I lost about 80% of my stomach last month and I don’t miss it one bit. Or one bite. Yes, thanks to sleeve gastrectomy, my stomach is a lot smaller. Soon, I hope I will be, too. Five days after undergoing the robotic procedure, I’ve already lost 10 pounds. I’ve got a long way to go, but the scale’s needle is pointing in the right direction.

In 6 to 8 months, I hope to lose 100 to 125 pounds. I hope to get off my diabetes and blood pressure meds. And I hope to be able to run across my front yard, all 20 of the longest yards of it. Running such a short distance might seem trivial to you, but it’s long been an impossibly long distance for this 61-year-old, 302-pound, stress eating lifetime Weight Watchers member. To move across the grass with ease would be the greatest gift of all.

Many of you might recognize me from my speaking and writing on the business of outpatient surgery. After serving as the assistant director of surgery at a 12-room Level 2 trauma center operating room, I launched a surgery center consulting firm in the greater Atlanta area, helping surgeons develop and manage surgery centers for the last 21 years.

But I’ve been trapped in an unhealthy body that’s made me unhappy because it’s keeping me from doing the things I love, like gardening, going on medical mission trips and just being around people. I want to shed the pounds and the stigma of the over-sized. I want to feel good and I want to feel good about me. I want to rid my body of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. I want to smile when nobody’s watching.

One egg drop soup, please

I’m writing this 4 days after my 2-hour robotic sleeve gastrectomy at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. After cutting around the edges of my stomach, the surgeon left me with a sleeve or a tubular pouch that resembles, if you’ll pardon the food reference, a banana. It doesn’t hold much, as I would soon find out the hard way.

The surgery went great. I was walking that same day and was discharged after one overnight in the hospital, where I received the finest of nursing care.

The area around my 5 small laparoscopic incisions is a little sore and a little swollen, but nothing my script for a week’s worth of 5mg oxycodone can’t handle.

Yesterday was not a good day. It wasn’t pain from the incision, though. I overdid it with the fluid intake. We instinctively gulp when we drink, but you must learn to sip when you get your sleeve, nice and slow, less than an ounce every few minutes. Overdo it, as I did, and you turn your shrunken stomach into a water balloon about to burst. Dumping syndrome, they call it. It occurs when food moves from your stomach into your small bowel too quickly. I felt the gas pain and cramps from my shoulder blades to my belly.

It’ll take some time to get used to the new normal of living the rest of my life with a stomach that’s been reduced to about 15% of its original size. But at the same time, I have to stay hydrated — I have to take in 64 oz. of fluids every day, one sip at a time — and get my energy back. I can start eating soft food in a couple days, but until then it’s full liquids — protein shakes, fruit juices, milk and water — and jello. I’ll soon resume a regular diet, but salad-plate sized portions as opposed to a dinner-sized plate. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t binge-eat.

You might laugh, but since I’ve gotten home from the hospital, I’ve been craving egg drop soup. My 26-year-old daughter has made a couple trips for me to the Chinese takeout place up the corner. Call it a cheat meal if you will, but the soup agrees with me and the chicken broth and wispy beaten eggs are high in protein. So far, so good.

The hunger hormone

There has been a 44% increase in bariatric procedures in the United States since 2011. Sleeve gastrectomy is an increasingly popular weight-loss surgery. I chose it because it’s the least invasive and the most effective. The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery lists the most common bariatric surgeries as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch.

A fun-sized stomach is not the only key to the sleeve gastrectomy’s success. Yes, the new stomach pouch holds a considerably smaller volume than the normal stomach and helps to significantly reduce the amount of food (and thus calories) one can consume. But the greater impact seems to be the effect the surgery has on gut hormones that impact a number of factors, including hunger, satiety and blood sugar control. The irreversible surgery removes part of the stomach that makes the hormone ghrelin, which signals to the brain that you’re hungry. The “hunger hormone” stimulates appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage.

Short-term studies show that the sleeve is as effective as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in terms of weight loss and improvement or remission of diabetes. There is also evidence that suggests the sleeve, similar to the gastric bypass, is effective in improving type 2 diabetes independent of the weight loss. The complication rates of the sleeve fall between those of the adjustable gastric band and Roux-en-Y.

Pride in my stride

I hope my surgery buys me back the 10 years I lost to pain and sadness. But in the here and now, I’ve kept my goals very simple: eliminate my diabetes, eliminate my hypertension and be able to run across my yard. That’s all. I’m already off the 3 diabetes medicines. One goal down. BP meds will follow and, yes, soon to run for joy across my front yard. OSM