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Surgeon TestimonialCynthia Long M.D.I love Dr Long! So much so that I followed her to Baltimore and would probably want to continue aftercare with her no matter where she'd work! :)
My first impression was that she's very skilled & detailed. Her plan was easy to follow and she gave all new patients a binder that explained the process step by step She made things clear at surgery & right after, which assuaged some worries I had early on. I had no complications from my surgery. My positive opinion on Dr Long has not changed over time. However, I feel that she could have better staff at Sinai - they did not make for a smooth transition from her private practice to working at Sinai and I have had some problems in them relaying messages & communicating. Future patients should know that Dr Long is an employee of Sinai, which already had an established bariatric program. If a future patient does not feel comfortable with any aspect of Sinai's program, they need to weigh that carefully and discuss their concerns. For example, I decided to return to my original nutritionist instead of continuing aftercare with the nutritionist at Sinai; their plan did not coincide with what worked for my body, but it may work better for other people.
I've heard alot of stories of surgeons either having good competence but bad bedside manner - Dr Long has good skills on both, which is a hard find. One cannot base their success on a program or a surgeon, so it is important for potential patients to know the great majority of the work & success will be the patient's, but it is extremely important to have a supportive & understanding surgeon. I have nothing but good things to say about Dr Long! nfarris79's JourneyClick Here To View
Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.I had been overweight and obese for most of my childhood and all of my adult life. I had begun to consider weight loss surgery in my 20s but had neither the insurance coverage nor emotional resources to pursue the surgery at that time. I had been on diets since age 12, had struggled with binge eating, unhealthy eating concepts, and even a brief brush with bulimia until I failed my last diet (Weight Watchers) at age 30. I got married in a size 22 wedding dress, was profoundly unhappy with my body image, and had been a success in so many other areas of my life - except the one that was most visible and representative to others! |
Maintenance and other ramblings on February 22, 2012 8:01 am
So for the past few weeks I've basically been the same weight. Loss has been glacial and at the oz level. In fact, I'm up a few ounces from the lowest weight. I debate with whether I should bother charting my weight anymore. On one hand, I'd like to lie and say my weight is the lowest possible, but that wouldn't help me in staying accountable to myself. So, I guess I'll just chart on My Fitness Pal whatever my weight is, even if that means small gains - but I'm gonna weigh myself weekly instead of biweekly!
For Lent, I'm going to try my best to stick to meatless (like today & Fridays) but I just don't think fasting is realistic. Besides, what I eat for my mini-meals thru the day is probably equivalent to the 1 or 2 meals that normal people would have today anyway. Which brings me to the random question of the day: How many carbs in Host? I'm gonna guess that it's really insignificant but since we went to a new church today - they had a better Mass schedule - and their Host was like a big chunk of whole wheat bread! I forgo the wine now, just because dumping would not be fun when there's no bathroom and nowhere to curl up in fetal position!! Even a little sip scares me, so I'll just have to deal with odd looks I may get from others. And speaking of others.... so we go to a church we'd never been to before and karma would have it that we get asked to carry the gifts during mass! I kicked myself thru the whole Mass but my first instinct was to say no - the thought just made me too anxious to get up in front of a whole congregation that I"m not familiar with and haven't carried the gifts since I was in 8th grade!!! DH just kinda sat there stunned that the minister would ask us, seemed really random to him too, and I had to basically plead with the guy to not make us do it...... and then felt REALLY guilty for the next hour for putting my emotions first over what could have been a very nice thing to do. Oh, well. Regret should have been my middle name. And what is up with the changes in responses? I've been doing the same responses since I was 5 years old - these changes are gonna take some getting used to! I kept slipping up and saying the old responses. Meh, old habits die hard.
I talked in support group last night about my fear of my progress being snatched away from me. These thoughts are entirely irrational but I have fears that the weight will come back, that I'll develop all sorts of illnesses anyway despite my efforts to get healthy, that it'll be all for naught. Ridiculous, I know, but it's like I'm telling myself that I'm not really worth all this goodness so anything good to come to my life can only be tenuous at best. Again, REALLY irrational thoughts!! But sounds like it's kinda par for the course for those in maintenance, from what I read in some WLS books and other posters.
OK, gotta wrap this up with something positive..... um, 2 clients canceled this morning, so that's 2 less people that I have to explain why I got a big black mark on my forehead! And they canceled last minute so I'm gonna bill for them anyways! Oh, and I'm actually gonna go on a vacation this Spring! I don't care if I lose out on income, I deserve some time off!! Just gotta figure out what's least disruptive to DH and we'll be set. Other than the week that I have a CEU conference to attend - and I can't wait for that because it's on Eating Disorders - taking off one week versus another really doesn't make much of a difference for me - working 6 days a week makes everything just meld together. I haven't been on an actual vacation in 2 years, that's so pathetic! But really good to be able to go to a beach and NOT feel ashamed of my body. Even if my butt looks like a Shar Pei!
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10 month surgiversary on February 14, 2012 9:23 am
I saw my surgeon today for my 10 month follow up. She was very pleased with my progress and thought I looked great! My scale at home yesterday said 133.6 but it was at 135 in the dr office - which doesn't phase me because scales notoriously vary so at least it wasn't a 5 lb difference!
We talked briefly about PS/body contouring, and I told her that even if money fell out of the sky and into my bank account, I'd still have to think about it deeply, as the recovery just scares the bejesus out of me...
My labs are all great - even the copper! I went from 295 to 123 in copper, so I'm very relieved that it's now normal. I pretty much don't need to change anything but I might consider changing from Nascobal B12 to the injectible kind, just because of price. We also talked about my sleep study results and she said for the specialist to keep her in the loop of what he advises but thought that if I'm not really having any symptoms of the sleep apnea, that I really shouldn't have to go on the CPAP machine. Yeah, that's what I think too!!
I'll see her again in 3 months or so for my 1 year postop visit.... can ya believe that?
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Clean bill of health! on February 7, 2012 4:11 pm
I just got a letter from my surgeon's office saying my labs came back all normal! Wooo hooo! No deficiencies, no excesses.... apparently my hemeglobin is just a tad high but they didn't say to cut back on the iron so I'm not going to change up my vitamin routine. I hope LabCorp sends me a copy of my labs because I like to look at the numbers myself.
Also, my sleep dr left me a message to call him about the results of my sleep study this weekend... hopefully I'll hear "no more sleep apnea" from him. The sleep tech who did my observation said the results seemed to show my apnea is gone but when I hear it from the dr, it'll be official! Just ticking off another premorbid condition off my list!!!!
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