Surgery The Patient example essay topic

Gastric Exclusion Operations Over thirty percent of the US population is currently obese. A scary statistic. Contrary to popular belief, obesity is not a psychological, nor an eating disorder. Obesity is a hereditary disease, that can not be "treated" by Jenny Craig, or Weight Watchers. Surgery for obesity should not be considered only as a last resort.

Right now surgery is the only effective treatment for obesity. One type of surgical treatment is gastric exclusion. There are four questions that will help someone decide if this surgery is right for them. Are you 100 or more pounds overweight Have you tried many times to lose weight, including diets, exercise and behavior modification with the only loss being a lot of money Is your health being affected by your weight Has your doctor recommended that you lose weight If any one of these answers is yes, then surgical weight loss may be right for you. Gastric exclusion is exactly what it sounds like the stomach is excluded from the digestion process. The top portion of the stomach is divided, which creates a small pouch and decreases the amount that the stomach can hold.

The small intestine is then connected to the pouch which lets food pass trough the digestive system while lessening the calorie intake. Because the stomach can hold less the person feels full sooner and longer. This surgery also helps lose weight, because it makes it nauseating to eat refined sugars. There are few complications resulting from this surgery.

The most serious one is pulmonary embolus, and only one out of every one thousand patients are affected by it. Pulmonary embolus is when a blot clot forms in the lower abdomen or leg, and breaks off into the lungs. This can be fatal, but is very rare. The most frequent complication are post-operative pneumonia, hernia formation and wound infection. Only five percent of patients develop post-operative pneumonia, more frequent in smokers. Wound infection and hernia formation only affect four percent of the patients.

This surgery, like all others, can have some side effects. About thirty percent of gastric exclusion patients develop gallstones. If gallbladder disease is found before or during the operation, it will be removed. If the gallbladder is not removed, and gallstones form, it will be removed through laparoscopic surgery.

Following the surgery the patient should only drink liquids and gradually build up to soft solids. Depending how severe the surgery was, the patient will not be able to eat very much. Eventually the amount the stomach can hold will increase, then stop after several weeks. For the first two to three weeks the patient should not drink any citrus juices, diluted, unsweetened apple or grape juice are the only juices that should be drunk. The patient should never eat a food with added sugar, or sugar listed as one of the three main ingredients this would cause nausea and clamminess.

After the surgery there should not be too much strenuous activity. The patient can, and should, start walking right after the procedure, pushing herself a little more each time. By the next visit with the doctor, which would be about three weeks after the operation, she should be able to walk a full mile in fifteen to twenty minutes. The patient can return to work as soon as she feels ready, but avoiding anything that puts stress on the wound. There should be no driving for several days, and then the patient should start with little trips. The one rule of thumb is " If it hurts, don't do it".

As stated in the beginning only those who are morbidly obese, and have answered the four questions "yes" should consider this operation. People who want to quickly take off ten to twenty pounds should NOT. If these people have the money to pay for an operation like this, they have the money to join a gym, or hire a personal trainer..