Books and research

[Guest guest]

As I mentioned earlier, I just went in today and filled out the Psych

questionnaire and turned it in. One of the questions they have on it

is " How well informed do you consider yourself to be? " Now, I'm a

librarian - and I do research for a living - and I'm also on this

list - and I know folks who've been through this surgery. So I

consider myself fairly well informed.

But although it's fairly easy to find out some of the basics about

this surgery, it can still be hard to find good factual information

or basic research about the pros and cons when you're trying to make

up your mind. I've found some, but it's not always easy. So I'm

wondering what resources other people have turned up along their

journeys that were helpful. . . what books? magazine articles? etc.

Websites, I'm less interested in - seems like everyone knows about

Obesityhelp.com, and we talk a lot about other websites here like

Vitalady and so on.

For example, I just ran across a book that I haven't actually seen in

person yet called " Diminishing Returns: A Gastric Bypass Workbook " .

It's listed on Amazon, and it sounds like a combination journal and

record book to help you work through some of the emotional and

psychological issues that crop up before and after WLS. I don't know

if it would be a Good Thing, or a Waste of Cash. Anyone read it

already?

Also, on a scarier note, I just ran across an article Friday from the

Joslin Diabetes Center on a newly discovered complication that's

shown up in a few post-surgical patients: excedingly severe

hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) that developed after they'd lost a lot

of their excess weight. It's described as similar to dumping,

but " way beyond what doctors typically call dumping syndrome. " The

people who developed this eventually required surgery to remove the

pancreas. It's very rare, but still something we need to know about

and watch out for.

Cathy C.