One day, Jolz asked me a question I never expected: "How would you feel if I told you I was going to lose a lot of weight really quickly?"
I asked what she was talking about. "I'm about to go through a procedure to have that done and I want to know if you'll still like me if I weighed a lot less." I told her that yes, I would still like her. I didn't consider myself a chubby chaser and that I liked her for the person she was, not her size. She asked, "Well, are you worried about it?" At this point, I thought she was talking about liposuction. "Why would I be worried? It's a low-risk procedure, right?" "NO! IT'S NOT! I COULD DIE!" Okay, now I'm worried. I asked her what the procedure was.
She said it going to be a divided gastric bypass. A surgeon would go in, cut her stomach in half and connect that to her intestines. It was rather risky, but the surgeon she was seeing had been successful at it. I'd never heard of that before. I told her I didn't think she needed to do sonething so drastic because she probably weighed 250 pounds. She said, "Oh, thank you. But I actually weigh a lot more than that." Up to this point, I had no clue what her weight was. But now I knew it sure wasn't 250 pounds.
She gave me some literature about the procedure. I read about the process and a lot of testimonials. She had been trying to do this for a few months and her insurance through work approved it. She was going to have to stay in the hospital to recover for a few days before going home. After that, she wouldn't be able to eat that much. We wouldn't be able to go out on dinner dates any more because her diet was going to be so restricted. She also warned me that she would have a large scar on the upper half of her body.
She asked me to go with her to a meeting with the bariatric team before she was scheduled to go to the hospital. There were about five other women in the group about to have their surgeries. Jolz was the only one in her 20s. Everyone else appeared to be in their 40s. Jolz was the only patient who had been accompanied by someone. Everyone else was there by themselves. During the times that the doctor and staff weren't in the room, the women swapped stories. They each talked about how hard it was to get approval for the surgery and that they each had to wait at least a year before they could get the surgery scheduled. Jolz said it hadn't been that difficult for her. When she started talking about this, I was thinking, "Shut up, shut up! They don't want to hear how easy it was for you!" Jolz probably got rapid approval because she was of child-bearing age.
After the meeting, Jolz had to meet with the nurse to go over some of the details prior to the operation. The nurse warned Jolz that she was going to be discussing how much she weighs and asked her if she still wanted me to be in the room. Jolz said it was okay. The nurse said she weighed 319 pounds. (Wow! I was WAY OFF!) It was anticipated that she would probably lose about 140 pounds over the course of several months. Jolz had already started making stride by cutting out soda. The nurse agreed that was a major step.
One of the things Jolz told me was that after the procedure, the doctor said she couldn't have sex for six months. That didn't really bother me. I figured it was for her own protection.
But she did something that really made me upset. She did her usual Friday night binge with her boss. We were going to have our last actual dinner date on Saturday night. At almost the last minute, she called me up and told me her boss wanted to do another binge one last time THAT night! I was SO upset. And she had planned to spend Sunday, the day before the procedure, with her family. I didn't have a problem with the Friday binge or the Sunday with her family, but I did not appreciate being denied my last chance to enjoy going out and eating with her.
The day of the operation, I helped her parents check her into the hospital. I went home while her parents awaited the outcome. She did fine. I went to the hospital a few times to visit her. Nothing really eventful took place during those visits. I was just being the supportive boyfriend.
What was interesting was that this all took place about a month before Carnie Wilson made news by having a divided gastric bypass. I rather liked that my girlfriend was ahead of the curve on this.
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