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Surgeon Testimonial

David Kam, M.D.
Wow first impression was unbelievable, I've never been so comfortable with a doctor in my life. Everything about him put me so at ease and soon after talking to him I realized I had made the right choice. I had previously seen a surgeon in Toronto and for some reason I just wasn't comfortable with him. I highly recommend Dr Kam to anyone.
Latest Surgery Support Comments

  • Comment by Erin A. on 10/9/07 8:10 am
    I'm thinking about you. Time goes by quickly and your surgery will be over and you will feel great before you know it. A second chance was given to you and you are taking it and make the most of it. So many wonderful things have happened in your life but they have been overshadowed by your unhappiness with your weight. You have been given an opportunity to lift that shadow and make your life shine! I'm happy for you.
  • Comment by judyanne on 10/8/07 6:34 pm
    Tomorrow is your day! Just remember you are on the journey of a lifetime. Try to enjoy every minute. It may sound weird now, but know that you are cared for and prayed for here, and all too soon this will be but a memory and you will be an inspiration to someone else. I am waiting for you on the losers' bench!
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ontariogal's Blog
ontariogal's Blog


Arm lift update
on February 19, 2009 4:03 pm
Had my surgery yesterday to close the incisions, all went well and was home by 3pm, woke up feeling fine and was able to leave the hospital soon after.  He ended up grafting both arms with skin he took from my stomach.  Everyone kept telling me the graft area would hurt but so far I don't feel it.  I still can't believe I had surgery yesterday since I'm feeling great.  I have no idea what my arms or stomach look like yet since he wants the bandages left on till Tuesday when I see him again.  Hopefully it looks great since the rest of the area was healing very well with no redness around the incisions.
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Arm Lift - January 28th
on February 8, 2009 6:05 pm
Well I had my arm lift done my Dr Kyle Wanzel on January 28th, wish I could say it went well but there was some complications while I was in recovery.  My arms & hands started turning blue due to a lack of circulation so he had to cut open some of the stitches and ended up spending the night at the hospital.   I was sent home with an open incision on each arm and will be having surgery again on Feb 18th to close the incisions but he'll be grafting some skin from a different area in order to close one of them.  The pain isn't has bad as I thought it would be however with that said I did overdo it one day and sure paid for it that night, the pain was unbelievable and it felt like the skin on my arms was going to burst open and when the nurse came the following day she noticed a lot more swelling and reminded me that I needed to take it easy which after the pain I felt I'm going to do.  
I've posted some pics  from after the surgery but be warned some are of the open incision.
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Wow one year already
on October 9, 2008 9:04 pm
Wow I can't believe it's been a year, how life has changed!!!  I'm down a total of 174lbs and feeling great.  One problem though is so many people don't recognize me anymore.  I posted some pics on facebook and I had freinds from down east and some i haven't seen in awhile ask who that was, when I said me they couldn't believe it.  Lately even at work when I walk by I've had people say they had to take a doubletake cause I've changed so much recently.  My boss even told me to be careful and not to lose too much weight, again who would have thought anyone would have ever said that to me, haha.
I had my one year followup at Barix on Monday and they were all very pleased with my progress and said my weight loss was way above the average.  I also had a consult with Dr DiNick on Saturday for my arms, tummy tuck and breast lift so I'm waiting to hear back on the total costs for that.  Dr DiNick seems so nice and his assistants were awesome. 
I'm now wearing a size 8 pant down from the largest in plus sizes and this past w/e bought some sweaters and a jacket size Medium, imagine me in a medium.  While shopping with Irene who also had surgery on Oct 9th we just had an emotional moment and thought wow who would have thought one year ago we'd be this size. 
It's been one heck of a ride and I'm loving every moment of my new life. 
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11 month update - officially half my size
on September 15, 2008 4:03 am
Well it's 11 months since my surgery date and my weight today was 169lbs, which means I've also lost a total of 169lbs so I'm officially half my size from last year, how crazy is that!!!  Life has changed so much in the last year, I'm much happier, way more energy, dating someone, bought a new car and golfing now almost every weekend.  It's crazy how life has change so much but all for the better.  I'm now wearing a size 10 jeans, down from a plus size 30/32 and I love shopping now since I can go in any store including Lasenza.  
In the last two weeks I've had so many people comment and tell me how great and different I look.  I went to pick my nieces up at daycare the other day (they had been in summer camps all summer) , and they came up to me to ask me for id since they didn't have me on the list of people allowed to pick or drop them off.  I laughed and said sure you do I drop and pick them up all the time, once I talked to them they were like OMG you're not their aunt are you, you look so different so they were all coming up to me congratulating me.  It's so nice, was hard getting to this attention at first but now I'm ok with it, still get a little overwhelmed at times but hey it's good attention right. 
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10 Month update
on September 8, 2008 4:00 am
Well today is my 10 months from my surgery and wow how life has changed.  I've lost a total of 159lbs, went from 338 to 179 and I feel great.  I love shopping now since I can shop pretty much anywhere I want, I bought a pair jeans at Reitmans the other day and they were size 10, i was shocked, me in a size 10 jeans who would have though.  I was down in NB in my hometown two weeks ago and so many people had no idea who i was, I went up to my cousin and said hi how are you and made small talk but when she left my niece said to me I don't think she knew who you were, sure enough she comes back after asking someone who I was and she freaked and said how awesome I look and she had no idea it was me.  I"m feeling great, havne't been to the gym in 3 weeks but signed up again on Friday for another 25 sessions with my personal trainer and I find that helps so much, she gets me doing things I never thought I'd be able to do, who would have thought 50 situps is nothing for me now. 
I've had hardly any complications, still on blood pressure pills though but much lower dosage, my family doc won't take me off totally since she said she wants to ease me off them very slowly.  I still avoid a lot of food and I know sugar upsets my stomach so I stay away from it completly, I have however started eating chips again but that is going to stop, I've worked way too hard to get back into my bad habits. 
I walk my dog 3km every morning and to the same most evenings, I golf on Tuesday nights and plus I work out 3 times a week at least so I'm keeping myself pretty active, plus I have a pool at home so instead of just lazing in the water I do laps back and forth, it all seems to be paying so no way am i stopping now. 
I've posted some new pics so you can see the difference, any newbies contemplating surgery go for it, i wish i had done it years ago. 
One thing I notice now is I dont mind people looking at me, to me it's no longer that look of disgust at my size, some guys are even flirting with me and I must say I do flirt back now and I've been out on a few dates so I'm loving the new me!!!
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My Story

I've been overweight all my life and decided that this year I need to change things if I wanted to keep living, my 40th birthday was coming up and I realized that I wasn't happy with my life and wanted to try to at least enjoy what I'll have left of it.  I started looking online for info since I knew hardly anything about surgery, I mean with the exception of what I seen on TV.  I asked my doc if she knew of any surgeons and she said yes and as a matter of fact one of her patients had gastric bypass earlier this year and she would refer me to him, Dr Starr.  Once I had his name I got home and starting looking on the net for info about it and I stumbled on to this site which I'm so thankful for.  I got an appt to see Dr Starr prob 3 weeks after my dr. appt but in the meantime I kept lurking on the Ontario site and realized there was even local meetings going on and even seen that there was someone from Orangeville who had just had surgery.  I messaged her and thanfully she got back me, Debbie G was my first real contact here, she gave me some much needed info and mentioned an upcoming meeting in Milton which I decided I was going to attend and after attending that meeting I finally had hope that maybe my life could change.  There were people there in diff stages and it was great talking to them all.  After hearing about people going to the US for surgery instead of being on the lengthly waiting list I started asking questions about it and luckily Debbie L was there and from then on I knew this was it.  That night I was able to talk to Debbie L on MSN and boy did she ever help me by giving me the info for the application, etc.  Had my consult with Dr Starr on May 4th, did not like him at all but decided I was still going to persue the US possibility, called Barix after meeting Dr Starr and had a consult with Dr Kam on May 26th, after my consult with Dr Kam I knew this was where I wanted to have my surgery and sent in my OHIP application.  I received my approval about 4 weeks later, I needed to have an EKG done but if there was any abnormalities I needed a stress test done.  My family doc referred me for the stress test but unfortunately something showed up on my test therefore they wanted an angiogram done.  This process took a few months with getting in to see a diff doctor for a referral, getting the appts, etc.  I had the angio done in Sept at Southlake and luckily everything was fine, a week later Dr Kam called to say everything was fine and he's now going to transfer my file to scheduling, then a few days later they called, October 9th is my surgery day.  I was so excited then looked at the calendar and realized it was the day after Thanksgiving, wow finally something to be thankful for.  
My family has been really supportive of me having the surgery, at first I didn't tell anyone that I was even considering it then the night before I met Dr Starr I told my sister that I live with.  I think she was shocked at how much I had already looked into it but was very supportive.  I finally told my other sisters about it after my consult with Dr Kam and luckily they too were happy for me.