The Crucial New Information

As the post I wrote this morning said, yesterday's success in our quest for me to achieve alcoholic moderation was precipitated to a significant extent by my researching clinical studies about how patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgery react to drinking alcohol. It turns out I was misinformed. There was a colleague of mine who had undergone gastric bypass surgery about a year ahead of me. As I was making up my mind about deciding to have that surgery myself, I asked him about drinking after the surgery. He said it was fine, that the effects were somewhat more intense but that you would be completely sober 45 minutes later. This apparently was what his medical professionals told him. He, however, engages in behaviors (such as drinking carbonated beverages) which my folks tell me are totally verboten. So anyway...............I looked on line.

I was so upset. I'd been seriously and severely (and way deservedly I might add) whipped two nights in a row. My ass was sore (and hurts way more today) and had turned black in major regions. I was ashamed of how I was behaving and how I'd treated sue. So I decided maybe I could find information that could help me.

It turns out there is an overwhelming body of research on Rouen Y gastric bypass patients indicating that the effects of alcohol on them are greatly enhanced, and not only that but it takes way longer for them to return to sobriety after drinking than for people who are gastrointestinally normal. My god -- there is a reason for me to be struggling as I am/have! There really is an issue here. I am not just a crazy weakling! There are significant anecdotal reports of patients who, years after their surgeries, drank very small amounts alcohol, such as having two glasses of champagne in toasts of a child's wedding, and then being arrested for DUI, when a normal person would not have been seriously impaired:

http://www.themorbidme.com/2006/03/alcohol_aftert_.html
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/558345
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070614132754.htm
http://www.wlscenter.com/UseOfAlcohol.htm

I feel now like I know why I'm challenged by this and I know I really have an issue, and as we have had to adjust in so many ways to life afterbariatric surgery, now we have to make this adjustment.

I've been wildly successful -- off the charts wildly successful after my surgery. I've been the perfectly compliant patient.....or so I thought. It turns out that in my over-achiever mentality, I have been misinformed about this aspect and have blown it, I am not going to blow it any longer.

I have the two most wonderful loving women any man could ever have and I am going to make sure that I am healthy, able to enjoy them for a long time, and able to have our relationship intact, not fucked up by my drunkenness.

All the best,

Tom

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.