JennType1
How did I get to the DS?
At my annual physical last spring (2008), my PCP (again) brought up WLS. I told her what I'd been told by my endocrinologist back in VA--she thought Type 1 diabetes was too hard to manage with WLS. In hindsight, that endo clearly only knew about RNY, with its dumping problems with high sugar intake. [If you take insulin, low blood sugars are a fact of life, no matter how vigilant you are in checking your blood sugar. And to treat low blood sugar, you have to ingest . . . sugar!] So my PCP urged me to talk with my current endo, and see if that was her opinion. Now, understand that my PCP is about as big as five seconds. So when she said, "you know, there are days that I feel about 85 years old, and I don't have the excess weight you do. I can only imagine how tired that makes you," it went home.
So I left her office and really started to think about how my weight affected my life. I started noticing the whole litany of ways my life felt like shit, which we all know--couldn't bend over to pick up things without it hurting, can't get up off the floor without a crane, thus I don't play with my 5 y.o. on the floor, haven't been able to keep up with my son since he was 6 mos. old and started to crawl, how getting in and out of the car was always uncomfortable, and even being in the car with a seatbelt felt awful, I hated the way I looked and couldn't find any decent clothes, I was always sweaty, which I hate being, and I am absolutely always freaking exhausted, etc., etc., etc. I let myself feel and notice how horrible my quality of life had become, and I finally realized, your weight is causing all of this, and really, who gives a flying flip how it gets off, as long as it gets off? I was finally ready for my prison break!
Before, I was really looking for the miracle "natural" way to fix my metabolism. Stop eating wheat and most other grains, fix my thyroid, detox, etc., etc. I just needed to find the right magic bullet, is what I had been thinking.
Then, I had a sleep study done to rule out sleep apnea.
When I found out I had severe sleep apnea (to the tune of not breathing 41 times per hour), I thought, hey this is it! Of course none of that other stuff worked, it just couldn't since I wasn't getting enough sleep or oxygen!!
Nice theory.
After only slight improvement in energy levels after doing CPAP for 3 months, and starting Armour Thyroid and improving my thryoid levels and STILL feeling like green crap, I realized there is no magic bullet. No one has it, not MDs or naturopaths or Martians.
My new endo, as it turns out, is highly supportive of WLS even for her Type 1s. Though I think they have all had RNY.
And then, I finally went to Dr. Spaw's seminar, rather than one of his partners who don't do the DS. I was sure I wanted a lapband when I walked in, and sure I wanted DS when I walked out.
I still flirt with the naturopathic magic bullet idea, and I'm trying Sylvia Browne's "The Lab" meditation just in case I can get some miraculous spiritual healing out of that--seeing as that would be cheaper and less disruptive than the DS, on the whole. But let's just say that I am also getting all my insurance boxes checked off at a quick pace, too.
