By JESSIE STENSLAND
Staff reporter
Two Oak Harbor women started a support group last year for people who have had, or are considering, weight loss surgery. About a dozen local women meet regularly to talk about the amazing lifestyle changes that come with gastric bypass surgery.
They call it “Vanishing Friends,” which is a name that’s appropriate on several levels. Not only do the pounds vanish at an astonishing rate, but the procedure can completely alter the lives of morbidly obese people. It results in major changes in folks’ eating and exercising habits, health status, and to differing extents, their level of self-confidence and very identities. Old ways and old selves vanish, perhaps forever.
“I’d do it all over in a heart beat,” said Alex Goodnight, who runs the support group with friend Amy Tharp. “An absolute heart beat.”
Goodnight and Tharp, both of whom are Navy wives, are among the growing number of Americans who choose to control severe weight problems by having their stomachs surgically altered to restrict food intake, and in some cases, to reroute the gastrointestinal systems.
Dramatic,
but not magic
The results can be dramatic, the women say, but it’s not a magicical solution. Those contemplating the surgery should look at other alternatives and educate themselves as much as possible. Which is where Vanishing Friends fits in.
“It’s major surgery,” Tharp said. “It’s not something to be taken lightly.”
Tharp is in the midst of her weight loss, having had a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass 11 months ago. She’s lost 135 pounds so far, coming down from 337 pounds. That’s a size 28 to 14 in less than a year. Her surgeon’s goal is for her to lose at least another 30 pounds.
“The biggest thrill,” she said, “was when I went to visit my mother in Florida and I fit in a seat on the airplane.”
Goodnight is already at her ideal weight, having had vertical banded gastroplasty two years ago and losing 125 pounds. In stark contrast to her former sedentary lifestyle, she now fills her days with long family walks and other exercise.
“Things are so different,” she said. “I’m like the Energizer bunny.”
Weight loss surgery became high profile in recent years with celebrities such as pop singer Carnie Wilson and weatherman Al Roker, who underwent stomach-reduction procedures, resulting in dramatic weight loss. This year, an estimated 95,000 people will undergo gastric bypasses. The number is expected to rise as 600 million “morbidly-obese” Americans — those who are more than 100 pounds overweight — turn to surgical solutions.
While she is pleased with the results of the surgery, Tharp feels that Roker and Wilson have unduly glamorized a procedure that truly has little glamour. It’s major surgery, after all, with such common side effects as hair loss, anemia, and sickness or vomiting from even the slightest overeating. There’s something called “dumping syndrome,” Tharp said, which causes intense discomfort if she eats the wrong type of food.
Diets require special care
The women are required to take vitamin supplements for the rest of their lives and chew their food to a baby-food consistency. Many patients chose to have tummy tucks and other plastic surgery procedures to remove large flaps of loose skin left behind after the pounds melt away.
And there are definite dangers. About one in every 200 or 300 patients die from the surgery, as one local family knows all too well. Nancy Ann Branigh, an Oak Harbor resident and mother of two sons, died Feb. 13 of complications from weight-loss surgery. She was 40 years old.
According to Goodnight, the procedure is only “a tool.” Even before the surgery, she had to exercise at least 45 minutes a day and “learn to eat all over again.” It is possible to gain weight or remain obese even after the surgery. Tharp pointed out that both Roker and Wilson seem to have gained pounds lately.
“It’s not an easy way out,” Tharp said.
It should be a surgery of last resort, according to a consensus statement from the National Institute of Health.
Tharp and Goodnight feel the surgery was a last chance for them. Tharp had tried Weight Watchers, prescription diet pills and even Prozac. “I didn’t lose weight, but I was happy about it,” she quipped.
Like most dieters, Tharp’s weight went up and down like a yo-yo, which is especially hard on the heart. She lost 125 pounds by herself at one time, but gained it all back.
Goodnight knew other women who had the surgery, but told herself she would never choose that option.
“Then I came to a point where I had no other choice,” she said. “You come to a conclusion in your life where you don’t want to do this anymore. You do what you have to do.”
For Goodnight and Tharp, the choice of surgery was ultimately about health, not vanity. The epidemic of obesity in the country causes and contributes to innumerable health problems. It’s simply not healthy to be overweight. Tharp was dealing with serious hypertension and heart problems. She has a family history of weight-related diabetes.
Goodnight had sleep apnea and border-line diabetes.
Because of the health risks of obesity, many health insurance companies cover weight loss surgery. The military’s Tri-Care program covered the costs of Goodnight’s and Tharp’s surgeries.
This is the first time that both women have been at a sustained healthy weight.
“I’ve been heavy my whole life,” said Tharp, whose father’s side of the family were very obese people. “I was born heavy. … I grew up in a family where everything revolved around food.”
Having grown up overweight, both women know how hard it is be obese in a society that values skinniness, especially in women. Tharp said she was openly discriminated against in a former workplace. They both felt prying eyes — either real or imagined. It had a devastating impact on their lives.
Loss changes lifestyle
“I went to work, came home and sat on the couch,” Tharp said. “I was very inactive. I didn’t want to go places because I was too embarrassed.
I would go to the doctor and refuse to get on the scale.”
Nowadays, things are different for Tharp and Goodnight. Friends who haven’t seen the women in awhile may not even recognize them at first. That kind of weight loss has a drastic impact on a person’s appearance. Bodies shrink and faces change.
They’ve learned to eat small meals often throughout the day. That means they have to be prepared, and ironically, spend a lot more time cooking and planning meals. They were taught to eat protein first, then vegetables. And no more fast food.
“I would like to go to Burger King sometimes and sit down with a nice juicy burger,” Goodnight said, “but you can’t.”
Tharp said she now experiences fullness, which she never felt before in her life.
Goodnight said she hopes the changes she’s made in her diet and lifestyle will translate to a healthier future for her two daughters, who are struggling with their weight in the same way she once did.
“I’m happy with my life,” Goodnight said. “This is the smallest I’ve ever been. I’m more confident than every before.”
