February 3, 2025 • 38 mins
Welcome to episode one of the Bariatric Banter Podcast (part 1)!
Full of spicy views and language, dive in with your Canadian BFFs as they share their journeys with obesity and bariatric surgery! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the inaugural episode of the Bariatric Banter Podcast, hosts Hannah and Steph share their personal journeys with bariatric surgery, specifically Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG). They discuss their experiences leading up to the surgery, the process involved, and the importance of having a strong support system throughout their weight loss journeys.
The conversation also touches on the challenges faced post-surgery and the psychological aspects of undergoing such a life-changing procedure.
takeaways
- Bariatric surgery can be a life-changing decision for many individuals.
- The recovery process from VSG surgery can be surprisingly smooth and quick.
- It's essential to have a supportive medical team throughout the surgery journey.
- Understanding the different types of bariatric surgery is crucial for making informed decisions.
- The emotional and psychological aspects of weight loss surgery are just as important as the physical changes.
- Setting realistic weight loss goals is vital for long-term success.
- The pre-surgery process involves extensive evaluations and support systems.
- Community support can play a significant role in the success of weight loss journeys.
- Weight loss surgery is not just about aesthetics; it involves lifestyle changes.
- Maintaining a positive mindset is key to navigating the challenges post-surgery. 30% of people fail due to lifestyle and psychological factors.
- Alcohol consumption is a significant concern pre-surgery.
- Bariatric surgery is fully covered in Canada, with minimal out-of-pocket costs.
- Obesity is a major drain on the healthcare system.
- Support systems are crucial for success post-surgery.
- Going abroad for surgery can complicate follow-up care.
- Personal accountability is essential in the weight loss journey.
- Many patients feel lost without consistent guidance post-op.
- There are significant differences between bariatric programs in Canada.
- In-person follow-ups are important to ensure accountability. Cultural backgrounds influence our relationship with food.
- Mental health plays a crucial role in weight loss journeys.
- Therapy is essential for processing emotions related to body image.
- Realizing when you've hit rock bottom can be a turning point.
- Obesity affects daily life in profound ways.
- Surgery can be a tool for significant weight loss.
- Building healthy habits is a gradual process.
- Community support is vital for success in weight loss.
- Breaking down stigmas around obesity is necessary.
- Sharing personal stories can help others feel less alone.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Okay, welcome to the first episode of the Bariatric Fancher podcast.
(00:21):
Hi Steph.
Hi Hannah.
How's it going?
Pretty excited.
Good.
Pretty excited to be recording this with you.
Finally.
I know.
I've been waiting forever to get here, but here we are.
We're doing it.
I'm pretty pumped.
This episode of the Bariatric Fancher podcast is going to be all about bariatric surgery.
How did we get there?
What did it look like?
(00:42):
And then why did we start a podcast?
Love it.
A little bit of intro and history for you.
Oh yeah.
It's definitely going to dive deep into intro and history and then obviously just a ton
of banter as well.
And be prepared folks.
We're going to go very off script and just talk about anything and everything.
I love it.
How was your weekend Steph?
(01:04):
You know what?
It wasn't too bad.
It's one of those weekends of getting stuff done.
We have back into the routine of things after the holiday break and getting the kids back
into gymnastics and getting ready for school and today's grocery shopping day.
So you know, the weekends that are full of the adulting thing.
(01:24):
Oh, adulting.
But I'll be honest.
I live in an area where we get a lot of snow and as somebody who is not a winter person
and not a fan of the snow, it's beautiful to look at.
Don't get me wrong.
But I am anxiously awaiting for the next few months to go be over and get spring back.
(01:46):
I'm done with winter.
Yeah, I can't wait either.
I'm not a winter person.
I'm going to run away to Florida here in a few weeks and I'm hoping it's just glorious
and I might not ever come back.
I wouldn't blame you.
The weather this year has just been brutal.
For those who don't know, we probably should have said we're Canadian.
We're in Canada.
Surprised.
(02:07):
Couldn't tell from our accents maybe.
But we are Canadians who both live outside of Toronto, Ontario in slightly different
parts but not too far away from each other.
So if you're not from Canada, it's been all shrivelingly cold.
It's just not fun.
We're so focused on moving our bodies and getting workouts in and getting your fresh
(02:32):
air and getting your sunshine, which is amazing.
But it just makes it really hard.
And when it's dark until eight o'clock in the morning, it's hard to get that motivation
to get up.
And I was going to the gym before surgery at 5.30 in the morning with my neighbors.
And now, do you think I'm getting up at 5.30 to go brush my car off in minus 20 degree
(02:54):
weather?
Definitely not.
Should I be 100%?
But it's just, yeah, it's not my favorite time of year.
It's not going to happen.
It's just not going to happen.
So yeah, that's what we've been dealing with this weekend is super cold weather.
I'm excited to be in the studio recording this and not thinking about how cold it is
(03:14):
outside and preparing for warmer days ahead, because you're right, a treadmill is not the
same as outside.
And we're in for a long January.
So hopefully in February, we get back to last year.
We had a week in February where it was 22 degrees.
We're going to plow through and we're going to do it.
(03:38):
We can do it.
We can figure this out.
So that's probably a great place for us to start diving into our actual episode.
We're going to banter about the weather in Canada, but I think it's time just to let
people know who we are, what surgery we both had, and maybe kind of how far we are post-op,
I think would be great to let them know who are their hosts.
(04:00):
You want to start, Steph?
Sure.
So I am about 10 weeks post-op VSG, which is vertical sleeve gastrectomy, which is one
of the lesser invasive options in terms of weight loss surgery, which is what we also
refer to as bariatric surgery.
So obviously, as Hannah said, we are Canadian.
(04:22):
We are in Ontario.
That's where I had my surgery.
What basically happens with that is it is laparoscopic surgery, meaning they go in with
just a few little incisions.
I have about five incisions that are about an inch or so across my abdomen.
And Hannah, we've talked about this, but I'm pretty sure also that it's robotic surgery.
(04:45):
I don't know for sure.
Like 90% sure.
I'm pretty sure I saw a robot when I walked in there.
It's a little bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure it was in there.
Could have been the morphine.
Could have been me.
Could have been the...
Can't tell.
Right.
Exactly.
It's very quick recovery, which is great.
So for me, I live about two hours away from the hospital that I had my surgery in.
(05:08):
But typically speaking, it's a fairly straightforward procedure.
It's day surgery for most individuals here.
But because of where I live, I ended up staying overnight, which was fine.
But I had my surgery early in the morning, about 10 o'clock in the morning.
It's about give or take 45 minutes of a procedure.
And then I was back in my room very shortly after I was up and walking within about an
(05:31):
hour and a half to two hours after my surgery.
I was sipping fluids.
I was texting.
I was talking.
And within a couple hours, I was pretty much on my own.
Up and walking every hour, moving around okay.
A little bit of soreness, a little bit of tightness, a little bit of nausea here and
there.
But overall, I will say, and I'm sure I'll say this many times throughout our episodes,
(05:55):
I was just very pleasantly surprised with how, I'm not going to say easy, but how smooth
of a procedure it was.
I was home.
I was released first thing the next morning.
I was home.
That was a Saturday that I came home.
And by Monday morning, my husband was back at work.
I was up getting the kids ready for school, making lunches, looking after myself.
(06:17):
So all in all, a really great experience.
So as I said, I'm about 10 weeks post-op, just over two months.
I'm down 51 pounds.
Yeah, still a ways to go, but moving along, new challenges every day, new lessons every
day.
But all in all, really happy with my journey so far with this decision and what I've experienced.
(06:41):
Oh man, you should be.
It's huge.
It's huge just to get to the stage of actually doing this because the lead up to it, which
we'll talk about in a little bit, the lead up to it is long and can give you many options
to be like, maybe I don't want to do this.
This is the right decision.
Oh boy.
But no, two and a half months post-op, 50 pounds down, like it's absolutely incredible.
(07:02):
You've been crushing it because this is a lot of work, which we'll also talk about a
little bit, but no, good job.
I'm Hannah, the other person talking on this podcast.
I am two years or just shy of two years.
I'll be two years, March 13th of 2025, two years post-op.
I had the exact same surgery, the sleeve surgery, where they basically inflate your stomach,
(07:28):
cut out 80% of it and leave you with a little sleeve from esophagus down to your intestines
so that you can't hold as much food.
You don't have as much to break down.
You absorb things just slightly differently, but not too much.
The reason I picked sleeve was for the recovery.
Now they did say you might lose less weight than other options, but the big selling feature
(07:50):
was day surgery on your feet the next day, quickest recovery out of all of them.
That really appealed to me being in my 30s.
I didn't want to be laid out on the couch months of recovery.
That just didn't interest me at all.
My mentality was I can do this.
If you just help me, I will put the work in.
(08:12):
I will work out, exercise, eat well.
I will do this.
I picked the non-invasive one because I believed I could make it work.
The other option, there's many.
I should say there's five or six options, but typically the two options you're given
are do you want sleeve or do you want bypass?
Bypass being the more invasive of the two where they basically connect your... I'm
(08:36):
just very layman's-terming this, but you basically connect your esophagus to your lower intestines,
completely skipping your stomach and your small intestines.
This causes you to lose weight through malabsorption.
You obviously cannot absorb things the way other people did.
Having literally no pouch or anywhere to put your food, you can only eat a certain amount.
(08:59):
You really can't eat high fat, high sugar, or a lot of other things because your body
just can no longer digest it, break it down, or handle it.
It is usually mandatory for those with diabetes, chronic illnesses, or over a certain weight
threshold because sleeve just would not work for them.
(09:19):
Usually if you are relatively healthy at a relatively normal BMI, obese range, so I think
it's under 400 pounds, you'll get the option between the two.
They will push bypass heavily, but sleeve can be just as successful.
The only reason they prefer bypass is it is less hard to regain the weight because of
how drastically it changes your anatomy and your body.
(09:44):
Like I said, I was committed that I was going to do this.
My mom is a retired nurse and I talked with her at length and she said, I really just
don't think you should be altering your anatomy at this age.
I think sleeve sounds like it's the better option and that you'll just put the work in
and make it successful.
I took sleeve.
Like I said, two years post-op.
(10:05):
Had it done at the exact same clinic Steph did.
I've lost over 150 pounds and counting.
I am still on my weight loss journey.
That's unbelievable.
That's a whole person.
I've lost a whole person.
Whole fucking person.
It's crazy when you put it in terms like that.
I was sitting in the kitchen, the things kids say.
I was standing in the kitchen yesterday and my oldest daughter looks at me and goes, mom,
(10:27):
I don't want to be rude, but I don't really think you look different.
I chuckled and I was like, well, Haley, I've lost 50 pounds.
She looked at me and I could tell she didn't get it.
That's one thing to say 50 pounds, but then I looked at her and I was like, Haley, I've
lost more weight than Leah, who's my youngest daughter.
(10:48):
I've lost more than a full Leah.
And then even then I stopped and went, oh my god.
Then I think about picking her up and I was like, I've lost more than a small child.
It's interesting to put it in different terms like that sometimes.
Yeah, 150 pounds is frigging amazing.
Then when you say I lost a whole person, I'm like, oh my god.
(11:11):
I lost a whole person.
It's quite insane.
I was 315 pounds when I went into surgery.
To have lost that much is quite crazy and amazing at the same time.
I'm pretty impressed with that.
(11:32):
So you should be.
Yeah, I know.
The weird thing is it is hard to almost wrap your head around it because you have goals.
I still have a weight loss goal I'm trying to achieve.
The clinic was really upfront that this is not a slow process.
Most people lose between 12 and 24 months.
They were like, the average people get to their goal weight maybe around 18 to 20, but
(11:54):
they said some people take till 24.
It does depend on your goal weight because technically I get to set it myself.
They will definitely intervene if you're like, hello, I'm 315 pounds and I'd like to be 105.
They will intervene and go, let's reevaluate.
I'm going to go to the limb.
That's not fucking possible.
But they let you set your own goal weight.
(12:15):
And then it's really funny because they check in with you throughout surgery and they go,
so how do you feel about your goal weight?
And there were so many times I was like, oh my god, I couldn't even give a shit anymore.
I was like, if this is as much weight as I lose, I'm so fucking happy where I am.
Because at the beginning of surgery, you set a very arbitrary number.
Most of us way overshoot the fucking runway on the number as well.
(12:36):
And then they kind of tell you like, you're going to be fixated on this and we hope that
you become fixated on other things like the change in your mental health and your lifestyle
and your fitness and your exercise that you start to find other things to love and that
it's not just about the weight loss.
And that's a big thing which we'll touch on.
But in Canada, they don't want to hear that you just want to do this for weight loss.
(12:58):
They're very big on, like there has to be more than just how you look.
Because if not psychologically, you're not going to do well with the surgery because
sure you'll lose weight, but body dysmorphia is a motherfucker and the loose skin is a
real bitch.
And if the only thing you're going into the surgery for is because I want to look snatched
(13:22):
and hot as fuck, they're 50 right?
It's not for you.
It's not for you.
No, we're going to need like two or three more pretty solid fucking reasons for you
to do this surgery.
Now they won't say no to you, but they're going to really work with you.
There's going to be some hard conversations that are going to happen with you because
it's, yeah, it's got to be more than that physical appearance.
(13:42):
And like I said, that's great.
Having an approved physical appearance is great.
Building your confidence is great.
Sure.
Like we'll talk about and I've talked to you before about how like I won't wear a t-shirt
in public and I don't own a pair of shorts.
Do I want to change?
And that's because I don't like the physical look of myself in those things.
Do I want that to change?
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
But can that be my only big motivating factor on this?
(14:04):
No, it can't.
No.
And if that's my only driving factor, then either the surgery is not for me or there's
got to be some hard conversations that happen.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Like when we, okay, so we both had VSG surgery.
It's probably a great time just to chat about like the surgery.
They're not going to be like, Hannah, you do not qualify for this because you want to
lose weight.
(14:24):
Nobody's going to say that to you.
But what's going to happen is I'll probably have way more sessions with the social worker
who has to approve it.
So in Ontario, this is not everywhere.
This is pretty typical for Canada.
So I will say if you are a Canadian listening, 80% this is what you're going to deal with
regardless of what province you're in.
(14:45):
But if you're American, this is probably nothing like what you went through.
In Canada, you must be referred by your doctor.
Sure.
And we actually both had good doctors that Steph's encouraged her to do this.
And I brought this to my doctor's attention and boy, were they overwhelmingly supportive.
And he was so excited about this.
(15:06):
And oh my, yes, like, and he talked me through every step in stage and why he thought this
could be really great.
And he looked at the requisition and that day if I, if I really wanted to, and this
is not a doctor who, you know, constantly harped on my weight or made me feel like I
love my family doctor.
Way to go, Dr. Singh, whoop whoop.
But he's just a wonderful human and he was so supportive of this surgery.
(15:28):
So you have to be referred by a doctor.
Cool.
That's for like most things in life.
You can't just roll up and be like, hello, I'd like a bionic leg implanted, please.
Thank you very much.
So you get referred and then you need to calm your tits, hold your horses, wait, because
the average wait to have the surgery in Canada is honestly eight to 12 months from start
(15:48):
to finish.
Now you're not just sitting idly by twiddling your thumbs while you're waiting.
You have to go through an immense amount of checks and balances.
So you go in, you go to orientation and that was kind of fun.
It was interesting.
Oh Christ.
It was interesting.
We talked so much.
The messages that we sent back and forth, I remember during, during my orientation, I
(16:09):
was text messaging Hannah throughout the entire time, cause it wasn't on camera.
It was just like a WebEx meeting where they go through.
Yeah, it's virtual.
Yeah.
It's like a high level overview of, there's two programs.
You can do a surgical program or a nutrition program.
And so they're going through all of it.
Don't, yeah, don't do the nutrition.
Don't do the nutrition.
Don't even go there.
It's a liquid diet for like a month.
(16:30):
It sounds like the worst possible experience of your life.
And so they're going through the different ones and the chats, the chats open on the
WebEx and the comments that people were putting in this chat, I was messaging Hannah like
crazy and Devin, my husband was sitting with me cause I said, you know, I want you to have
a say in this too.
Like this impacts you too.
Yeah.
(16:50):
And he and I were just like the comments about it.
It was off the rails and you could clearly go through and be like, Oh, this is not for
them.
This is not for them.
They're not going to succeed.
This is not going to happen.
They're going to quit after this.
Oh God.
It's like survivor.
It's bariatric surgery survivor.
I remember vividly, I was at the dog park and I was like, Oh boy, you know what?
I should probably just give her a heads up because I obviously went through surgery first
(17:14):
and I went through it alone.
I didn't really have any friends that had done it, but I was messaging staff saying,
Hey, be prepared.
And I remember being like, here's all the questions you're going to get.
When can I drink again?
Can I start drinking now?
Do I have to quit smoking?
Could I smoke the day after I get out?
When can I have McDonald's again?
Is pizza on the post-op diet?
(17:35):
And I was like, Oh, here we go.
Yeah.
Do I really have to do a liquid diet?
Oh, do I have to give up that much sugar?
The hilarious one was the amount of times McDonald's was mentioned by name.
They should fucking just sponsor the bariatric surgery orientation.
So much.
People were asking in my chat, is McDonald's considered soft food?
(17:57):
Are french fries considered soft food?
Is ice cream soft food?
Is pizza on the post-op diet?
And it was like, and then like the alcohol questions about, well, can I still drink if
it's low sugar?
And I was just, I was sitting here and I just remember, remember going, I'm, I can't wait
to see in my next few meetings, how many of these people dwindled out.
(18:21):
And again, it's survivor.
They very quickly did.
They just very quickly did.
Down they go, down they go.
There's a lot of hot sauce questions, which I didn't laugh at because like people love
them spices and them hot sauces.
And the rule is like, eat your hot sauce.
Nobody gives a shit about hot sauce.
I literally put that shit on everything.
We're not trying to judge the people in orientation, but like you're in an orientation for a
(18:41):
weight loss surgery because I'm going to go to the limb.
You're obese and tired of being obese.
And the number one question you have for that surgical team, when can I have McDonald's
again?
So it's like you need to reevaluate your situation.
You can just tell the nurses are like, and the nurses were just like those poor nurses,
(19:02):
but they'll basically be like, you can't really have that folks.
You can't have it.
It's not recommended.
And before the questions start, by the way, it's not that it's just, they don't give you
info.
They went through an hour and a half slide about no high fat, no high sugar, why it'll
make you basically shit your pants.
And it's like, they're very clear about why this is in place.
They're not just saying no to say no, there's reasons behind it.
(19:24):
And they give you all the reasons in the statistics.
They also go through that horrifying slide of regain where it's like, Oh my God, how
many people, 30% of people regain.
And not just, and I think to clear, regain all of their weight and then some, and then
some, we're not talking like a 20 pound regain.
(19:44):
Oh, because with this surgery for those thinking of it and this, they tell you this and there's
nothing wrong with this.
You'll get to your lowest weight and then typically not always, but typically you'll
gain 10% back, not of your total body weight of your new lowest weight.
When you hit the lowest you're going, take that weight, 10% of that weight you'll gain
(20:07):
back and that's called your maintenance phase.
And that is super normal for everyone.
But once you're at your lowest weight, that 10% is probably eight pounds, you know, like
it's not much.
It's not a big deal.
And that's your new maintenance phase, which means if you did nothing different, you would
just stay at that weight for the rest of your life, which maintenance phase, it's pretty
dope.
It's dope as hell.
(20:28):
I'm not going to lie.
I'm trying to get out of maintenance phase because there's more weight I'd like to lose,
but it is kind of nice for me to know if I wake up and literally change nothing about
my life, I will stay here.
And like, I've never ever had that feeling before.
It's pretty dope.
But yes, they go through everything in this orientation and they tell you why you have
to do the things you have to do.
(20:48):
And then after all of that, people's burning fucking question is still, can I make Don
see Donald's soft food?
But like I can have the burrito from Taco Bell, right?
And I have to say, I do feel bad because I think where these people's questions are coming
from.
Okay, there's two streams of thoughts here and I'm going to offend some people on this.
Here we go.
I was fucking hot takes from Hannah.
(21:10):
Here we go.
We're going to get canceled in episode one.
Sorry, Steph.
Nice to meet you all.
Yeah, it's been lovely.
She's not associated with me, so don't cancel her.
I was the youngest person in my orientation by probably a goddamn decade.
I was the only 30 year old in my orientation.
Everyone else was pushing 60.
Now good fucking for them.
(21:32):
Way to put your hand up, step up and say, I want to do it.
I suspect most of them did not put their hand up and say, I want to do this.
I suspect most of them were told you will be doing this because now you're diabetic,
your heart's going to give out.
You have really reached the point of no return and you can kind of tell based on their questions,
(21:52):
this was not their choice and that this is something-
This is the last resort for them, I think.
No one's forced into surgery.
They don't go-
No.
But I think this was again kind of that hail Mary.
You do this or you're going to be on diabetic insulin for the rest of your life or you do
this or we're going to put in a pacemaker or whatever.
So you can tell the ones that were basically told this is kind of your only option.
(22:16):
But they didn't necessarily want to be there or I don't think they had gone through the
thought process maybe that we had leading up to is this what I want to do.
Correct.
So you can already kind of tell they're very not interested in it.
And I get that.
There's no way I could have done this when I- like I'm only 30, but there's no way in
(22:37):
my 30s I should say, but there's no way I'm only 30 at a couple of years.
But I'm in my 30s.
There's no way I think I could imagine doing this at 60 after I've lived an entire life,
been set in my ways.
Many of them are married.
That's a fun one that we'll get into later.
Many of them are married for now.
And it just seems like this is going to be the most massively hard thing in their entire
(23:01):
life to do.
And I get that.
If I spent 60 years doing one thing and you told me I have to like not even change it
slightly completely fucking up and overhaul my whole life.
And I'm the only one in my family that has to.
My husband gets to still do whatever the hell he wants.
My kids get to do whatever the hell they want.
And I have to be the only person in the whole family doing this.
(23:23):
There's a reason 30% of people fail and regain their weight.
And it's lifestyle and psychological.
So I'm the youngest by a lot in this room.
And I think that that was a big, a big eye opener and problem.
The older people really struggled with the notion of no fast food, no high fat, no sugar,
(23:45):
no drinking.
No drinking was a huge and still is.
It came up on every call.
Even my post-op, or I shouldn't say post-op, but the last call I had prior to surgery where
we talked about the post-op meal plans and making sure that everybody was basically all
set to go because our surgery dates were coming up really quickly.
(24:08):
Even in that meeting, the amount of times that it came up still shocked me because as
you've said, we have to go through quite the process to get to surgery.
We have to deal, or not deal, but we have to have meetings with dietitians and nurses
and social workers and internal medicine doctors and surgeons.
And it's not one, like it's multiple of these appointments throughout the months leading
(24:31):
up to your surgery.
And I was really surprised at how much it was still coming up in that last meeting before
surgery.
I guarantee you that the day before people go under, they're still asking about when
can I drink again?
And alcohol was a big one.
So I haven't had alcohol since I entered the program in 2021.
(24:53):
Jesus Christ, was it 2021?
Keep in mind, like just because I'm two years post-op, I had to enter the program well before
surgery.
So my surgery was 2023.
Holy shit, yeah, I entered November, 2021.
Thanks COVID.
I am a rare exception where it took me from November, 2021 till March, 2023 to have surgery.
(25:13):
That is not the norm.
Do not panic about that.
That was simply because of COVID.
So I had done all my approvals, but then I had to wait and wait and wait because the
hospital only allowed a certain amount of surgeries per day because then they had to
do all this deep cleaning and it was just a nightmare.
But now they're back to normal.
So it's about eight to 12 months from start to finish.
You go in, you do your orientation.
(25:34):
Like Steph said, you have to do a ton of blood work and tests.
They test everything in your blood.
They want to know your full medical history.
They want to know your psychological history.
They want to know your family history.
They want to know why you're doing it.
So you will consistently meet over that year with a nutritionist that they choose.
None of this is your own choosing.
You'll meet with your nutritionist.
(25:55):
You'll meet with your nurse and you'll meet with your social worker, which is a therapist
in Canada.
And they will go through all the reasons that you're doing this.
You might roll your eyes and say, why do I have to spend 12 months?
Because it's basically every two months you're doing blood work and meeting for an hour to
two hours with these people.
And you have to do food journals.
You have to do psychology things.
(26:16):
It's mainly just like exercises and thoughts and how did you get there and could you handle
this?
Make sure you have the supports that you need.
Yes.
Do you have family and friends?
And they dive into like, how'd you get to be obese?
Is it binge eating?
Is it emotional eating?
If you're someone who has like, you're clinically depressed, you're bipolar, you're on anxiety
meds, like you will not be disqualified.
(26:37):
They will work with you to figure out the best step forward for you so that you're not
off your meds for too long, so that this doesn't, you know, hurt any progress you made.
So like don't panic if you have a disorder that you're on medication for.
They will work with you.
You will not be disqualified.
Even if you have cancer, you will not be disqualified.
They will work with you.
You will be disqualified if you refuse to give up smoking.
(26:59):
You're done.
They will not do this surgery on you because you are at high risk for blood clots, bleeding
out during surgery, for horrible complications after.
You are just not worth it.
If you can't give that up and alcohol before surgery, you must give that up before surgery
for the exact same reasons.
But you will go through multiple, multiple, multiple meetings, multiple hoops, lots of
(27:22):
work because they want to make sure you're good and goddamn ready to commit to this program.
So that's the big difference between Canada and the U.S. asterisks for the most part.
There are some clinics in the states that are like Canada.
What I think Steph and I should point out, this is fully covered in Canada.
(27:42):
That's a big question we always get.
I looked back the other day, I was going through my binder.
I have a binder where I've kept everything to do with this surgery, all my paperwork,
all my paperwork.
I paid, I think it was like $186 for my shakes, for the liquid phase, the pre-op diet phase.
And that was it.
Everything else, I didn't pay a single penny.
(28:05):
No bills were sent to me, nothing.
Which is phenomenal.
The only thing you pay for is your liquid surgery protein shakes, your two weeks of
that.
And surprise, we should add that in.
Before surgery, you must go on a two week liquid diet.
It is shocking how many people drop out of surgery as soon as they hear that.
(28:28):
They literally pull out and say, I'm not doing this.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But yeah, it's fully paid for.
So OHIP, which is our Ontario healthcare, or any province, I should say, it's not just
Ontario, every province in Canada, Canadian wide, will pay for 100% of the surgery.
You just have to pay for your protein shakes for two weeks, which is like 180 bucks.
(28:51):
It's really not much.
It's incredible that this is entirely paid for.
And you don't ever have to pay it back or anything, but it's entirely paid for because
Canada has said it is better for us to cover this surgery because if not, obesity is a
massive, no pun intended, drain on the healthcare system.
(29:12):
At one point, I don't know if it's still true, it was a bigger drain on resources than heart
disease, which is kind of shocking.
It likely is because we'll talk about it, but there's so many health factors or health
issues that a lot of us with obesity suffer from.
And obesity is kind of the umbrella, right?
Obesity typically also means on top of being overweight, you suffer from XYZ.
(29:37):
So when you add all of those up, that is a lot of resources that are being used up in
the healthcare system.
So if we can knock out the obesity problem, and that's why a lot of us have this bariatric
surgery is because it will go hand in hand with clearing up a lot of these other issues
that we all suffer from.
(29:58):
Exactly.
And that's something that we'll talk about in a couple of minutes is all the health related
things before surgery, how often I was going to the doctor.
You don't realize, but it is a big drain.
And by having this surgery and trying to eliminate the obesity epidemic, and I know people are
going to be mad I say this, but you almost get better care.
(30:18):
And I don't mean because they think you look pretty, because they don't have to worry about,
okay, you're obese.
We now have to look at all the things that could possibly come from you being obese.
You can go in now and say, man, I'm really having chest pain.
And they can go, okay, she's not obese.
Like, let's go to write into an EKG and we're going to check XYZ and blah, blah, blah, or
holy shit, my knee is just killing me.
(30:41):
And now they don't have to run an EKG and check your heart and do all the things they
have to do when you're obese because they think, oh my God, is this her knee joints
or is this a heart attack or is this high blood pressure or is this diabetes?
Like, it's you do get quicker, almost better care when you're not obese.
So there's a reason they pay for it.
In the States, not always, but typically, it's not you're not in a program like we were
(31:06):
in, which is a shame.
And then you see an overwhelming amount of Americans just pay for surgery.
So they'll make the decision, this is what they want to do.
Their doctor will be like, cool, cool, cool.
And they'll just fly to Mexico or somewhere in Europe.
Turkey is a big one.
And they'll just have the surgery.
They'll pay 10 to $20,000.
Fuck, I wish.
(31:28):
No, thank you.
And they'll just pay for surgery.
Now they go to places that are nice and like medical spas and stuff.
And then they'll just come home.
And after having gone through this process, sure, at the very beginning, was I anxious
and just wanted to fucking do it?
You're goddamn right.
I was like, this weight is bullshit.
After?
There's no fucking way I would have paid for this surgery.
(31:50):
No fucking way.
No, definitely not.
And to just be home and be alone and left to your own devices.
I've looked at, I'll be honest, when I was researching this after my doctor put me in
the referral and we talked about it, I went home and I, like we all do, I social mediaed
and I Instagramed and I TikTok and I went through the whole gamut of things.
(32:14):
And the Mexico option came up so many times on my feed.
And don't get me wrong, like the one that I continually saw, it looked beautiful.
It looked amazing.
The reviews were phenomenal.
The price was somewhat not horrible.
But to them, as you said, yes, you're, you're like kicked out of there.
(32:36):
Looking good, feeling good.
They're not going to send you home if you're sick.
But to then be basically just dropped back at home with nobody to call, nobody to turn
to, no resources, nobody really checking in on me.
I can't imagine because the amount of questions that come up, the amount of changes that I
have to make, the amount of unknowns, is this normal?
(32:58):
Should my body be doing this?
Oh my gosh, my stomach is like making really crazy noises.
Is this okay?
The amount of support that comes from a program like what we did, I just, like I said, I can't
imagine being dropped at home and have to just figure this out on my own.
Yeah.
And that's, I don't think I could do it.
(33:19):
And I think a lot of people immensely struggle when they get home.
The other thing that we were kind of told, and it might just be kind of a Canadian thing
is you could pay if you wanted to, because it does come up.
There are people who have asked, could I go get this done?
And they made it pretty clear that you could, but you will have no access to a bariatric
(33:39):
clinic in Canada.
You must be a patient of the clinic.
So if something goes wrong, you go to the ER like everyone else.
And my mom, who's a retired nurse, was like, be careful because in the States, a surgeon
will not touch another surgeon's work.
Unless you're there for a medical emergency, which obviously they have their oath to do
no harm, you can't just set up an appointment with another surgeon and say, I had bariatric
(34:03):
surgery and I don't really know if it's working.
They're going to be like, nope, I'm not touching that because they're liable.
They don't want to mess with another surgeon's work.
So the benefit for us is we're part of a clinic.
So if there's something wrong with us, we go back to our hospital and say, we're a bariatric
patient of the clinic of this hospital.
Something's wrong.
And in we go and we go see our bariatric surgeon.
(34:24):
We go see our bariatric team for a year.
You get to be part of the clinic for a year.
Now I could actually go back, like it's been longer, but I'm not technically considered
a patient of theirs.
I'm now a post-op patient.
Like I'm back in the care of my family doctor, but they're still there to help me and support
me.
They even have a support group, which is awesome.
But that was the biggest fear for me is if you went to Mexico, had surgery and something
(34:47):
fucking went wrong, you can't just get on a plane and go back to Mexico and get it fixed.
So now you have to try to hope that the records are correct and that a surgeon here is going
to like, again, if there's an emergency, anyone will see you, you know what I mean.
But if it's not emergency-
It just adds a whole nother level of complexity that you don't need when you're going through
everything else.
And these are not easy.
(35:09):
Like VSG is yes, low impact, pretty easy to be back on your feet.
But when shit goes wrong with these surgeries, shit goes wrong with these surgeries.
You could be vomiting for months.
You could be dumping, which is like-
You need help.
You need-
You're pooping yourself.
Your bowels could twist.
You could blow a suture internally.
Like, it's not like you can see the stitches on your stomach.
So if you blew a stitch internally-
(35:30):
No, there's blood clots.
There's hernias.
Blood clots are a huge fucking thing.
The other thing I would just worry about is my medical history, my medical records.
Has that been conveyed enough?
My family doctor knows me.
So he would know better than some random other doctor I've never seen in my life if I'm not
quite right, if something's off.
(35:52):
So while we say it's not every American at all, a lot of them have wonderful programs
and they stay close to home, there are a bunch that do pay for it.
And that's fine.
If you have the means and the ways and you want to, a lot of them are super successful
with it.
Just personally, I would never do that.
It's easier before surgery to want to do that after surgery and seeing all the things that
(36:12):
I went through before surgery and the support I get after.
Never.
I would never survive because the other thing that we go through before surgery is all of
what we said.
The testing, the questioning, the psychological aspect of it.
And it's not horrible and it's not mean.
It's literally to be like, Hannah, do you really believe that this is right for you?
(36:33):
Can you sustain this?
Do you feel prepared?
Do you feel excited?
Is this the right choice for you?
It's basically letting them check in with you every month leading up to surgery to just
say, is this still the right decision for you?
And do you have everything you need to succeed?
I wouldn't pay, no, no money in the world is worth giving that up because I would fail
(36:58):
if I didn't have all of that.
The support system is key.
It's crucial to being successful in this journey.
110%.
And like I said, the accountability and the support without those, oh gosh, I'd be so
lost.
I think we are already in the nails.
(37:23):
You
(37:54):
Well, so us I'd be lost and the other thing is and this is something we've always wanted to talk about is
You
Okay, welcome to the first episode of the Bariatric Fancher podcast.
(00:21):
Hi Steph.
Hi Hannah.
How's it going?
Pretty excited.
Good.
Pretty excited to be recording this with you.
Finally.
I know.
I've been waiting forever to get here, but here we are.
We're doing it.
I'm pretty pumped.
This episode of the Bariatric Fancher podcast is going to be all about bariatric surgery.
How did we get there?
What did it look like?
(00:42):
And then why did we start a podcast?
Love it.
A little bit of intro and history for you.
Oh yeah.
It's definitely going to dive deep into intro and history and then obviously just a ton
of banter as well.
And be prepared folks.
We're going to go very off script and just talk about anything and everything.
I love it.
How was your weekend Steph?
(01:04):
You know what?
It wasn't too bad.
It's one of those weekends of getting stuff done.
We have back into the routine of things after the holiday break and getting the kids back
into gymnastics and getting ready for school and today's grocery shopping day.
So you know, the weekends that are full of the adulting thing.
(01:24):
Oh, adulting.
But I'll be honest.
I live in an area where we get a lot of snow and as somebody who is not a winter person
and not a fan of the snow, it's beautiful to look at.
Don't get me wrong.
But I am anxiously awaiting for the next few months to go be over and get spring back.
(01:46):
I'm done with winter.
Yeah, I can't wait either.
I'm not a winter person.
I'm going to run away to Florida here in a few weeks and I'm hoping it's just glorious
and I might not ever come back.
I wouldn't blame you.
The weather this year has just been brutal.
For those who don't know, we probably should have said we're Canadian.
We're in Canada.
Surprised.
(02:07):
Couldn't tell from our accents maybe.
But we are Canadians who both live outside of Toronto, Ontario in slightly different
parts but not too far away from each other.
So if you're not from Canada, it's been all shrivelingly cold.
It's just not fun.
We're so focused on moving our bodies and getting workouts in and getting your fresh
(02:32):
air and getting your sunshine, which is amazing.
But it just makes it really hard.
And when it's dark until eight o'clock in the morning, it's hard to get that motivation
to get up.
And I was going to the gym before surgery at 5.30 in the morning with my neighbors.
And now, do you think I'm getting up at 5.30 to go brush my car off in minus 20 degree
(02:54):
weather?
Definitely not.
Should I be 100%?
But it's just, yeah, it's not my favorite time of year.
It's not going to happen.
It's just not going to happen.
So yeah, that's what we've been dealing with this weekend is super cold weather.
I'm excited to be in the studio recording this and not thinking about how cold it is
(03:14):
outside and preparing for warmer days ahead, because you're right, a treadmill is not the
same as outside.
And we're in for a long January.
So hopefully in February, we get back to last year.
We had a week in February where it was 22 degrees.
We're going to plow through and we're going to do it.
(03:38):
We can do it.
We can figure this out.
So that's probably a great place for us to start diving into our actual episode.
We're going to banter about the weather in Canada, but I think it's time just to let
people know who we are, what surgery we both had, and maybe kind of how far we are post-op,
I think would be great to let them know who are their hosts.
(04:00):
You want to start, Steph?
Sure.
So I am about 10 weeks post-op VSG, which is vertical sleeve gastrectomy, which is one
of the lesser invasive options in terms of weight loss surgery, which is what we also
refer to as bariatric surgery.
So obviously, as Hannah said, we are Canadian.
(04:22):
We are in Ontario.
That's where I had my surgery.
What basically happens with that is it is laparoscopic surgery, meaning they go in with
just a few little incisions.
I have about five incisions that are about an inch or so across my abdomen.
And Hannah, we've talked about this, but I'm pretty sure also that it's robotic surgery.
(04:45):
I don't know for sure.
Like 90% sure.
I'm pretty sure I saw a robot when I walked in there.
It's a little bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure it was in there.
Could have been the morphine.
Could have been me.
Could have been the...
Can't tell.
Right.
Exactly.
It's very quick recovery, which is great.
So for me, I live about two hours away from the hospital that I had my surgery in.
(05:08):
But typically speaking, it's a fairly straightforward procedure.
It's day surgery for most individuals here.
But because of where I live, I ended up staying overnight, which was fine.
But I had my surgery early in the morning, about 10 o'clock in the morning.
It's about give or take 45 minutes of a procedure.
And then I was back in my room very shortly after I was up and walking within about an
(05:31):
hour and a half to two hours after my surgery.
I was sipping fluids.
I was texting.
I was talking.
And within a couple hours, I was pretty much on my own.
Up and walking every hour, moving around okay.
A little bit of soreness, a little bit of tightness, a little bit of nausea here and
there.
But overall, I will say, and I'm sure I'll say this many times throughout our episodes,
(05:55):
I was just very pleasantly surprised with how, I'm not going to say easy, but how smooth
of a procedure it was.
I was home.
I was released first thing the next morning.
I was home.
That was a Saturday that I came home.
And by Monday morning, my husband was back at work.
I was up getting the kids ready for school, making lunches, looking after myself.
(06:17):
So all in all, a really great experience.
So as I said, I'm about 10 weeks post-op, just over two months.
I'm down 51 pounds.
Yeah, still a ways to go, but moving along, new challenges every day, new lessons every
day.
But all in all, really happy with my journey so far with this decision and what I've experienced.
(06:41):
Oh man, you should be.
It's huge.
It's huge just to get to the stage of actually doing this because the lead up to it, which
we'll talk about in a little bit, the lead up to it is long and can give you many options
to be like, maybe I don't want to do this.
This is the right decision.
Oh boy.
But no, two and a half months post-op, 50 pounds down, like it's absolutely incredible.
(07:02):
You've been crushing it because this is a lot of work, which we'll also talk about a
little bit, but no, good job.
I'm Hannah, the other person talking on this podcast.
I am two years or just shy of two years.
I'll be two years, March 13th of 2025, two years post-op.
I had the exact same surgery, the sleeve surgery, where they basically inflate your stomach,
(07:28):
cut out 80% of it and leave you with a little sleeve from esophagus down to your intestines
so that you can't hold as much food.
You don't have as much to break down.
You absorb things just slightly differently, but not too much.
The reason I picked sleeve was for the recovery.
Now they did say you might lose less weight than other options, but the big selling feature
(07:50):
was day surgery on your feet the next day, quickest recovery out of all of them.
That really appealed to me being in my 30s.
I didn't want to be laid out on the couch months of recovery.
That just didn't interest me at all.
My mentality was I can do this.
If you just help me, I will put the work in.
(08:12):
I will work out, exercise, eat well.
I will do this.
I picked the non-invasive one because I believed I could make it work.
The other option, there's many.
I should say there's five or six options, but typically the two options you're given
are do you want sleeve or do you want bypass?
Bypass being the more invasive of the two where they basically connect your... I'm
(08:36):
just very layman's-terming this, but you basically connect your esophagus to your lower intestines,
completely skipping your stomach and your small intestines.
This causes you to lose weight through malabsorption.
You obviously cannot absorb things the way other people did.
Having literally no pouch or anywhere to put your food, you can only eat a certain amount.
(08:59):
You really can't eat high fat, high sugar, or a lot of other things because your body
just can no longer digest it, break it down, or handle it.
It is usually mandatory for those with diabetes, chronic illnesses, or over a certain weight
threshold because sleeve just would not work for them.
(09:19):
Usually if you are relatively healthy at a relatively normal BMI, obese range, so I think
it's under 400 pounds, you'll get the option between the two.
They will push bypass heavily, but sleeve can be just as successful.
The only reason they prefer bypass is it is less hard to regain the weight because of
how drastically it changes your anatomy and your body.
(09:44):
Like I said, I was committed that I was going to do this.
My mom is a retired nurse and I talked with her at length and she said, I really just
don't think you should be altering your anatomy at this age.
I think sleeve sounds like it's the better option and that you'll just put the work in
and make it successful.
I took sleeve.
Like I said, two years post-op.
(10:05):
Had it done at the exact same clinic Steph did.
I've lost over 150 pounds and counting.
I am still on my weight loss journey.
That's unbelievable.
That's a whole person.
I've lost a whole person.
Whole fucking person.
It's crazy when you put it in terms like that.
I was sitting in the kitchen, the things kids say.
I was standing in the kitchen yesterday and my oldest daughter looks at me and goes, mom,
(10:27):
I don't want to be rude, but I don't really think you look different.
I chuckled and I was like, well, Haley, I've lost 50 pounds.
She looked at me and I could tell she didn't get it.
That's one thing to say 50 pounds, but then I looked at her and I was like, Haley, I've
lost more weight than Leah, who's my youngest daughter.
(10:48):
I've lost more than a full Leah.
And then even then I stopped and went, oh my god.
Then I think about picking her up and I was like, I've lost more than a small child.
It's interesting to put it in different terms like that sometimes.
Yeah, 150 pounds is frigging amazing.
Then when you say I lost a whole person, I'm like, oh my god.
(11:11):
I lost a whole person.
It's quite insane.
I was 315 pounds when I went into surgery.
To have lost that much is quite crazy and amazing at the same time.
I'm pretty impressed with that.
(11:32):
So you should be.
Yeah, I know.
The weird thing is it is hard to almost wrap your head around it because you have goals.
I still have a weight loss goal I'm trying to achieve.
The clinic was really upfront that this is not a slow process.
Most people lose between 12 and 24 months.
They were like, the average people get to their goal weight maybe around 18 to 20, but
(11:54):
they said some people take till 24.
It does depend on your goal weight because technically I get to set it myself.
They will definitely intervene if you're like, hello, I'm 315 pounds and I'd like to be 105.
They will intervene and go, let's reevaluate.
I'm going to go to the limb.
That's not fucking possible.
But they let you set your own goal weight.
(12:15):
And then it's really funny because they check in with you throughout surgery and they go,
so how do you feel about your goal weight?
And there were so many times I was like, oh my god, I couldn't even give a shit anymore.
I was like, if this is as much weight as I lose, I'm so fucking happy where I am.
Because at the beginning of surgery, you set a very arbitrary number.
Most of us way overshoot the fucking runway on the number as well.
(12:36):
And then they kind of tell you like, you're going to be fixated on this and we hope that
you become fixated on other things like the change in your mental health and your lifestyle
and your fitness and your exercise that you start to find other things to love and that
it's not just about the weight loss.
And that's a big thing which we'll touch on.
But in Canada, they don't want to hear that you just want to do this for weight loss.
(12:58):
They're very big on, like there has to be more than just how you look.
Because if not psychologically, you're not going to do well with the surgery because
sure you'll lose weight, but body dysmorphia is a motherfucker and the loose skin is a
real bitch.
And if the only thing you're going into the surgery for is because I want to look snatched
(13:22):
and hot as fuck, they're 50 right?
It's not for you.
It's not for you.
No, we're going to need like two or three more pretty solid fucking reasons for you
to do this surgery.
Now they won't say no to you, but they're going to really work with you.
There's going to be some hard conversations that are going to happen with you because
it's, yeah, it's got to be more than that physical appearance.
(13:42):
And like I said, that's great.
Having an approved physical appearance is great.
Building your confidence is great.
Sure.
Like we'll talk about and I've talked to you before about how like I won't wear a t-shirt
in public and I don't own a pair of shorts.
Do I want to change?
And that's because I don't like the physical look of myself in those things.
Do I want that to change?
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
But can that be my only big motivating factor on this?
(14:04):
No, it can't.
No.
And if that's my only driving factor, then either the surgery is not for me or there's
got to be some hard conversations that happen.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Like when we, okay, so we both had VSG surgery.
It's probably a great time just to chat about like the surgery.
They're not going to be like, Hannah, you do not qualify for this because you want to
lose weight.
(14:24):
Nobody's going to say that to you.
But what's going to happen is I'll probably have way more sessions with the social worker
who has to approve it.
So in Ontario, this is not everywhere.
This is pretty typical for Canada.
So I will say if you are a Canadian listening, 80% this is what you're going to deal with
regardless of what province you're in.
(14:45):
But if you're American, this is probably nothing like what you went through.
In Canada, you must be referred by your doctor.
Sure.
And we actually both had good doctors that Steph's encouraged her to do this.
And I brought this to my doctor's attention and boy, were they overwhelmingly supportive.
And he was so excited about this.
(15:06):
And oh my, yes, like, and he talked me through every step in stage and why he thought this
could be really great.
And he looked at the requisition and that day if I, if I really wanted to, and this
is not a doctor who, you know, constantly harped on my weight or made me feel like I
love my family doctor.
Way to go, Dr. Singh, whoop whoop.
But he's just a wonderful human and he was so supportive of this surgery.
(15:28):
So you have to be referred by a doctor.
Cool.
That's for like most things in life.
You can't just roll up and be like, hello, I'd like a bionic leg implanted, please.
Thank you very much.
So you get referred and then you need to calm your tits, hold your horses, wait, because
the average wait to have the surgery in Canada is honestly eight to 12 months from start
(15:48):
to finish.
Now you're not just sitting idly by twiddling your thumbs while you're waiting.
You have to go through an immense amount of checks and balances.
So you go in, you go to orientation and that was kind of fun.
It was interesting.
Oh Christ.
It was interesting.
We talked so much.
The messages that we sent back and forth, I remember during, during my orientation, I
(16:09):
was text messaging Hannah throughout the entire time, cause it wasn't on camera.
It was just like a WebEx meeting where they go through.
Yeah, it's virtual.
Yeah.
It's like a high level overview of, there's two programs.
You can do a surgical program or a nutrition program.
And so they're going through all of it.
Don't, yeah, don't do the nutrition.
Don't do the nutrition.
Don't even go there.
It's a liquid diet for like a month.
(16:30):
It sounds like the worst possible experience of your life.
And so they're going through the different ones and the chats, the chats open on the
WebEx and the comments that people were putting in this chat, I was messaging Hannah like
crazy and Devin, my husband was sitting with me cause I said, you know, I want you to have
a say in this too.
Like this impacts you too.
Yeah.
(16:50):
And he and I were just like the comments about it.
It was off the rails and you could clearly go through and be like, Oh, this is not for
them.
This is not for them.
They're not going to succeed.
This is not going to happen.
They're going to quit after this.
Oh God.
It's like survivor.
It's bariatric surgery survivor.
I remember vividly, I was at the dog park and I was like, Oh boy, you know what?
I should probably just give her a heads up because I obviously went through surgery first
(17:14):
and I went through it alone.
I didn't really have any friends that had done it, but I was messaging staff saying,
Hey, be prepared.
And I remember being like, here's all the questions you're going to get.
When can I drink again?
Can I start drinking now?
Do I have to quit smoking?
Could I smoke the day after I get out?
When can I have McDonald's again?
Is pizza on the post-op diet?
(17:35):
And I was like, Oh, here we go.
Yeah.
Do I really have to do a liquid diet?
Oh, do I have to give up that much sugar?
The hilarious one was the amount of times McDonald's was mentioned by name.
They should fucking just sponsor the bariatric surgery orientation.
So much.
People were asking in my chat, is McDonald's considered soft food?
(17:57):
Are french fries considered soft food?
Is ice cream soft food?
Is pizza on the post-op diet?
And it was like, and then like the alcohol questions about, well, can I still drink if
it's low sugar?
And I was just, I was sitting here and I just remember, remember going, I'm, I can't wait
to see in my next few meetings, how many of these people dwindled out.
(18:21):
And again, it's survivor.
They very quickly did.
They just very quickly did.
Down they go, down they go.
There's a lot of hot sauce questions, which I didn't laugh at because like people love
them spices and them hot sauces.
And the rule is like, eat your hot sauce.
Nobody gives a shit about hot sauce.
I literally put that shit on everything.
We're not trying to judge the people in orientation, but like you're in an orientation for a
(18:41):
weight loss surgery because I'm going to go to the limb.
You're obese and tired of being obese.
And the number one question you have for that surgical team, when can I have McDonald's
again?
So it's like you need to reevaluate your situation.
You can just tell the nurses are like, and the nurses were just like those poor nurses,
(19:02):
but they'll basically be like, you can't really have that folks.
You can't have it.
It's not recommended.
And before the questions start, by the way, it's not that it's just, they don't give you
info.
They went through an hour and a half slide about no high fat, no high sugar, why it'll
make you basically shit your pants.
And it's like, they're very clear about why this is in place.
They're not just saying no to say no, there's reasons behind it.
(19:24):
And they give you all the reasons in the statistics.
They also go through that horrifying slide of regain where it's like, Oh my God, how
many people, 30% of people regain.
And not just, and I think to clear, regain all of their weight and then some, and then
some, we're not talking like a 20 pound regain.
(19:44):
Oh, because with this surgery for those thinking of it and this, they tell you this and there's
nothing wrong with this.
You'll get to your lowest weight and then typically not always, but typically you'll
gain 10% back, not of your total body weight of your new lowest weight.
When you hit the lowest you're going, take that weight, 10% of that weight you'll gain
(20:07):
back and that's called your maintenance phase.
And that is super normal for everyone.
But once you're at your lowest weight, that 10% is probably eight pounds, you know, like
it's not much.
It's not a big deal.
And that's your new maintenance phase, which means if you did nothing different, you would
just stay at that weight for the rest of your life, which maintenance phase, it's pretty
dope.
It's dope as hell.
(20:28):
I'm not going to lie.
I'm trying to get out of maintenance phase because there's more weight I'd like to lose,
but it is kind of nice for me to know if I wake up and literally change nothing about
my life, I will stay here.
And like, I've never ever had that feeling before.
It's pretty dope.
But yes, they go through everything in this orientation and they tell you why you have
to do the things you have to do.
(20:48):
And then after all of that, people's burning fucking question is still, can I make Don
see Donald's soft food?
But like I can have the burrito from Taco Bell, right?
And I have to say, I do feel bad because I think where these people's questions are coming
from.
Okay, there's two streams of thoughts here and I'm going to offend some people on this.
Here we go.
I was fucking hot takes from Hannah.
(21:10):
Here we go.
We're going to get canceled in episode one.
Sorry, Steph.
Nice to meet you all.
Yeah, it's been lovely.
She's not associated with me, so don't cancel her.
I was the youngest person in my orientation by probably a goddamn decade.
I was the only 30 year old in my orientation.
Everyone else was pushing 60.
Now good fucking for them.
(21:32):
Way to put your hand up, step up and say, I want to do it.
I suspect most of them did not put their hand up and say, I want to do this.
I suspect most of them were told you will be doing this because now you're diabetic,
your heart's going to give out.
You have really reached the point of no return and you can kind of tell based on their questions,
(21:52):
this was not their choice and that this is something-
This is the last resort for them, I think.
No one's forced into surgery.
They don't go-
No.
But I think this was again kind of that hail Mary.
You do this or you're going to be on diabetic insulin for the rest of your life or you do
this or we're going to put in a pacemaker or whatever.
So you can tell the ones that were basically told this is kind of your only option.
(22:16):
But they didn't necessarily want to be there or I don't think they had gone through the
thought process maybe that we had leading up to is this what I want to do.
Correct.
So you can already kind of tell they're very not interested in it.
And I get that.
There's no way I could have done this when I- like I'm only 30, but there's no way in
(22:37):
my 30s I should say, but there's no way I'm only 30 at a couple of years.
But I'm in my 30s.
There's no way I think I could imagine doing this at 60 after I've lived an entire life,
been set in my ways.
Many of them are married.
That's a fun one that we'll get into later.
Many of them are married for now.
And it just seems like this is going to be the most massively hard thing in their entire
(23:01):
life to do.
And I get that.
If I spent 60 years doing one thing and you told me I have to like not even change it
slightly completely fucking up and overhaul my whole life.
And I'm the only one in my family that has to.
My husband gets to still do whatever the hell he wants.
My kids get to do whatever the hell they want.
And I have to be the only person in the whole family doing this.
(23:23):
There's a reason 30% of people fail and regain their weight.
And it's lifestyle and psychological.
So I'm the youngest by a lot in this room.
And I think that that was a big, a big eye opener and problem.
The older people really struggled with the notion of no fast food, no high fat, no sugar,
(23:45):
no drinking.
No drinking was a huge and still is.
It came up on every call.
Even my post-op, or I shouldn't say post-op, but the last call I had prior to surgery where
we talked about the post-op meal plans and making sure that everybody was basically all
set to go because our surgery dates were coming up really quickly.
(24:08):
Even in that meeting, the amount of times that it came up still shocked me because as
you've said, we have to go through quite the process to get to surgery.
We have to deal, or not deal, but we have to have meetings with dietitians and nurses
and social workers and internal medicine doctors and surgeons.
And it's not one, like it's multiple of these appointments throughout the months leading
(24:31):
up to your surgery.
And I was really surprised at how much it was still coming up in that last meeting before
surgery.
I guarantee you that the day before people go under, they're still asking about when
can I drink again?
And alcohol was a big one.
So I haven't had alcohol since I entered the program in 2021.
(24:53):
Jesus Christ, was it 2021?
Keep in mind, like just because I'm two years post-op, I had to enter the program well before
surgery.
So my surgery was 2023.
Holy shit, yeah, I entered November, 2021.
Thanks COVID.
I am a rare exception where it took me from November, 2021 till March, 2023 to have surgery.
(25:13):
That is not the norm.
Do not panic about that.
That was simply because of COVID.
So I had done all my approvals, but then I had to wait and wait and wait because the
hospital only allowed a certain amount of surgeries per day because then they had to
do all this deep cleaning and it was just a nightmare.
But now they're back to normal.
So it's about eight to 12 months from start to finish.
You go in, you do your orientation.
(25:34):
Like Steph said, you have to do a ton of blood work and tests.
They test everything in your blood.
They want to know your full medical history.
They want to know your psychological history.
They want to know your family history.
They want to know why you're doing it.
So you will consistently meet over that year with a nutritionist that they choose.
None of this is your own choosing.
You'll meet with your nutritionist.
(25:55):
You'll meet with your nurse and you'll meet with your social worker, which is a therapist
in Canada.
And they will go through all the reasons that you're doing this.
You might roll your eyes and say, why do I have to spend 12 months?
Because it's basically every two months you're doing blood work and meeting for an hour to
two hours with these people.
And you have to do food journals.
You have to do psychology things.
(26:16):
It's mainly just like exercises and thoughts and how did you get there and could you handle
this?
Make sure you have the supports that you need.
Yes.
Do you have family and friends?
And they dive into like, how'd you get to be obese?
Is it binge eating?
Is it emotional eating?
If you're someone who has like, you're clinically depressed, you're bipolar, you're on anxiety
meds, like you will not be disqualified.
(26:37):
They will work with you to figure out the best step forward for you so that you're not
off your meds for too long, so that this doesn't, you know, hurt any progress you made.
So like don't panic if you have a disorder that you're on medication for.
They will work with you.
You will not be disqualified.
Even if you have cancer, you will not be disqualified.
They will work with you.
You will be disqualified if you refuse to give up smoking.
(26:59):
You're done.
They will not do this surgery on you because you are at high risk for blood clots, bleeding
out during surgery, for horrible complications after.
You are just not worth it.
If you can't give that up and alcohol before surgery, you must give that up before surgery
for the exact same reasons.
But you will go through multiple, multiple, multiple meetings, multiple hoops, lots of
(27:22):
work because they want to make sure you're good and goddamn ready to commit to this program.
So that's the big difference between Canada and the U.S. asterisks for the most part.
There are some clinics in the states that are like Canada.
What I think Steph and I should point out, this is fully covered in Canada.
(27:42):
That's a big question we always get.
I looked back the other day, I was going through my binder.
I have a binder where I've kept everything to do with this surgery, all my paperwork,
all my paperwork.
I paid, I think it was like $186 for my shakes, for the liquid phase, the pre-op diet phase.
And that was it.
Everything else, I didn't pay a single penny.
(28:05):
No bills were sent to me, nothing.
Which is phenomenal.
The only thing you pay for is your liquid surgery protein shakes, your two weeks of
that.
And surprise, we should add that in.
Before surgery, you must go on a two week liquid diet.
It is shocking how many people drop out of surgery as soon as they hear that.
(28:28):
They literally pull out and say, I'm not doing this.
We'll get to that in a minute.
But yeah, it's fully paid for.
So OHIP, which is our Ontario healthcare, or any province, I should say, it's not just
Ontario, every province in Canada, Canadian wide, will pay for 100% of the surgery.
You just have to pay for your protein shakes for two weeks, which is like 180 bucks.
(28:51):
It's really not much.
It's incredible that this is entirely paid for.
And you don't ever have to pay it back or anything, but it's entirely paid for because
Canada has said it is better for us to cover this surgery because if not, obesity is a
massive, no pun intended, drain on the healthcare system.
(29:12):
At one point, I don't know if it's still true, it was a bigger drain on resources than heart
disease, which is kind of shocking.
It likely is because we'll talk about it, but there's so many health factors or health
issues that a lot of us with obesity suffer from.
And obesity is kind of the umbrella, right?
Obesity typically also means on top of being overweight, you suffer from XYZ.
(29:37):
So when you add all of those up, that is a lot of resources that are being used up in
the healthcare system.
So if we can knock out the obesity problem, and that's why a lot of us have this bariatric
surgery is because it will go hand in hand with clearing up a lot of these other issues
that we all suffer from.
(29:58):
Exactly.
And that's something that we'll talk about in a couple of minutes is all the health related
things before surgery, how often I was going to the doctor.
You don't realize, but it is a big drain.
And by having this surgery and trying to eliminate the obesity epidemic, and I know people are
going to be mad I say this, but you almost get better care.
(30:18):
And I don't mean because they think you look pretty, because they don't have to worry about,
okay, you're obese.
We now have to look at all the things that could possibly come from you being obese.
You can go in now and say, man, I'm really having chest pain.
And they can go, okay, she's not obese.
Like, let's go to write into an EKG and we're going to check XYZ and blah, blah, blah, or
holy shit, my knee is just killing me.
(30:41):
And now they don't have to run an EKG and check your heart and do all the things they
have to do when you're obese because they think, oh my God, is this her knee joints
or is this a heart attack or is this high blood pressure or is this diabetes?
Like, it's you do get quicker, almost better care when you're not obese.
So there's a reason they pay for it.
In the States, not always, but typically, it's not you're not in a program like we were
(31:06):
in, which is a shame.
And then you see an overwhelming amount of Americans just pay for surgery.
So they'll make the decision, this is what they want to do.
Their doctor will be like, cool, cool, cool.
And they'll just fly to Mexico or somewhere in Europe.
Turkey is a big one.
And they'll just have the surgery.
They'll pay 10 to $20,000.
Fuck, I wish.
(31:28):
No, thank you.
And they'll just pay for surgery.
Now they go to places that are nice and like medical spas and stuff.
And then they'll just come home.
And after having gone through this process, sure, at the very beginning, was I anxious
and just wanted to fucking do it?
You're goddamn right.
I was like, this weight is bullshit.
After?
There's no fucking way I would have paid for this surgery.
(31:50):
No fucking way.
No, definitely not.
And to just be home and be alone and left to your own devices.
I've looked at, I'll be honest, when I was researching this after my doctor put me in
the referral and we talked about it, I went home and I, like we all do, I social mediaed
and I Instagramed and I TikTok and I went through the whole gamut of things.
(32:14):
And the Mexico option came up so many times on my feed.
And don't get me wrong, like the one that I continually saw, it looked beautiful.
It looked amazing.
The reviews were phenomenal.
The price was somewhat not horrible.
But to them, as you said, yes, you're, you're like kicked out of there.
(32:36):
Looking good, feeling good.
They're not going to send you home if you're sick.
But to then be basically just dropped back at home with nobody to call, nobody to turn
to, no resources, nobody really checking in on me.
I can't imagine because the amount of questions that come up, the amount of changes that I
have to make, the amount of unknowns, is this normal?
(32:58):
Should my body be doing this?
Oh my gosh, my stomach is like making really crazy noises.
Is this okay?
The amount of support that comes from a program like what we did, I just, like I said, I can't
imagine being dropped at home and have to just figure this out on my own.
Yeah.
And that's, I don't think I could do it.
(33:19):
And I think a lot of people immensely struggle when they get home.
The other thing that we were kind of told, and it might just be kind of a Canadian thing
is you could pay if you wanted to, because it does come up.
There are people who have asked, could I go get this done?
And they made it pretty clear that you could, but you will have no access to a bariatric
(33:39):
clinic in Canada.
You must be a patient of the clinic.
So if something goes wrong, you go to the ER like everyone else.
And my mom, who's a retired nurse, was like, be careful because in the States, a surgeon
will not touch another surgeon's work.
Unless you're there for a medical emergency, which obviously they have their oath to do
no harm, you can't just set up an appointment with another surgeon and say, I had bariatric
(34:03):
surgery and I don't really know if it's working.
They're going to be like, nope, I'm not touching that because they're liable.
They don't want to mess with another surgeon's work.
So the benefit for us is we're part of a clinic.
So if there's something wrong with us, we go back to our hospital and say, we're a bariatric
patient of the clinic of this hospital.
Something's wrong.
And in we go and we go see our bariatric surgeon.
(34:24):
We go see our bariatric team for a year.
You get to be part of the clinic for a year.
Now I could actually go back, like it's been longer, but I'm not technically considered
a patient of theirs.
I'm now a post-op patient.
Like I'm back in the care of my family doctor, but they're still there to help me and support
me.
They even have a support group, which is awesome.
But that was the biggest fear for me is if you went to Mexico, had surgery and something
(34:47):
fucking went wrong, you can't just get on a plane and go back to Mexico and get it fixed.
So now you have to try to hope that the records are correct and that a surgeon here is going
to like, again, if there's an emergency, anyone will see you, you know what I mean.
But if it's not emergency-
It just adds a whole nother level of complexity that you don't need when you're going through
everything else.
And these are not easy.
(35:09):
Like VSG is yes, low impact, pretty easy to be back on your feet.
But when shit goes wrong with these surgeries, shit goes wrong with these surgeries.
You could be vomiting for months.
You could be dumping, which is like-
You need help.
You need-
You're pooping yourself.
Your bowels could twist.
You could blow a suture internally.
Like, it's not like you can see the stitches on your stomach.
So if you blew a stitch internally-
(35:30):
No, there's blood clots.
There's hernias.
Blood clots are a huge fucking thing.
The other thing I would just worry about is my medical history, my medical records.
Has that been conveyed enough?
My family doctor knows me.
So he would know better than some random other doctor I've never seen in my life if I'm not
quite right, if something's off.
(35:52):
So while we say it's not every American at all, a lot of them have wonderful programs
and they stay close to home, there are a bunch that do pay for it.
And that's fine.
If you have the means and the ways and you want to, a lot of them are super successful
with it.
Just personally, I would never do that.
It's easier before surgery to want to do that after surgery and seeing all the things that
(36:12):
I went through before surgery and the support I get after.
Never.
I would never survive because the other thing that we go through before surgery is all of
what we said.
The testing, the questioning, the psychological aspect of it.
And it's not horrible and it's not mean.
It's literally to be like, Hannah, do you really believe that this is right for you?
(36:33):
Can you sustain this?
Do you feel prepared?
Do you feel excited?
Is this the right choice for you?
It's basically letting them check in with you every month leading up to surgery to just
say, is this still the right decision for you?
And do you have everything you need to succeed?
I wouldn't pay, no, no money in the world is worth giving that up because I would fail
(36:58):
if I didn't have all of that.
The support system is key.
It's crucial to being successful in this journey.
110%.
And like I said, the accountability and the support without those, oh gosh, I'd be so
lost.
I think we are already in the nails.
(37:23):
You
(37:54):
Well, so us I'd be lost and the other thing is and this is something we've always wanted to talk about is
You
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