The sleeve is an operation that aims to remove three quarters of the stomach. No foreign body (ring) is introduced nor any modification of the digestive tract (bypass) is performed. At the end of the operation, the patient has a child’s stomach. Rossane, 26, underwent this bariatric operation at the age of 20 and lost more than 65 kilos in 4 years. She confides in aufeminin about her journey.
My name is Rossane and I am 26 years old. It was during a conversation with my sister who told me about her fiancé at the time wanting to do this surgery that I started the process. I started my journey at the end of 2015. In November, after my 20th birthday, I embarked on the adventure. Having a very impatient character, I immediately made a first appointment with the surgeon who gave me a prior agreement since I had sleep apnea. I couldn’t get to weight required to make the sleeve but when you have a comorbidity linked to obesity, you can claim to undergo this type of surgery. So I chained the batteries of required examinations and appointments with the psychologist. All this in 3 months, and my operation date was given to me. I was going to have a sleeve.
“The hardest thing is that the head and therefore the gluttony remains the same”
You should know that in my case surgery changed everything. Indeed, it is customary to think carefully before making the decision. It’s quite a preparation: the patient is required to diet beforehand in order to prepare him for the drastic change in post-sleeve diet. None of this was required of me. The day before my operation, like the three months that preceded it, I had a completely “normal” diet (in very large quantities), I still remember my Mcdo brought by my best friend the day before. ‘operation. This Mcdo amazed my nurse: she asked me if I was aware of the nature of the operation that I was going to undergo the next day.
When I woke up from my operation (not without difficulty) I couldn’t eat anything at the risk of fainting. Whether liquid or solid nothing could be swallowed up. This situation lasted for months, the hardest thing is that the head and therefore the gluttony remains the same. The frustration of not being able to eat was such that it drove me into a form of depression. Today still 6 years after my operation, I have not regained my full quantitative faculties but I have learned to live with it.
“I made the mistake of not asking for psychological follow-up and that created anxiety”
Regarding my perception of myself, I have made the mistake of not asking for a follow-up.
I was 20 years old and I was neither prepared for the operation beforehand nor after the operation as everything happened very quickly. It is extremely complicated to conceive that a teenager can lose 65 kg (the weight of a person in itself) in the space of 4 years. The first times, we lose very quickly. the view of others changes and we become, without being able to control it, an attractive person, in the “norm” and “standards of beauty” of our age. But that look, even if we desire it with all our strength before undergoing the operation, we are not prepared for it. Everything changes: our clothes, our way of eating, the way others look, etc. But the way we look at ourselves, unfortunately, does not change without psychological follow-up, so this creates new fears and new anxieties. which I was not prepared for.
“Today again I regret having lied because my TCAs have become more pronounced following my operation”
If I had to do it again, I think I would take more time to mature the decision and to know the ins and outs of this operation. Certainly the latter changed my life but it also brought me a lot of complexity, both in terms of my psychological and physical health. As mentioned above, I still cannot eat an entire meal, even 6 years after the operation. At the psychological level, the doctors I had seen before undergoing my operation had not detected any TCA (Eating Disorders). You should know that it is totally proscribed to undergo a bariatric surgery when one suffers from TCA, indeed that amplifies them.
However, someone with obesity and an ED, having no way out in order to get out of it (a multitude of failed diets, periods of yoyo, vomiting periods, weight-related depression, etc.) is ready for ANYTHING to lose weight. Even if it means lying and manipulating health “specialists” in order to make believe that she does not suffer from any eating disorder. That’s what happened to me, and to this day I still regret lying because my EDs got worse after my surgery and I’m still struggling to heal. In conclusion, I recommend this operation to mature people who have awareness of the reason for their weight gain and who have the will to be followed afterwards, because that is more than important.