I owe it to myself

To try everything. Everything, before I go under the knife for gastric bypass. Learning from folks like Melting Mama has taught me that I’d better be certain before I trade my fatness, sleep apnea, and elevated blood pressure for anemia, vitamin deficiencies, and osteoporosis.

So, despite the fact that negative hype abounds, I bought alli today.

When the pharmacist rang it up, she remarked that the price had gone down. I said, “well, that’s probably because the side effects are so nasty, nobody wants to try it!” She looked at me wondering why in the heck I would buy it, knowing the extent of the “treatment effects,” so I told her bluntly. I said I’m probably going to have gastric bypass in the next 3 or 4 months, but that I owe it to myself to try every available diet aid before I have such a risky procedure.

A technician asked if I’d heard about the new band they use instead, and I said that I had, but I’ll research it further. I didn’t want to get into the fact that my bmi is above the suggested range for lap-band, or that statistics show less long-term weight loss. I just checked out and came home.

So as I sat down for my pretty high-fat lunch (caribbean chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat bread, a few crackers, and cantaloupe), I swallowed the pill and waited for disaster.

It has now been two full hours since lunch, and I’ve had no “treatment effects.” I had a regular bm (sorry if that’s tmi!), and none of the nastiness I’ve read about. I tracked my lunch in the foods database, and it had 41 grams of fat, so if that didn’t cause “treatment effects,” I’m not sure what would.

Regardless of the success thus far, I don’t plan on heading out on the town in white capris just yet.