MyAlterEgo
Why did I decide to have Gastric Bypass Surgery? A little long...but worth reading. :)
First of all, a little about me...I'm female, married, have a teenage son in high school, and 3 cats. I'm 30 something...way closer to 40 than 30, lol. I work full time, although I secretly wish to be indecently wealthy or hit the lottery, so I can leave my boring job behind me.
I haven't always been overweight. Wait a minute, overweight isn't the proper word. At my current weight, I am considered MORBIDLY OBESE. Yikes, the word 'morbid' really freaks me out...makes me think about coffins, death, funeral homes, cemeteries, etc. Very depressing, I think.
As a child, and a teenager, I was a skinny little thing. When I became pregnant with my son, I literally ate for 2, and after having him, was about 30-35 lbs overweight. This really didn't upset me too much, as I could still shop in the misses section of stores, and didn't have any health problems.
While my son was young, I managed to keep my weight fairly steady by taking care of my new baby, soon to be a toddler (plenty of exercise while running after him!). Pair that with a couple of fad diets that took off a few lbs, and a moderately active lifestyle, and I managed to keep my weight at around 165-175 lbs on my 5'5" frame. Definitely not thin, definitely not obese, but right in the 'comfortably chubby' area.
Fast forward ahead to the late 90's, when I took a new job. Suddenly, I was sitting on my butt, trapped in front of a computer, for 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. The only time I got to leave my desk was when I went to the rest room. Talk about a sedentary job! To make matters worse, my eating style completely changed as well. The company 'fed us' on a regular basis, to keep moral up in a very stressful work environment. By the time I got home in the evening, I was often too tired (emotionally, if not physically) to cook, resulting in a lot of fast food and pizza for dinner. Not surprisingly, my weight began to creep up.
After a couple of years in this stressful job, my tolerance level was reached. I took a bit of a pay cut, and transferred to another job with the same company. At first I thought I had reached Nirvana! I had found the most boring, least stressful job in the company. :) The absolute, complete opposite mentality of my prior job. But, it did have its downsides. I was still 'tied' to my desk. And because I was so bored, I began to snack, and snack, and snack... And my weight went up, and up, and up...
Obviously, I knew I had to do something about my weight. By this time, I was on high blood pressure medication, high cholesterol medication, and had heel spur surgery (plantar fascitis) which my doctor said was aggravated by my weight. I did a stint with Weight Watcher and lost about 60 lbs. Sadly, I didn't keep it off and gained it all back, plus a lot more. A couple of more rounds with Weight Watchers didn't go too well, and prescription weight loss drugs didn't work too well either.
Fast forward again a few years. In 2006, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Geez, guess what the precipitating factor is? Fat around my neck/throat area. :( As if snoring isn't bad enough, now I found out it can weaken my heart.
At this point, I'd already been thinking about gastric bypass for a couple of years, and had read a bit about it on the Internet. A couple of acquaintances had had it, which had piqued my interest. In the newspaper, I saw that a local hospital was having a group seminar about it. Interested, I called the phone number listed, and made arrangements to attend.
I anxiously awaited the seminar, which was a couple of weeks away. But, I got bad vibes. A nurse practitioner did almost the entire seminar, and the doctor (who barely spoke English) only spoke for a couple of minutes. But, I didn't judge on that...after all, a doctor's skill isn't based on his verbal skills...although I do prefer to be able to communicate with my doctor. What really turned me off was that the doctor only did the procedure OPEN, not laproscopically. Yikes! He was about 2 years behind the times! So, the whole experience with this seminar made me put the whole thing in the back of my mind for awhile.
Fast forward again to September 2007, my son's birthday. I had picked up his birthday cake the night before, and we were planning a small family celebration at our house, with just me, my hubby, my son, and my parents. It was a Saturday, and I hadn't done much that day, just picked up the house a little, and did a couple of loads of laundry...definitely nothing strenuous. Shortly after singing 'Happy Birthday' to my son, I started getting sharp pains in my underarm area, right over my ribcage. They were so sharp at first they actually made me wince in pain. Stupidly, (don't follow my lead!) I didn't go immediately to the hospital, but waited about an hour. But anyway, about an hour later, the pains were terribly worse, so I had my hubby take me to the local ER. Much to my shock at the time, they treated it as a possible heart attack and started doing tons of tests and admitted me to the hospital. (Don't ask me why I hadn't thought of this possibility.)
A couple of days and a lot of tests later, I was pronounced as having a healthy heart...sans the high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and lousy triglycerides of course. My pains were unexplained, except for a theory of muscle pain. Whatever it was, I'm glad it has never came back, because I needed morphine to relieve the pain. By the way, at this point I had reached my all time highest weight. I can't believe I'm posting this on the Internet for the entire world to read. Drum roll please.........274 lbs on my 5'5" frame. Yikes!
Upon being released from the hospital, I was told to follow up with my primary care physician a week later. By this time, I had already made my decision. I wanted to have weight loss surgery done! I didn't know what kind yet...either gastric bypass or lap-band, but I wanted...no, needed...to do something. The entire thing with thinking that I'd had a heart attack had really scared the crap out of me. Add this to the fact that both of my parents have bad tickers...both of them have already had cardiac catheterizations and had stents put in. And all 4 of my grandparents died of heart attacks. Several of my aunts and uncles have had open heart surgery and/or heart attacks. So, I theorized that maybe THIS time it wasn't my heart, but NEXT time is could be. To this add the fact that my mother has insulin dependent diabetes, as did her mother. Plus 5 of her siblings are diabetic. That doesn't say much for my chances, does it?
Fast forward a week to my visit with my PCP. Now don't ask me why, but I was extremely nervous to ask her about her opinion on weight loss surgery. She is a great doctor, and VERY easy to talk to. So, I said, "Dr. Mickey" (names have been changed to protect the innocent), "what do you think about me having weight loss surgery?"
In her peppy way, Dr. Mickey replied, "I think it's a wonderful idea. Would you like me to help you find a information seminar to attend?" At that point, I could have given Dr. Mickey a big hug, and kissed the ground at her feet. I'm not sure if she realized it or not, but she had just opened up a door into a new phase of my life.
Ironically, there was an informational seminar scheduled that very night at UPMC Magee Womens Hospital, which was where my PCP preferred that I have the surgery. Suddenly, my head was spinning because I was able to get signed up to go that very night! After work, I drove to Pittsburgh and attended the VERY informative seminar, held by Dr. George Eid and some members of his staff. Compared to the seminar I had been to a couple of years prior, this was a 100% improvement. The information given was very thorough, including all of the risks involved, and complications you could have after the surgery. I liked Dr. Eid's manner and personality, and decided then that I probably wanted him as my surgeon.
Magee has you go through a 6 month pre-op plan that consists of 6 meetings with the dietician, exercise counselor, and behaviorist. Insurance does not cover this, you must pay out of pocket. If I did this as a group-type thing, it was $400. Or, I could do it as private appointments for $500. I chose to do the latter, as it was easier to schedule the appointments around my work schedule. I started these appointments back in mid-October 2007, and I have my last one later this week. Each month I get weighed, and I've had to keep a food journal during this time. I've lost some weight since September, and I'm down to 260 lbs now. It's especially important not to GAIN weight during this time frame, because depending on your surgeon and/or insurance company, they can turn you down for surgery. During this 6 month time frame, I have also had a bunch of pre-op medical testing to back sure I am physically okay for the surgery. I also had to meet with a psychiatrist to make sure I was mentally okay. This is all pretty standard stuff, and a lot of it is required to get insurance approval.
After my last appointment this week (April 11), my case will finally get submitted to my insurance company for approval. With a little bit of luck, I'll be having a laproscopic RNY sometime in May or June.
