- Username: mittenfarm
- Location: County Line, MI, USA
- Member Since: 5/24/2007
- BMI: 22.8
- Post Op
- Surgery Type: DS (10/19/07)
- Surgeon: Paul Kemmeter
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Surgeon TestimonialPaul KemmeterCan't say enough about Dr. Kemmeter and the staff at Grand Health Partners in Grand Rapids, MI. He is such a great person and an excellent surgeon and very thorough in everything. The Bariatric program at GHP is very structured and complete. All aspects of care are done there as well as all testing. They have their own nutritionists, exercise physiologist, psych evals, and all foods needed for pre- and post-op. They do all their own endoscopy, sleep studies, gall bladder scans, etc. They have a very strong emphasis on after-care and are not there just to do your surgery and then let you go. rnI would definitely rate Dr. K as a 10 out of 10! mittenfarm's JourneyClick Here To View
Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.Endless diets over the last 40 years. I can lose weight but cannot keep it off. I had finally gotten to the point of not even being able to make myself diet anymore because I knew I would fail at some point. I had thought about bariatric surgery for years and finally decided to do it. |
Hi, my name is Wanda and I am 56 years old. I had the duodenal switch in October 2007. I have successfully lost all of my weight and am at goal. Now I am working on maintaining a healthy weight and making sure I keep my lab work in a good range and take all my supplements as needed to do that. I am married with 4 children, and work in a 95 bed Neonatal ICU as an RN. My hubby and I have a 250 acre farm and he plays at raising sheep(he's insane) besides his job in town. I have blogged my entire journey so far, so feel free to read up on all I've been through over the past 4+ years. It has definitely been a life-changing experience for me, but in a very good way for the most part.
June 29, 2010 on June 29, 2010 6:47 am
Just realized it is almost the end of June and I haven't done my monthly blog here. It has been a busy month with the nice weather! Finally past all the kidney stone business for myself and my hubby-yes, we both did it, he started right after I finished. I ended up with surgery to get rid of mine, and he had lithotripsy. Now I feel great, and it just amazes me some days how I am simply HAPPY! I love my life now, and even though I am well over 2 years out, I am still struck daily with the wonder of this all. I never realized what a prison obesity was for me until this surgery and subsequent weight loss set me free. To live life as a "normal" person is unbelievable to me still today. I never realized how much my life was hampered by obesity until it was gone. I was always fairly content with who I was and had learned to live with being fat, and did not know this other life even existed.
Now I can run circles around people much younger than myself because I feel so great and have so much energy. I spend hours every day working outside on the yard and our huge garden, and I don't sweat and I am not tired or unable to do the tasks that need to be done. Last night I spent 2 hours weeding the garden. I could never have done that before. Shopping is an absolute blast now that the only problem I have is finding pants or shorts that fit good because my legs are so skinny!. Found a cute pair of denim knee length capris/bermudas in the juniors dept. at Kohl's yesterday. Sincle they are cut for tiny little 15 year old bodies, they fit me well in the thighs. Misses sizes fit better in the hips, but are way too big n the legs and thighs. But sometimes I get lucky and find something that fits both well and that was what I got yesterday in the SO brand in the juniors. Also found a cute pair of white sandals at Shoe Carnival and they were just what I had been looking for. Best part- only $15. Of course, I have 2 other pairs of white sandals, but they have heels, and I neede something a little more casual and flat. I have so freakin' many pairs of shoes and sandals, it is pathetic, but after so many year of not being able to cram my fat swollen feet into anything cute, I just can't get enough of it.
Went to the beach last Friday with my Mom and sisters and their kids and had a blast! Definitely have to do that more often this summer. I have 2 cute one piece tank suits and other than the wrinkled thighs, they look great on me. I have learned to live with the sharpei thighs as I can cover them with longer shorts, so they only show in a swimsuit, and I can live with that. I'm almost 55 years old, so I can blame it on old age! Other than that, my arms look great, my neck has no waddle, and my belly is flat as a board in clothes. And no plastics and no need for spandex! Life is sooo good! I am so thankful for the skill of Dr. Kemmeter and how it has given me my life back. I am thankful for good medical insurance that covered this for me or it would never have happened. The few complications I have had to deal with so far have been well worth it. Yes, some days I get sick of taking so many vitamins and wonder how I am going to do this for the rest of my life. And I still throw up at least once a week from some dietary indiscretion, but I can live with that. Life is wonderful!
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May 27, 2010 on May 27, 2010 6:02 am
Well, I am finally through all the kidney stone mess. Had surgery last week Wed. to remove a very large stone that had managed to squeeze its' way down to the bottom of my ureter and was not a candidate for lithotripsy. Of course, the ureter was all beat to heck from the stone grinding its' way down, so had to leave a stent in for 5 days. That came out on Monday, and I have been improving vastly since then. Even went back to work on Monday and Tuesday nights, I still get tired kind of easily, but I always have that after anesthesia. Takes me a week or more to get it out of my system. So I am hoping I am done with medical issues for the year! I have spent more time in hospitals over the past year than in my whole lifetime. And most of it is not DS related-just old age I guess. I am doing well from a DS standpoint(I think)-no major eating issues, although I do still vomit at least once every week or two, but no big deal. It is almost always the result of eating too much too fast. Or reheated leftovers, which I have to be very careful of. My weight stays in the 130's, which is a little thin, but I am happy there. Although every time I see myself in a photo, it shocks me how thin I am, and I think I should probably weigh at least 10 lbs. more than I do. But I don't see the thinness when I look in a mirror. Guess I have some issues, huh? The main one is extreme fear of regaining weight. I will NEVER go back to where I was before. But I am not dieting in any way, and actually eat quite a lot to keep my weight up where it is, including a fair amount of carbs, both good and bad. But I fear reaching that point where the effectiveness of the bypass starts to decrease and I have to work harder to keep the weight off. I am NOT good at dieting-never was, hence the need for WLS. So far I seem to be a malabsorbing machine, so I hope it stays that way.
I am going to go get flowers to plant since the weather is so gorgeous and Memorial Day is almost here so have to get the yard all gorgeous for the summer.
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Kidney Stones Again!!! 05/13/10 on May 13, 2010 6:15 am
Well, I thought I was all done with this kidney stone stuff, but apparently not. Started bothering me at work Tuesday night-thought it was a bladder infection starting up. Pushed the fluids and cranberry juice and took an Ibuprofen and the pain subsided. Thought about going to the doctor on the way home from work, but was soo tired and decided to go home to bed. I was more miserable by the time I got home so took another Ibuprofen and went to bed. Woke up about 10:30 in pain too much too sleep through. By 11:30 was vomiting from the pain. Had to wait until 1PM to call the doctor as the office closes for lunch. Got a 2:15 appt. and could barely drive. move, breathe or do much but moan and groan by the time I got there. The pain was unbelievable!!!! Far worse than what I went to ER with back in April when this all started. They gave me an injection of Toradol at the office and did an xray which showed at least 5 more stones in various places fron the kidney on down. Thank goodness the Toradol helped after about 15 minutes or I think I would have killed myself! They were going to send me to ER if it hadn't helped, and I would have had to go by ambulance as there was no way I could drive all the way there in that much pain. But the Toradol helped a lot and I managed to drive back home and pick up my prescriptions for Darvocet, Cipro, and Flomax. So I'm back to square one with this I guess. Pain is not too bad today so I am going to try just Tylenol because the Darvocet makes me so sleepy. Waiting to hear back from the urologist on what to do next
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May 10, 2010 on May 10, 2010 5:37 am
OK, I need a brain adjustment. I know in my mind that I needed to gain some weight back after all of my medical issues over the fall and winter. But now that I am feeling great and eating better, the weight is creeping back up to where it should be, but I am having a terrible time dealing with this mentally. I am petrified of weight gain. If I go by the BMI chart I should weigh 144 lbs. to be right in the middle of the normal range. That is where I was all last summer and I was fine with it. But now that I have seen the 120's and 130's, a place I never dreamed I could go, I want to stay there, even though I know I look too thin at that weight. But now I am pushing the high 130's and even occasionally see 140 or 141, and I can't deal with that and be content. I immediately start "dieting" and push the exercise until I am down 5 or 6 lbs again. This morning my weight was back at 141, and I know a lot of this is all the salt I ingested yesterday with a ham dinner and various other salty snacks, etc. But now I am having only 2 boiled eggs for breakfast instead of my 3 egg omelette with lots of butter and cheese because I think I need to lose weight. I feel I HAVE TO stay in the 130's to be happy with myself. Not that that is a bad weight for me, but it is a little on the thin side. Don't know what to do to readjust my thinking.
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April 5, 2010 on April 5, 2010 3:31 pm
Just when I was thinking things were going so well for me finally from a medical standpoint, a new wrinkle appears on the horizon! Spent the last 4 hours of Easter Sunday in the ER at Metro for a kidney stone. I knew the stone was in there for a few years already, but never had even a twinge on that side before. Well, yesterday afternoon around 3PM it started and got bad rapidly. I took Baclofen and Darvocet which helped some so I could almost function, but the pain just would not go away. So finally about 7:30 PM I called my PCP to see what I should do. She told me to go in to be seen because I would need a CT scan anyway so it wouldn't do any good to wait until Monday to be seen in the office, and she didn't want me to wait in case it got a lot worse during the night. So now I am home and doing better today, but still needing pain pills about every 6 hours and peeing fairly bloody urine as well. Hopefully this thing will pass soon. Never had this before, so new to all this fun! I guess I am a stone-maker as I have the same problem with stones in my bile duct. I hope I can find the stone if I pass it so they can do an analysis on it to find out what kind of stone it is. That would give me some clue as to what in my system is making these. Some are calcium and some are uric acid and it is usually one of those two things, although there are other things that can make stones as well, but less common.
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I am new to OH but love it!! It was reccomended by the surgeon's office here in Grand Rapids, MI. I have been wanting to have weight loss surgery for many years, but my husband's ins. wouldn't cover it. So I switched jobs and picked up my own coverage and hope to get this done yet this year! I have been overweight/obese all my life especially worse last 20 years since having children. I always managed to deal with it by forcing myself to stay as active as possible for a fat lady!! But as I am now past the age of 50 I find it more and more difficult to live with and the joint pain is getting worse. So, here I go into the WLS world. I need to lose about 200 lbs. so this is going to be life changing(I hope) I so appreciate all the info on the message boards from all who have been through all the stages of WLS. It has been very helpful to me in making an informed decision as to my surgery.
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