Lead Me Not Into Temptation...I Can Find It All By Myself

Tuesday 12-13-11
Yes, I stole another country song title for my blog


It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but for people with food issues, it is fraught with peril.  The Holidays, that sugar-glazed, rum-soaked, cider-and-cookies-and-chocolate-whipped frenzy between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day poses multiple hazards for us, the fatties-trying-to-be-former-fatties of the world.  This year for me, pre-surgery, it is simply a matter of avoiding the seasonal onslaught of sweets and goodies because I need to lose pounds before my surgery.  Simple enough, right?  Next year it will be a whole different set of issues.

Next year at this time, Lord willing and knock wood, I will have undergone my surgery and started losing weight in substantial quantities.  I will need to avoid the food gauntlet for the weight-gain reasons, of course.  But I will also have fear to motivate me...fear of dumping, clumping and getting really sick. 

Dumping syndrome is what happens when a weight-loss surgery patient eats too much of something too sweet or too fatty in too quick a time, resulting in quick and violent cramps, diarrhea and an overall feeling that the stomach pouch and intestines are rebelling against the substance placed inside them.  Clumping can happen when the patient consumes too much of something without enough liquid in it to allow it to ease its way into the stomach pouch, resulting in a feeling that the food is trapped, or clumped, at the stomach opening.  This has been described to me as an incredibly painful and frightening experience.  No thanks, I would prefer to pass on anything painful or frightening.

Even though next year's holidays should find me in the last stage of the post-operative stages of diet and I should have no limitations (i.e. I should be well past the liquid-puree-soft food stages and back to "normal" foods) my holiday dining will never be the same.  Seeing that sentence in writing, it looks sad and nostalgic, and in some ways, it feels a little bit sad.  I have to remember that the things I am giving up are nothing compared with the healthier me I am giving them up for.  I cannot let The Ghost of Christmas Goodies Past derail me from my goals.  The Ghost of Good Health Yet to Come reminds me that this process is not about deprivation, but about salvation...saving my health, my joints, my heart and lungs, and my future.