Meeting with the Surgeon

Today I have my first appointment with the bariatric surgeon. I had a list of questions, but I think I have lost them. Really, I am mostly just concerned about what, if anything, they would do with my hiatal hernia.

My GI doctor told me about fundoplication and it sounds horrible. I don't want that. It causes constriction by wrapping the top of the stomach, sort of like a lap band, and it causes all of the problems that people tend to have with a lapband procedure, such as an inability to burp and a possible inability to swallow.

I want to avoid that.

Another thing that I just want to be sure of, is that having this surgery will not doom me to a limited life span. I want to live a long time. Will this surgery increase or decrease my lifespan.

When I look at the fat that surrounds my torso, I find it hard to imagine that after being unsuccessful so many times and the fat just increasing, that I can do this on my own.

For my own reference and to be transparent, I post this photo.

My arms and legs are normal sized, my legs are actually quite slim, but all of my weight is carried in the torso. When I lose weight, it tends to come off my legs and arms first and the belly just stays.

My main health problem is diverticulitis, which is a problem of pouches forming in the colon and large intestine. This fat just pulls on that area and, as you can see, it makes it impossible for the surgeons to remove the infected area because of the large fat mass right there.

I know this is something that I have to do to be able to have the surgery to fix the divertululosis, but the question is: Will this surgery make my health worse in the longrun?