A Diary of Gastric Bypass Surgery: When the Benefits Outweigh the Costs »

While Gastric Bypass Surgery is often touted by the media as "the easy way out," and American health care professionals increasingly endorse weight loss surgery for a population plagued by obesity and its complications, A Diary of Gastric Bypass Surgery discloses the sacrifices, suffering, and commitment required to endure this complicated procedure. Using personal diary entries between 2002 and 2006, Darlene K. Drummond details her life-altering decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery. Drummond, an African American woman diagnosed as morbidly obese, diabetic, and hypertensive, describes her family history of chronic illness and obesity and shares conversations with health professionals, family, friends, coworkers, and support groups both before and after the procedure. She also includes her weekly grocery expenses, out-of-pocket medical expenses, reactions to media stories on celebrity personalities battling complications of obesity, as well as chronicles of the cognitive and behavioral changes she experienced along the way.

About the Author:
Darlene K. Drummond is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Miami, Florida

Preface     ix
Inheritance     1
Preoperative Evaluation     9
Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass Surgery     27
Week One Post-Surgery     41
Week Two Post-Surgery     55
Week Three Post-Surgery     71
Week Four Post-Surgery     93
Weeks Five and Six Post-Surgery     105
Weeks Seven, Eight, and Nine Post-Surgery     117
Weeks Ten through Fifteen Post-Surgery     129
A New Life in a New City     137
Index     143