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Surgeon Testimonial

Anita P. Courcoulas M.D.
She is the Best! She is so thorough, cautious, kind, compassionate, makes sure that you understand everything and so intelligent. She is very confident and strict on following her guidelines because she wants you to have the safest surgery possible. Her staff follows her example and they speak so highly of her too. Another great thing about her which I think is unusual she takes the time with your family to answer all their questions and make sure they understand everything. The only negative thing I can say is, if you do not have any complications after the surgery there really isn't what I would call an aftercare program. They really don't push anything other than a multi-vitamin and an occassional B12 shot. Their belief is if you're not having any problems it's a waste of time and money. Luckily I had found a local group that has done extensive research on vitamins and other supplements that we need and I involved my PCP with this so she is the main one watching over me. But even with the lack of aftercare I still would not have had anyone else do my surgery and prepare me for it! And if down the road I would have any complications or gall bladder problems I will definitely go back to Dr. Courcoulas!
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Melts's Blog



Wow it's been 6 months since my surgery!
on March 13, 2007 4:10 am
I know I've been lousy at keeping my profile up to date. This is my first update. Today is 6 months since surgery and I have NEVER had a single regret. I have lost 106lbs since surgery and 136lbs since 6/2006. 

I feel SOOOOOO much better. I have so much more energy, I'm able to walk again without being in terrible pain and out of breathe. I'm able to leave a restaurant and be completely full and have a doggie bag too!!!! I'm no longer considered a diabetic, my liver count is normal(2 biggest reliefs)! My cholestral is 142, I'm down to 1/2 the dosage of high blood pressure medicine I was taking, my fibromylgia seems to have eased up too which is pretty amazing since I haven't been able to take my meds for it since surgery!  I'm no longer on the C-PAP, it's amazing how I couldnt sleep without it before and then after a few months the air blowing out of it was way too much for me to handle! I'm amazed how I'm continually and so quickly reaching my goals I had set for me prior to surgery. Now to be fair here's the things I can't do because of this surgery...I can't eat bread or pizza anymore (they were some of my favorite foods, uptil now I don't think I had went a week without having pizza at least twice a week and bread was definitely daily!) I haven't had cake or my Reese cups, I've never dumped but I hold onto that fear to help me stay away from the bad habits of eating I had before. I've always been a very picky eater so my variety of foods I can eat have really narrowed down but hey so have I!!! I have to take a lot of vitamins and yuk to protein drinks too. The first couple of months I had problems with nausea and moving my bowels but that all has pretty much faded away. Oh and the hair falling out, that really sucks but it will grow back. All these negative things I worried about prior to surgery, especially not being able to eat my favorite foods but you know what in time it's just not that important anymore. The positive affects of this surgery are so much more important, and being able to live your life in a healthier manner really is so much more enjoyable! My husband, kids, family and friends are so proud of me and you know what...I'm pretty proud of myself too!

I seen my surgeon today, it's the 1st time I've seen her since the surgery. She also was so impressed with my progress and how I looked and felt. I wanted was so glad that I finally was going to be able to thank her. I told her she saved my life in three ways: she made me quit smoking, she discovered my liver problems with her 1st attempt at my surgery and stopped till they tested me and I seen a liver specialist and she put me on a liquid diet for 7 weeks to take the swelling of my liver down then of course she saved my life with successfully doing this surgery! I got a little emotional as I thanked her but she told me she did the easy part and that I had the hardest part and she said I was doing a great job. She also told me I have to keep coming back so they can admire me! She is a fantastic person and obviously a superior surgeon!

I also want to thank everyone on here! Your support, questions and answers and just knowing you are here for me at anytime has been a lifesaver too. I'm also proud of ALL of you too!
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My Story

My name is Karen, I'm 46 years old, been happily married for 3 years to a great and supportive man. I have 2 great children, my daughter is 27 and my son is 30 (that's still hard to say)! I live in Pittsburgh, PA and work for an accounting firm as a system admin. I have had weight problems all my life but this is the biggest I've been.

*WLS Decision and 1st Attempt*
After much research I decided to have the bypass surgery. I'll skip all the problems that arose during the testing and approval part for now. On 6/20/06 we attempted my first surgery but when Dr Courcoulas went in she discovered my liver was very abnormal so she took a biopsy and stopped the surgery to avoid any possiblities of me having liver failure. It ends up I have liver disease called NASH stage 2 so she sent me to a specialist & he okayed me for surgery. Then after more test they discovered I'm diabetic now. So now my health problems are Fibromylgia, HBP, high chlorestral, some arthritis, sleep apnea, Diabetes II and NASH. My surgery for the bypass was approved again & it will be 9/12/06. Finally! It was horrible to wake up expecting it to be over and to find out it wasn't done, but I respect Dr Courcoulas so much, as does my family and its great to know I can truly trust her with my life! She also put me on the Optifast Liquid Diet (YUK!!!) for 6 weeks prior to my new surgery because she has found that it has helped people's livers like mine in preparation for surgery. It's been really hard and the first 3 weeks I stuck closely to it but the last 3 have been much harder. I stick as closely to it as possible but when I do cheat I try to stay away from fats and sugars.

*My Eating Problems*
Most people just don't understand how hard this is, I realize that food is like an addiction to me. I try to explain it's like telling an alcoholic he can only have  a half a drink a day and expect him to stop there. There's no way that you can completely avoid food. One of the many reasons I chose this WLS is I feel I need something to happen as I'm eating to make me stop overeating. I need an immediate punishment to stop me and then I feel I will have more time to re-teach myself a healthy normal eating habit. I've been asked "Am I an emotional eater" yes I am, I eat when I'm happy, sad, upset, bored... I eat with every emotion! I've realized for a long time that I have my comfort foods and my 2 worse downfalls are bakery items (especially cake) and Reese cups. I also figured out why they are my comfort foods, they're all associated with my Grams. She was a great Grandmother and baked goods were her favorites and she always had candy for us every Sunday and she ALWAYS made sure there was Reese cups for me. It's something that seems so silly and I recognize it all but I still can't change it or let me rephrase that, I haven't yet found a way to change it but I WILL real soon!

*What I Want For Me*
There's so many things I want to change now. I want to of course change my eating habits and my daily exercise, I want to live a healthier life everyday. I want to change the way I look in the mirror, now when I look I'm able to do it in a way that I only see from my chin up. I try not to see the fat body or the double chin. Now I want to look at the entire and real me in the mirror and not be in tears or totally ashamed of myself. I don't want to look at a picture taken of me (especially sitting down) and be in total shock and disgust of what I look like. I want to sit in my rocking chair or any chair and not worry about breaking it or have my outer thighs hurt and be black and blue from the chair being to tight. Or have to stand in pain or bent over leaning on something because the only chairs available are those dam plastic chairs (I would like to start a crusade to banish all plastic chairs!!!). When getting on a bus or any public seating area I don't want to see people make faces because their afraid I'm going to sit beside them and crush them. I want to be able to go to the amusement park and fit on EVERY ride in the park!  I want to leave a restaurant feeling full without having eaten a huge amount of food. I want to buy clothes that are not anywhere near being the highest size that they make, I want stylish clothes so I can really dress the way that I like that shows my personality. I want to do more activities with my husband and family. I want to be a good example to my family on how to take care of yourself and see what a huge difference it makes. I want to be able to walk like I used to and enjoy the outdoors. I want to wake with energy.  I want to know that I did everything possible to live my life to it's richest and fullest!

 


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