Transcription:

Prakash Chandran (Host):  Most of us diet at some point in our lives to lose weight. But for some people, surgical weightloss may be a better solution and today we’ll learn about all the benefits of surgical weightloss. We’re going to talk about it today with Terry McKenzie, a Bariatric Coordinator and Certified Bariatric Nurse at North Florida Regional Medical Center. This is Helmet of Health, the podcast from North Florida Regional Medical Center. I’m Prakash Chandran. So, Terry, starting at a really high level, what exactly is weightloss surgery?

Terry McKenzie, Rn, CBN (Guest):  Weightloss surgery is when we alter the shape and size of your stomach so that you consume less food and therefore lose weight.

Host:  I see and what are the different types of weightloss surgery?

Terry:  Well here at North Florida, we offer the lap band, we offer the gastric sleeve and we also offer the gastric bypass. All three have their own particular shapes and sizes that we make the stomach, so it just depends on the patient as to which surgery we perform.

Host:  Okay. So, I’m curious as to when someone might opt to have a weightloss surgery. I’m assuming they’ve tried everything else. They’ve been researching for a while and nothing else works. Is that correct?

Terry:  That is correct. And it’s also a lot of the precursors for a lot of folks are medical conditions. A lot of times we kind of go up and down with diets and we’re okay with to do that but as we get older, the weight starts impacting how we feel and how we’re able to do things in our everyday life.

Host:  So, I’m interested to learn more about what the benefits are of weightloss surgery versus a traditional diet.

Terry:  The surgical benefits are what happens with weightloss surgery a lot of times is it changes the gut hormones that will decrease appetite and enhance satiety. So, that allows people to be a little bit more successful in losing weight. It also improves a lot of medical conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and by improving these medical conditions that you are able to also take less medication which can affect weightloss and you can move around more which will also affect weightloss. Surgery has a lot of benefits.

Host:  So, when you are assessing someone that comes in to talk to you about potentially getting weightloss surgery; do you have an ideal candidate in mind? Like what are some of the criteria that you look for to say heh, look this person has tried everything else. Weightloss surgery is the best option for them.

Terry:  Someone that’s motivated to lose the weight and they’re psychologically fit to be able to maintain lifestyle changes. We also look for medical and surgical histories to make sure that there are no contraindications to do the surgery where we could create more harm than good. So, those are the kinds of things that we look for.

Host:  I see and so, I’m sure someone listening to this that’s considering weightloss surgery might be thinking about well what about the side effects because we’ve all heard certain horror stories from a long time ago about how some of these weightloss surgeries can maybe not go as well as one might have assumed. So, maybe talk a little bit about that.

Terry:  Well surgery, any surgery has potential side effects. And it has potential complications. Each of our three surgeries we do, they have their own specific potential complications, some less than others. But the overall benefits of the surgery outweigh the potential complications. Because they are few and far between. A lot of the horror stories that you hear are from years ago when a lot of these procedures were done as open procedures not laparoscopic procedures. That made a big huge difference because an open procedure has a potential for so many more complications and as you say horror stories than our laparoscopic procedures and we do the majority of our procedures robotically as well which that just enhances the safe outcome to the surgery.

Host:  And just as a lay person; can you describe what laparoscopic means?

Terry:  Laparoscopic is when we make tiny incisions about an inch long. We make four or five of those and we insert these things called trocars and what basically trocars are are kind of like tubes. So, we make a little incision, we put this tube in and that allows us to put instruments through that tube and a camera so that we can do things inside the abdomen or the abdominal cavity without making a big incision. So, by having these smaller incisions, and by using these laparoscopic instruments; we are able to see things on a TV and you get a better view, things are done like I said, in a smaller realm and recovery is so much better because you are not getting over this huge incision, you are just getting over these little tiny incisions.

Host:  That’s really amazing to hear how far technology has come. Just that minimally invasive cut and you have a robotic assistance, so things generally go correct and then afterwards, the recovery time like you mentioned is so much faster. So, that’s awesome to hear. We talked about some of the physical benefits of weightloss surgery; but I imagine that it actually also helps a lot with a person’s emotional state as well. I’m sure you see that don’t you?

Terry:  Oh absolutely. A lot of our patients come in preoperatively with diagnoses of depression and a lot of the depression is based on how you feel about the way you look as well as the inability to do some of the things you either want to do or you used to do. So, watching somebody after weightloss surgery is like watching the metamorphosis of a butterfly because they come in just all encapsulated and all cocooned but then as they lose weight and they start feeling so much better, they have so much energy. They are off a lot of the medications. People are actually commenting to them with positive comments. You just see them blossom and that is amazing and that is something that’s great to see.

Host:  That’s truly fantastic Terry. Well I really appreciate your time today. That’s Terry McKenzie, a Bariatric Coordinator and Certified Bariatric Nurse at North Florida Regional Medical Center. Thanks for checking out this episode of Helmet of Health. Head to www.nfrmc.com to get connected with a provider. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thanks and we’ll talk next time.