Surgery aftermath
comes with challenges
Eddie Green hunts, fishes, walks his neighbor’s Rottweiler and is looking for a job, all things he couldn’t do before he had bariatric surgery three years ago.
“I had a lot of medical problems,” said the Yorkville resident. “I was 460 pounds. I wasn’t living. I was just surviving …
“I just couldn’t do anything. It was hard to walk upstairs. It was hard to walk period. You don’t want to go out. You don’t want to see anybody. And that was very untypical of me because I always liked to be around people.”
Green, 54, opted for a LAP-BAND adjustable gastric banding because it’s less invasive than the more popular gastric bypass. He’s now down to about 245 pounds, but the weight loss hasn’t been effortless.
“It’s not a cure … You still have to eat right and you still have to get your exercise,” he said. “It’s a tool. Like any other tool, if you don’t use it right, it doesn’t work. It’s still a battle. It’s always going to be.”
LAP-BAND patients have to chew their food very carefully, and there are some foods they can’t eat anymore, Green said. For him, steak and lettuce are off the menu, as well as thick, doughy bread.
But in return, his high blood pressure, sleep apnea, diabetes and the cane he once used to walk have all disappeared, he said.
And after 17 years of coaching a Whitestown Babe Ruth League team, Green is off the bleachers and back on the baseball field with the kids. |
