& Lea

[Guest guest]

& Lea

I received this from a woman at AMOS regarding feelings after the surgery.

I haven't had my surgery yet, but I thought it would be helpful, so here you

go

Hibernation Syndrome

After WLS, you may be feeling tired and become depressed. When you are

several weeks post op, and are either on a liquid diet or you are eating

many

fewer calories than you were pre op, this depression and inactivity can

become more pronounced.

All you want to do is sleep, you may have crying spells, you may begin to

believe that the surgery was a mistake, or you may think 'what in the world

have I done to myself?'

All these feelings are completely normal and, to a certain extent, are to be

expected. The low number of calories you are eating produces what many of us

call the 'hibernation syndrome' and your depression and feelings of despair,

are a direct result.

During the weeks immediately following surgery, our body starts to notice

that we are not taking in enough calories. It doesn't know we've had WLS, or

that it's the year 2000. Our body is missing food, thinks this is a famine,

and struggles to conserve our energy. The human body reacts like it always

has in a famine; it makes us depressed--so we don't have the motivation to

do

anything, and it makes us tired--so we don't have the energy to do anything.

In this way, we will conserve as many calories as possible and remain alive.

You can see the practical value of this as our bodies have been living

through famines, snowstorms, and other periods of unstable food supply for

centuries.

This stage can last several weeks. Our discomfort is compounded as we are,

at

this same time, trying to recover from major surgery, adopt new eating

habits, and deal with a liquid or soft diet. To get out of this stage, our

body has to say to itself 'gee, this famine is lasting a bit too long. If I

keep conserving my energy with inactivity, I will starve to death. I'd

better

use my last store of energy (the remaining fat and muscles in our body) to

hunt up some food'. At this point, our body will switch from getting energy

from food, to getting energy from our fat (and muscle too if we don't eat

enough protein) and that is what we want.

In order to deal with this difficult transition period, tell yourself that

you're right on track; this is exactly what is normal and to be expected.

Tell yourself that, in a few weeks, this will pass, and you will feel like a

completely new person. We all seem to turn the corner about 4-6 weeks post

op. Then, your mood will lighten and, with your weight loss starting to add

up, you'll feel more positive and have a better outlook on life. Just keep

telling yourself that you will not always feel this way! You WILL be back

to

feeling like your old self. Just give it time!

Help

Hi

I am almost 3 weeks post op (as of Wednesday) and am experiencing some

feelings that I a not sure are normal. I am feeling very 'blah'...very much

like " Why did I do this? " I know WHY I did it....but now I feel like I

probably shouldn't have. I know deep down that I had to do this surgery or

else I wouldn't have made it to a ripe old age. Is this normal?? I have

lost a fair amount of weight for the days since I have had the surgery (27

pounds) but still feel this way....has anyone else gone through this? Had a

depression of sorts about it? Please help.

M

301/274/150

7/12/00 Lap