like white bread, sandwich buns, potato chips, and carbonated beverages. As you get farther out you will be able to eat small amounts of regular food but you may not enjoy them as much. And that is a good thing. The whole point of having this surgery is to change directions to better living so don't start worrying about old food favorites. Take the time you have left before surgery to turn your mind around...so to speak.
I had to have two strictures corrected; one at about 3 months out, and again about 6 months. The opening to my pouch got a little too narrow as it healed, so it was too narrow to allow food to pass through. My surgeon scoped it, and once he saw the stricture he stretched it out with a balloon. Not exactly great fun, but not a big deal either.
As far as eating, it didn't bother me a bit to watch my family eat "normal" food while I was on the liquid phase post-op. I had zero hunger. In fact, I had to use alarms on my cell phone to prompt me to drink my protein shakes. My husband was more weirded out than I was; he felt guilty eating in front of me. He couldn't understand the concept that I had absolutely no interest in what he was eating. None.
I would suggest that you and your significant other attend one or more support groups, if you can, pre-op so you both can ask questions. :)
Strictures are the development of excess scar tissue at the site where the surgeon built the stoma, which is where the pouch joins the intestine. The percentage of people who get them is pretty small, but sometimes those who DO get them have to have the stoma dilated several times before the problem resolves.
As far as you seeing the number of people who have problems after RNY, you need to keep in mind that for every one person who posts that they are having problems post-op, there are literally dozens who have no post-op problems whatsoever. It just seems like lots of people have issues because the people who DO have trouble are the ones who post and the ones who aren't having trouble DON'T post just to say "2 months out and still no problems at all".
At first, it was sometimes hard to be eating so little when other people were still eating their normal (large!) portions, but it got easier over time (partly because you get used to eating the much smaller portions and partly because you can eat bigger portions as time passes). Keep in mind that you will feel FULL with the small portions, so any urge to eat beyond that is a psychological urger rather than a physical one, and many people find that counseling is one of the keys to addressing the psychological problems that contributed to their obesity. Those issues won;t just magically go away after surgery.
It is perfectly normal to have various fears before committing to such a major surgery. You are, after all, rearranging your intestinal system! My only real fear was of the unknown: could I really lose the weight and KEEP it off? how much of the excess weight would I be able to lose?, etc.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
