Comment by Patti T. on 10/26/09 8:35 am

Congratulations! This is such an exciting time! The first few weeks after surgery will be a roller coaster ride, but you will do great! Wishing you the best for an uneventful, successful surgery and a speedy recovery! Best wishes!

Click here for the surgery support page

340/320/275/150
(Start of Pre-op/Day before surgery/current/goal)

teachmusik's Blog
teachmusik's Blog

Two days.
on October 24, 2009 9:56 pm

Here we go...

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Everyone knows.
on September 29, 2009 8:06 pm

I just sent out an email and posted on facebook. We'll see what happens. I hope people will be supportive. Got some of the forms today, I'll need to fill them out. Including one saying that I know I could die during surgery. No lie, that one freaks me out a bit. I mean you can die walking from your car to your mailbox, but still. I'm going to look over the rest of the stuff tomorrow and start getting the perscriptions filled.

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OCTOBER 27, 2009!
on September 21, 2009 9:34 pm

I was starting to wrap up a beginning clarinet lesson when I felt my cell phone in my pocket start to vibrate (I keep it on all day since I submitted my insurance, hoping to hear from DVR). Cautioning myself not to get my hopes up, I pulled it out and almost fell off my chair at seeing "St. Agnes Hospital" displayed on my caller ID. I abruptly dismissed my class and answered the phone. It was DVR's office offering me a surgery date! The first date they offered me was October 13. However I have a church choir conflict on the 18th and I asked if I would be recovered enough by then to be there, and the doctor said no. The only other date available in the near future was October 27, which I took!

Info:

St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD

Surgeon-Dr. David Von Reuden

I will be in the hospital from early Tuesday 10/27 morning until the evening of Wednesday 10/28. Unless something isn't quite right and then I might possibly have to stay an extra day. More details to come :)

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APPROVED! Waiting for a surgery date!
on September 17, 2009 9:02 pm

I called DVR's office last week and they said they'd get back to me on Friday. That didn't happen so I called again Monday AM. Rose called me back on Tuesday and said that I've been approved! Woohoo! :) Wednesday I called DVR's office becuase I wasn't sure if they called me about the surgery scheduling or if I was supposed to call them. They said they'd get back to me later that day. (It was also my 24th birthday on Wednesday so WOOHOO for that too!) I haven't heard back yet, I figure if I haven't heard back by next week I'll call DVR again. But yay for progress!

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Grrr
on September 12, 2009 11:01 am

I kept my cell phone on at work yesterday on vibrate so Rose could get back to me. When I hadn't heard from her by 4:30, I decided to call the office and see what was going on. So I called DVR and it went like this:

"Ring, ring.

You have reached the office of Doctor David Von Rueden. Our office is now closed..."

Wait...isn't it 4:30? As in before they close?

Apparently they closed early for the weekend. I couldn't even get to Rose's voicemail to leave a message.

It's not a huge deal and I know that. I'm just tired of waiting and want to know what's going on. Oh well. I'll try again on Monday.

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Tags

My Story

I never was a stick child. Growing up I was healthy but not "skinny". I was near the top of the ideal weight range for my height but I was still on the chart. All of that changed my senior year of high school. I had been going through some emotional stuff, including an emotionally abusive "friendship" (meaning at the time I thought we were friends but looking back I can see how wrong it was) with a guy that ended with him raping one of my friends. Actually we were still friends after that, it ended when I found out about the rape which was a few months after it actually happened. I didn't speak to him again after that. He used to say things like "Too bad you aren't pretty or we could go out sometime" or say that he only talked to good-looking people in public which was why he would ignore me or stop in the middle of a conversation to go talk to another girl. He said other stuff too, and that stuff still hurts now even it's been over 7 years since I last saw him. At the time, I tolerated it. He made me feel special when we talked one-on-one so I thought he was the most wonderful thing ever and put up with the way he treated me the rest of the time.

My mom is very big on healthy eating. We didn't keep junk food in the house. I used to trade taking people's trash to the compactor so they could get in line first when leaving the cafeteria (believe it or not that was a big thing in elementary school) for their junk food. That stopped after elementary school.

I started binging (bulemia without throwing up-just eating alot of food quickly) when I got my driver's license. I would go to the 7-11 on the way home from school and buy junk food. Then I would stuff it into my backpack and sneak it up to my room while my mom taught piano lessons in our living room. I would eat it as quickly as possible and then hide the trash under my bed. Or in my car. A few times my parents would go to get something they had stored under my bed and would find all the trash. I used to eat one of those one-pound boxes of Cheez-its in less than an afternoon.

At the start of my senior year I voluntarily checked myself into the Eating Disorders center at a local hospital. It didn't work. They put me in a support group that was me and the rest were anorexics. I don't think that benefited anyone. I gained over 100 pounds that year. My senior picture from my yearbook (taken in August 2002) and at graduation (May 2003) look like completely different people. I left the center and decided to go it on my own.

The last time I binged was a few years ago. I gained additional weight since the end of high school. I am currently (on June 12, 2009) about 190 pounds heavier than I want to be. I have tried almost everything-Weight Watchers, Curves, Thin & Healthy, etc. They normally work for a month or two and then I plateau and gain it all back.

I started looking into gastric bypass surgery in fall of 2008. It was still kind of just looking as an option but not something I was actually going to do. Then I found out that a girl my brother went to high school with (who I knew too) was having it. I started talking to her and she had her surgery with Dr. Von Rueden. She lost 125 lbs in the first five months. I then started looking into it seriously because that made it real for me. I went to an intrest meeting for Dr. Von Rueden myself and had my first appointment with him on June 8, 2009. I am looking at a surgery date for RNY gastric bypass in late September/early October.

This is a tool, not a miracle cure. It is still going to take a LOT of work and dedication on my part but I know I can do it. The part that I am honestly freaked out about the most is the actual surgery. The only time I've been knocked out is when my wisdom teeth were pulled and then they were just messing with my mouth. This is cutting holes in my stomach. It's going to be done laproscopically (sp?) which means I'll have five scars about the width of my thumb instead of one big scar. I'll also heal alot quicker-I'll be able to walk within 12 hours of surgery and will probabily only have to stay in the hospital one night. I will only have to miss about two weeks of work.

Wish me luck.

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