For a long time, her weight was a burden for Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth – for her body and for her soul. Therefore, at the age of 59, she decided to have gastric surgery. Did that make your life easier?
The first meal She can still remember well after her gastric bypass operation. The food was served in four tiny bowls, each slightly larger than an egg cup. In it: risotto, broccoli, minced meat with brown sauce and extra sauce. For this she should take 20 minutes, at least, and chew very slowly. “It tasted good. And what surprised me: There was a little leftover in every bowl, I couldn’t finish the bit – and was still completely full,” says Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth.
Behavioral patterns as a reason for eating behavior
In the past, such a portion would have been more of a “greeting from the kitchen” before the main meal is served. The Swiss woman who lives in the canton of Zurich describes her eating habits as follows: too much, too greasy, too sweet, too high in calories. “I didn’t need Tupperware. I personally took care of the storage of any leftovers, I was the Tupperware,” says the now 66-year-old. “When I stood in front of the refrigerator at night, I knew why I was fat. For me, food was a source of energy, relaxation.” She suspects that there are deeply anchored patterns from childhood behind it. When she was bent, she ate, for example when the children in the neighborhood called her “Piggy Dick”. But eating was also a kind of token of love when her father, who was often on the road for work, brought back lots of sweets from his travels.
By her late 30s, the mother of two and co-manager of the family business was obese and pathologically overweight. Her maximum weight was 113 kilograms, spread over a height of 1.67 meters. It fluctuated depending on whether or not she was on a crash diet or nutritional program. “My body was pulled apart like an accordion, sometimes more, sometimes less.” What remained constant, on the other hand, was that Support her husband. “He never gave me the feeling that my excess weight bothered him or that my diets annoyed him. He just carried everything.”
At that time, she had already come a long way. When she first tried to lose weight, she was 17 and “not yet very overweight, but a little more than chubby”. Back then there was no Instagram and no million hits on #bodypositivitybut contemptuous looks in the street. She followed strict dietary rules and lost nine kilos – and then quickly gained back on. It was mostly like that. Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth continued anyway for decades. “I always thought that at some point I would find the one diet that will save me, that will make me lose weight permanently.” A slimmed-down list of their starvation diets in the following years reads like this: Cabbage soup diet, protein diet, apple diet, milk and bread roll diet. Sometimes she loses ten, sometimes 15, sometimes even 25 kilos. But after that the yo-yo effect strikes again and again.
Stress on body and soul
Over time, your weight becomes a strain on your body: It affects your joints, causes high blood pressure, and makes you sweat even with the smallest of activities such as putting on stockings. But it also becomes a Burden on their soul: the stupid sayings, the blinking, the laughs. “It is a bad feeling when the seat next to you is the only one free and people prefer to stand still. It’s terrible when there are three of you in the elevator that doesn’t go because it is overloaded and someone else Person gets out again, shaking his head. “
She lies down a repertoire of strategies to avoid embarrassing or uncomfortable situations: she only sits on chairs when they have no armrests for fear of getting stuck. In group photos, she almost always stands sideways so that her full broadside is not in the picture for comparison with others. She cuts the size labels out of new clothes after buying them so that no one sees 56 and looks stupid when removing the jacket. If she has to pass tight turnstiles, she holds her bag in front of her stomach – if it gets stuck, she can pretend it was the bag’s fault. “It’s better than the embarrassment of getting stuck because of your stomach,” she says.
When Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth visits her family doctor at the time, to be medical advice for appropriate measures for weight loss To get them, they simply give her an information sheet with nutritional tips. “At first it went quite well, I lost some weight. But when I felt stressed, it was more common to overeat.” At a check-up appointment, the doctor calls it a “hopeless case”. She is afraid that he might be right, but tries to take it with humor: “As a hopeless case, I had an excuse, attested by the doctor, if a diet didn’t work again.”
When nutritional advice and weight loss programs don’t help
More years followed with meetings with nutritionists and new weight loss programs. In the long run, however, these only make for a lighter wallet. The fact that their eating behavior could also have psychological causes is not properly addressed in any of the counseling sessions. “It was all about food tables and control,” she says.
Because she was stuck, Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth went to a doctor who specializes in obesity in 2013. The specialist’s recommendation: gastric surgery. The Swiss woman refuses. “At the time, I still thought that surgery was a convenient solution, a sign of weakness. I wanted to prove to myself that I had enough willpower to lose weight myself. Even if it had never worked out before.” Another suggestion from the doctor: a medication for diabetics, which Lämmle Nallaseth does not need, but which causes permanent slight nausea, which is then reflected in eating behavior. “The idea made me sick,” she says.
A year later she admits that she really won’t be able to do it on her own. She decides to have gastric bypass surgery. The then 59-year-old fulfilled all the requirements that exist in Switzerland so that the health insurance company pays the costs: not older than 65 years, a BMI greater than 35 plus accompanying illnesses, at least two years of nutritional advice under medical supervision.
This is how gastric bypass surgery works
During the surgical procedure If the stomach is cut off just behind the entrance to the stomach, what is left is what is known as a stomach pouch. This is connected directly to the middle part of the small intestine, so that the front part is bypassed, hence the name bypass. The smaller stomach is only about the size of an espresso cup, it doesn’t fit much. In addition, the shortened intestine reduces both the calorie and nutrient absorption. After the operation you have to take nutritional supplements like calcium, vitamin D3 and vitamin B12 regularly to prevent deficiency symptoms – for a lifetime.
Lämmle Nallaseth’s first thought after she woke up from the anesthesia: “I let myself be mutilated.” But a moment later, there was relief and the thought: “I will finally lose weight permanently.” But she emphasizes that gastric bypass surgery is not a panacea. “Before the operation, I was told that the psyche would not be operated on. If you keep stuffing everything in until you feel sick, you won’t lose weight permanently. You have to be ready to listen to your body. “
She did that and managed to lose 44 kilograms within a year. But not without complications. A possible side effect of the OP is the stenosis, a narrowing of the gastrointestinal passage due to scarring – with Lämmle Nallaseth this occurred three times. “I had to choke constantly, at times couldn’t even swallow my spit.” Relief was provided by a probe inserted under anesthesia, which widened the narrowed area.
A new look at life
Not only the number of kilograms can change after the procedure – also the view of life. Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth has heard of women who then left their husbands because others suddenly became interested in them. In fact, according to a Swedish study, the divorce rate among gastric bypass surgery is 41 percent three years after surgery. That was not the case with Lämmle Nallaseth: She is still together with her husband, who literally went through thick and thin with her.
But what has changed in her head: “I am no longer ashamed of eating. I can finally enjoy it, it has become something beautiful. “In addition, she is no longer fixated on food, in the past her thoughts were constantly revolving around the next meal. Now she can concentrate on what is on the plate in front of her Melt every bite on your tongue – also because you have to chew it extremely well.
Over time, the meals became a bit larger than the mini-bowls straight after the operation, it now creates a child’s portion and maybe two spoons from dessert. Her weight has leveled off at 64 kilos, she wears a size 38 or 40. When she looks in the mirror, she likes to do it because she likes her figure. She does not mind that the skin on her stomach, arms and thighs is no longer taut since her weight loss. “That’s okay. My goal was never to win a beauty pageant. I wanted to get rid of the burden “, she says. The load that weighed about as much as 176 packets of butter. She did the math.
She does not regret the operation, but she did not regret it until late. “It is not a sign of weakness to be helped – on the contrary. I wish I had recognized that sooner.”
Praxedis Lämmle Nallaseth gives lectures on her personal path to gastric bypass surgery and the time afterwards in obesity self-help groups or on information days at clinics for bariatric surgery.