Wilson is telling her dramatic story in glossy magazines and on television talk shows amid a nationwide boom in bariatric or weight-loss surgery. Across the country, as many as 40,000 people are expected to undergo such operations this year, twice as many as five years ago. Gastric bypass, the most common form of bariatric surgery, reduces the stomach to a tiny pouch and reroutes the small intestines to reduce the absorption of calories. Many people lose 100 pounds or more after the procedure, and as the weight vanishes, so do medical symptoms from diabetes to breathing problems. But the operation is no quick fix.
Gastric bypass is major abdominal surgery and carries all the pain and risks of any operation.
Beyond that, it forces people to forever alter their lifestyles or face serious complications. Cook and Kurtz will have to eat much less and will likely have to give up some beloved foods entirely. They will be at lifelong risk of nutritional deficiencies. They will face potentially startling physical, social and emotional changes that may complicate relationships with family and friends. But after a lifetime of dieting with roller-coaster results, Kurtz and Cook are determined to succeed.