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Angela M.

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Obesity & Me

Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.

I had weight fluctuations throughout my life, however unlike many on here I did not suffer with being really overweight until when I had got pregnant and starting having children at 17. The same as my mother. My whole life i watched my mom do alot of weightloss programs and my dad taunt me about being "just like your mother" anytime I ate pretty much anything. That's what happened when I got out on my own I was depressed and didn't know how to deal with food management and eating and then it became the yoyo and I became like my mother, i got to gaining 25lbs a year

What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?

Not being able to go as many places with my kids that i wanted to. Getting pneumonia. My health began to become really bad in every way possible and I felt like no one wanted to be around me. I got to be borderline diabetic, my thryroid had just begun to drop and my asthma was pretty bad. I didn't want my kids to grow up with not wanting to be seen with their "fat" mom like me and my siblings were

If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?

Shop in the same store as my kids:) Wear running shoes because if the become undone on a street I can bend down and do them up. Take my inhaler and not have the feeling people think I take it cause I'm Fat and lazy. May be simple things to some but not to me. I only wish I had the skin completely gone so I could look beautiful for my sons grad next year, but at least I won't be bumping everyone with my fat when I go. That's another thing I like going on a bus and easily standing or sitting on a bus and people don't look at me or get irritated by me and all the extra fat on me. It's sad but you are treated differently with size:(

How did you first find out about bariatric surgery and what were your initial impressions of it?

I think I might of just caught a clip on a show. However I am pretty savy about medical issues online and I came across this obesityhelp.com pretty sure and came across this nice lady Krista and she let me call her and she totally talked to me about it at that time it was not the rny but it turned out by the time I got to surgery Dr.Amson was doing the RNY. I was excited however my family was not

Describe your experience with getting insurance approval for surgery. What advice, if any, do you have for other people in this stage?

Thankfully in canada as far as I know it is covered a fact many canadians still do not know

What was your stay in the hospital like? How long where you there? What things are most important to bring?

My stay in the hospital was ok. I say bring a fan and chapstick. I think I was there about a week. I know I had a little problem waking up after surgery and low oxygen after but in a day or 2 i was ok but I also have asthma and Factor V blood disorder. I hate the blood thinners I was aware of the tubes we'd wake up with I had no issues with any of them being in and coming out. Painful as hell getting up. I did get the superbug and was sick for 8 weeks I lived on water ice and wattered down diet gingerale that was worse then the hospital. You want to be very comfortable. I also had an open RNY many of you now are lap you suck!

Did you have any complications from the surgery? If so, how did you deal with them?

complications short term I think the superbug was from hospital and I had to go back to hospital and get IV fluids for dehydration.

In the weeks after you got your surgery date, how did you feel? How did you cope with any anxiety you might have felt?

I was kinda numb, I kept myself busy with my kids. Tried not to over think it. Trusted in my surgeon

Describe your first few weeks home from the hospital. What should people expect from this period?

Alot of us slept in comfy chairs. Laying down is really hard. Although alot of people are having lap surgery that could be different. Don't rush into food and when you do liquids then mush then soft ect I ate blenderized foods forever alot of food I felt so sick. I am not sure if it was head sick I was nervous or sick my sack was not liking it. Do what you feel is right don't let others push you. Believe it or not people will!

What aftercare support group/program do you have? How helpful/important is this?

It's important to have people who are going to understand this and support this. You will need support because your head is not going to change just because you had surgery!!!! I had good friends around me at the time. My kids also really got onboard and were excited:)

What is your scar like? Is this what you expected?

Dr.Amson did a pretty good job. I would love to have no scar but it is pretty much what I expected

Please describe any plateau experiences you have had since surgery.

Well I had my surgery in 2001 so I have had lots of ups and downs. The downs are hard but I can tell you they don't last and most of the people I know have gotten down to or close to their goals. I have also seen people out eat their surgery and I was on a boat headed there but got back in order and realized I was going there and actually now am struggling to eat as if I just had the surgery again, proving that this is a tool and if you use it properly it can work but if you don't it won't, it may seem to work like a miracle in the beginning but those of us out far enough we know it's not so!

Do you notice people treating you any differently now?

I think they do. My other family says my mother is jealous of me. My father won't allow my mother to have the surgery, which I think sucks! But I still feel like a fat person caught inside a little person because canada may pay for us to have the rny but they won't pay for the bodylift after we loose all the weight. The skin I feel leaves alot of us feeling just as bad about our bodies:( I think my skin causes the pain in my back to be worse than it needs to be as I have osteoarthritis in my upper lumbar spine
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