Chazon
December 12, 2003
My Story: I'm 29 years old and I have severe sleep apnea, bursitis in my hip, and have a lot of problems with my lower back. I contribute all this to my severe weight problem. I weigh over 350 lbs. My mother, grandfather and maternal aunts are/were all diabetics. My father has heart disease and suffered a heart attack at age 42. Just about everyone on my mother's side of the family is obese. My triglycerides are very high (over 700). At my age, I want to do something to avoid the health problems that I know I will soon face. I'm tried diets and I exercise to the extent that I am able, but they haven't worked. After 3 years of consideration and prayers, I have finally decided it is the right time to do this.
February 5, 2004 Consult with Dr. Hannon: I wanted to be sure that I was to have this done by an experienced Doctor. Several people that I know that have done this all told me Dr. Hannon is the best, and after talking with him, I tend to agree! I called on December 12th to get an appointment to start the process. Boy, Dr. Hannon is busy! The first available time for a consult was March 5th. I made the appointment, and then I called about once a week to see if he had any cancellations. I was able to move my appointment up a month to February 4th. Dr. Hannon and his staff could not have been better! Once my Insurance approves it, I will get a date and start all of the tests to prepare for surgery. Dr. Hannon wants me to see a pulmonary specialist and the Hospital has what they call the "BEGIN" class which preps me for the lifestyle change. My insurance info is now being gathered and prepared by Dr. Hannon's staff and it will soon be sent off to BC/BS. They seem pretty confident of an approval.
March 2, 2004 I called BCBS on Wednesday of last week, 2/25, and they told me they had received all of my paperwork on the 23rd and that it is pending a review. I followed up on Friday and was told it is still in review. I plan to call again tomorrow and see if the status has changed. I am getting very excited at the chance that my life will soon change for the better. I cannot remember a time when I was "normal". I was born 10 pounds 12 ounces. As a young child I was always considered "Husky". As a high school freshman at age 13, I weighed 250 pounds. At graduation I tipped the scales at 300 pounds. I played football and was very active, but never have been able to shake the weight. If I can loose 100 pounds I would be happy. If I am able to loose 150-170 pounds and reach a normal weight, I would not know what to do with myself, besides do all the things I haven't been able to do because of my weight!
March 3, 2004 I must have had a feeling when I posted last night! I called this morning and was told that I am approved. Now all that is left to do is to get my BEGIN date for my tests and a date with my surgeon. I did call Dr. Hannon's office, but they cannot schedule anything until they have the letter in hand. BCBS said I was approved on March 1st, so hopefully my Doctor should have the letter by Friday. Then it will be surgery prep time! March 8, 2004 Got my letter on Friday! Called my Surgeon's office as soon as I got it, but it was too late so I had to wait all weekend to get an update. Carol called me at 8:20 this morning to setup my next step. I will be attending Mobile Infirmary's BEGIN program on March 25, 2004. I'll have to be there at 10am and will be there most of the day where I'll have to do a lot of different stuff to get ready. I will also get my Surgery date on the 25th. I am still excited about the surgery, and know the risks I'm taking. I want to be healthy again. March 25, 2004 I went to the Begin Program today. I started in Dr. Hannon's office at 10 am. My wife and I watched a video on the procedure, and then I took a test. I scored a 100! It wasn't that hard of a test if you know about the procedure. They even told me they were going to give me a shot glass for my post-op eating. Then the nurse says "Is May 7th good for you"? Of course! After May 7th, I'll be a loser! I will have all my pre-ops (an Upper GI and a visit to a pulmonary specialist) on April 22. I then went downstairs to do the hospital’s BEGIN program. We filled out an information sheet, and were taken out to climb a flight of stairs and walk up and down the halls monitoring our heart rate and oxygen saturation. Once that was finished they served us lunch - a fruit cup, a turkey sandwich, and Crystal Light Lemonade. Not a bad lunch, but I felt a little bad for the guys serving them, as other people were doing a lot of joking about the lunch size. Other patients in the class – all Dr. Hannon’s patients – were showing off their shot glasses. That’s right; I was supposed to get one! The nurse must have forgotten. We then sat in a class with a nutritionist who covered all the bases of our post-op diet. I am now ready to get this show on the road. We visited individually with a bariatric nurse who covered any additional questions, and then I was done! I stopped back by the Dr.’s office before going home and got my shot glass.
April 22, 2004 Oh the fun! Pre-op test day! It started at the Hospital at 7:45 am. Registered and got the armband stuck to my hair on my wrist - what fun that was taking it off at the end of the day. Went to the back waiting room, and I was quickly called back for the ultrasound. The tech put the warm jelly on my stomach and started pressing fairly hard on my stomach, but it wasn't too bad. Took about 10 minutes and then I was sent back to the waiting room. They then came and brought me in to the big X-ray room for my Upper GI. They gave me the nasty, attempt to taste like strawberry, barium. Uck! Other then the nasty stuff, it went pretty smoothly, and I was back out in the waiting room 20 minutes later. At this point it got interesting. I thought I was done, but was told I had to meet with a pre-op nurse. She was great, and we talked at length as to what to expect. After an hour of chatting, I left the hospital to go across the street to my pulmonary specialist for my clearance for surgery. They sent me downstairs to the lab to be poked and prodded some more. I had another chest X-ray, and then went and had probes connected to my chest for an EKG. Another fun experience, removing those probes from my hairy chest! I went around the corner next to pee in a cup, and then finally in the chair to have three tubes of blood drawn. After all my test run-arounds, I was sent back up to the doctor. He looked at my EKG results and chest X-rays and said everything looked good there. He then discussed my family issue problems and gave me an exam. He told me my blood-pressure was up and that I should expect to be on something for it when I leave the hospital. He also told me he would check on me every day in the hospital. Next stop - the OR. It's now only 2 weeks away and I am getting really excited. I think my nervousness is gone, and all that is left is excitement for my post-op losses.
May 1, 2004 Where to begin?? Less than a week away from surgery and we had another prayer answered today - we purchased a home, our first. We started casually looking last month, testing the market to see what was in our price range. My wife and I have rented since we were married. Early in our marriage, we had some financial trouble, which kept us from buying a home. We have finally recovered our credit and decided to see what was available. After viewing several houses that did not fit our vision, we finally came across our dream home that had recently entered the market. We toured the house twice, and then went to see about getting financed. We had no trouble getting approved and quickly made an offer. Three days later, today, we signed the agreement to purchase! We'll close on it the beginning of June, and will give her until the 24th to move. (It's an elderly lady, whose grandkids cannot come from Dallas to help her until the 14th of June). It's a brick home, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large kitchen that opens to the den, a formal dining room and formal living room, a large utility room, and a 2 car carport. 1764 square feet of living space. This will be really nice considering we are currently renting a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 1000 square feet house. What’s even cooler is that our new mortgage payment is only about $50 more a month (including insurance and everything) then what we now pay for rent! We are really excited - 2 new starts in 2 months! Who could ask for more??
May 19, 2004 I'm home! I made it. I was in the hospital a lot longer than expected as I had some difficulties. I went in Friday morning, May 7th, and went though the initial surgery with no apparent problems. I was placed in a room a little after 2pm or so and the first time I tried to stand up, I passed out. Turned out I had some bleeding along the pouch connection on the inside, and I was passing blood. They took me to ICU that evening to do an EGD and found where I was bleeding. They treated the area and monitored me. By Saturday evening, I had so much gas built up between the EGD and the Bypass; they took me down for emergency surgery. They opened me up, checked all the surgical areas, removed my gallbladder, put in drains around the pouch and in the old stomach, and removed the air from my intestines. Back up to ICU. By Tuesday I was feeling better, but was still a little "off". I went back down to a regular room, but soon started passing blood again. Back to ICU. They did another EGD and retreated the same area, which did the trick this time. By Thursday I was feeling myself again and began my recovery. I started walking in the ICU, which I was told is not a common sight, and was finally in a normal room again Friday. One week from my original surgery. No more blood thank goodness and there was talk of going home on Sunday. My problem was that I kept running a low grade fever. Well, Monday morning, we found out from where the fevers were coming from. I got up for my morning walk, and my staple line started "pouring" puss from the incision. They opened it where it was leaking and drained all the water. I had a Hematoma along my incision. Once they cleared that up it was smooth sailing, and here I am home today, Wednesday May 19. 12 days after my surgery. Do I regret doing this? Nope. I'm still excited about what is to come, and even with all the difficulties, I would still do it all over.