Amy Hoffman
July 12, 02 I'm 40 years old. I've been over weight most of my life. I'm at my heaviest right now. Like lots of people I loose some weight, then gain it back plus extra. I've been looking into this surgery for awhile now. I have no insurance since my divorce. I also have some medical problems. July 16, 02 Ive been searching for hospital that does self pay, but there all to expensive and want all the money up front. Reading and searching this web site Ive come across a woman who had WLS self pay and it was cheaper, and better yet I live right behind the hospital she had it at. So I emailed her and we've been emailing back and forth. Shes been such a great help (thanks Melise) July 18, 02 I called today to schedule an appointment with a surgeon. My consultation is for July 31th. July 31, 02 I had my consult this morning. All went really well, I was very impressed with the surgeon. We're moving right along, but since Im a self pay we have to deal with the financial stuff first then make the appointments for the dietician and so forth. But I feel great since talking with him and I feel very positive about having wls done. I just cant wait till its surgery time. August 6,02 The financial part of my surgery is all set to go,, so I had another appointment with the surgeon yesterday, they set up the other appointments that I needed like to see the dietetian ect... after I see them I suppose they will set up the appointment for the surgery. The surgeon told me yesterday that he had already sent letters up to my cardiologist and EP doc to make sure all is okay with my heart for the surgery. I was surprised that he had already done that,, I was also glad to hear that he had already done that. August 20, 02 The Dietician called yesterday, I have an appointment this thursday Aug 22, to see her,, then I see the phsycologist on Aug. 28th. I go back to the surgeon on Sept. 10th,, I'm thinking we will schedule the surgery date then. August 29, 02 Well I've now been to the dietician and also the physcologist(sp?), they all passed me for the surgery. Now just waiting to see the surgeon again on the 10th. September 10, 02 "I have a date" Seen my surgeon today, I'm having surgery on October 3rd. It's really going to happen. I'm excited and also scared. I actually met today, the young woman with whom I've been emailing from this site. She's a wonderful person and a great inspiration for me. September 30, 02 Had preop this morning. So that means the surgery is right around the corner,, like in 3 days, I'm really nervous, scared, all the normal feelings we all go through, and that also includes excitement and looking forward to the new me. October 1, 02 Well I'm kind of depressed today. My surgeon called me today and told me that he got the results of my blood work back and my white blood cells are high, so he's postponing my surgery. I feel like I was kicked in the gut. But he does have it scheduled for Oct. 24 now. I have to go back and have my blood work done again on the 11th. If that comes out okay then its all a go ahead. So we'll see. I was just so excited since my surgery was supposed to be in 2 days. Oct 11, 02 A friend of mine had her surgery today. We both originally were suppose to have it on the same day, same doctor, her first, me second. But we were both postponed, me cause of blood cells, her because of doc's schedule. I talked to her sister a bit ago and Phyllis is doing good, all went well, I'm so pleased to hear that. She's a great person. Oct 16, 02 Well it happened again, last friday I went for another blood test,, my surgeon called me yesterday and my white blood cell count went up, so im postponed again. So I went to see my GP today as advised to by my surgeon. He thinks its bronchitis (lets hope so) Im on antibiotics for 10 days, I go for another blood test on Nov 1, if the meds work then we will schedule another surgery date, if not I go back to my GP and he will get more aggresive about what my body is trying to fight (like leukemia). TWO POSTPONEMENTS AND COUNTING!!! Oct. 30, 02 I went for my blood test today to have my white blood cell count checked, and for another chest xray. I'm hoping that my white bloodcell count went down into the normal range, so I can finally have my surgery,, Nov. 1, 02 My surgeon is out of town till tuesday, so I won't find out the results of my blood test and chest xray until then. I'm just praying. I want to be on the loosing side, and start working on getting healthier. Nov. 5, 02 I heard from my surgeons office today, my blood and chest xray came out good, my surgery will be on Nov 14th if nothing else goes wrong. Nov. 25, 02 The surgery is over with. I had my surgery on Nov. 14th, The surgery itself went fine, they also removed my gallbladder. I have a serious heart arrythmia that was causeing trouble after the surgery and also I had a really bad reaction to the morphine and demerol and was in ICU for 2 days, I got to come home six days later when they got my heart stable. Dec. 11, 02 Happy Holidays! I've lost 17lbs in the first 3 weeks, I seen the surgeon last week,, he said I'm healing nicely from the surgery. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since I've joined the loosing side, All seems to be going good, except I'm having a hard time with the liquids. Im trying,, till next time,,,, April. 21, 03 Boy it's been awhile since I have updated my profile. I still come to the site just about everyday, I look around and read. I'm down 70 pounds now. I haven't felt this good in years. April, 30, 04 Wow, it's been a year since I've wrote anything on here. I still do come to this site very regularly. I've lost 118 pounds. I wish it was alot more, but I'm happy with every pound gone. I excersice daily, although I've been recouperating from foot surgery for the past 3 weeks,,so I havent been moving at all. I have been trying really hard to take off the rest of the weight that doesnt seem to want to leave my body. I also have an incisional hernia that needs to be repaired, and I'm hoping to get my tummy done at the same time. June 9, 04 I've now lost 131 pounds. I'm trying to loose as much as posible, cause everything is looking positive for an abdominal plasty with my hernia repair. Still keeping fingers crossed. I feel so good,, loving life. My daughter mailed me a picture with a note last week,, it was a picture of me 3 months before my WLS, it was a side view shot of me sitting in a chair, the note said "mom, here's a pic to show you that you have lost weight".......... Boy I couldnt believe how HUGE I was. I showed the pic to my son, his reply was "good god" August 16, 04 Well I went and seen the plastic surgeon again today. I have a date for my hernia repair and complete abdominal plasty. It's September 23, 04. I'm nervous and very excited. October 30, 04 I had my hernia repair and abdominal plasty on September 23. They repaired 3 hernias,, one huge and two smaller ones. My surgeon used two layers of mesh. I was in the hospital for 10 days. I wasnt allowed to eat till I passed gas, I was only allowed water. It was day 6 when I finally got food. I am down 23 pounds since surgery. They cut off 8 pounds from me. I came home from the hospital with 3 drains. I got the last one out about 3 weeks later. I am still told to do absolutely nothing by my surgeons. This has been a very paifull recovery for me and a slow one. Im still having medicine applied to my incision twice daily with a fresh dressing put on, at first part of the incision was infected, now its because part of it isnt healing great. But its getting better. I still can't wear NORMAL pants,, I have to wear loose fitting elastic waist pants cause theres pain in my belly where the hernias were repaired. I still have lots of swelling,, but I am seeing some improvement in that area. I just cant wait till the pain is all gone. HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE February 8, 05 Boys it's another year already, where does the time go. Well I'm doing better since having my surgery back in Sept. I still have some pain where the hernia's were repaired, but its pain that I can live with. I've kept my weight off, I do flucutate within 5 pounds. I'm still trying to loose more weight, but if I don't loose anymore I'm fine where I'm at. I work out at the Y 5 days a week, and 3 days a week I also work with weights. July 3, 2005 I'm getting married August 27, 05. My fiance has stuck with me through thick and thin. I was Obese when we first met. He has been wonderful. I'm doing great, I've lost a total of 155 pounds. Happy 4th of July to everyone! September 21, 2005 I'm married now. I got married August 27, 05. We had a really nice wedding. Went to Atlantic City for our honeymoon, what a great time we had. I'm still maintaining my 155 pound weight loss, I do flucuate within 5 pounds. But I consider that maintaining. My husband is wonderful, he has been with me through thick and thin, we fell in love when I was morbidly obese, so he has been through it all with me. November 17, 2005 HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! It's been 3 years since I had my WLS. What a life altering surgery. Its the best thing that I ever did for myself. I look at pictures of myself back then and Im in totall aw, I cant believe that I wasted over 10 years of my life living like that, well thats if you can call it living. Im still maintaining my weightloss. I finally added a before and after picture of myself. The after picture I was on my honeymoon Aug. 05. June 21, 2006 Happy "SUMMER" everyone. I'm still maintaining my weight loss, which is good news. When I was about a year out from my weight loss surgery, I started having sever pains in my stomach right below my ribs, It would feel like a band tightening around me, pain would radiate to my back, I would break out in a sweat and it felt hard to breath, it would last anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes. It would happen twice a day or once every few months, it came when it wanted to come....( had my gallbladder out during RNY) I never went to my surgeon about it since I had no insurance, so I just suffered through. I knew it wasnt my heart because one time I was hooked up to a heart monitor while I had an attack. Right after I got married and got insurance I went and seen my surgeon. He did all the usual tests, EDG, Cat Scan, GI series. All came out good, showed nothing. So the next step was exploratory surgery. So on Monday Feb 20, 2006 I went in for the surgery, he started doing it lap, then had to open me up, due to loads of scar tissue (adhesions). He removed all the scar tissue that he could and was thinking that was the cause of my pain, since he couldnt see nothing wrong. I came home from the hospital on Wednesday. By friday I was in so much pain whenever I ate or drank anything. My surgeon had me go to the ER for a Cat Scan. They admitted me, monday morning Feb 27, he reopened me, and he found the cause of all my pain. When you have RNY, they cut a hole in the mesocolon to bring the small bowel through, well my mesocolon tightened up so much it completely blocked my bowel. He made the hole bigger, but he said theres always a chance it could happen again. Here is a site with pictures to show about the mesocolon and the hole Im talking about. http://www.laparoscopy.com/obesity/roux.html August 27, 2006 Today is my one year wedding anniversary. We went and stayed last night in the same hotel we spent the first night of our marriage in before leaving for our honeymoon. We had a wonderful time last night and today. Well after having the two surgeries this past Feb 06, I was praying my pain would never come back (the pain that I had the exploritory surgery for). Well its come back, full force, Ive had two episodes of it already, one back in June, and one this past friday. This last one was terrible. My surgeon no longer does any type of barriatric surgery so he recommended me to another bariatric surgeon, I have an appointment with him in Sept. I just really hope they can find the cause of this pain and make it stop for good. I also pray that its nothing serious... November 14, 2006 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to myself and all the other November post ops out there. Today it's been 4 years since my open RNY. Well I went and seen the new surgeon back in September. He said that it sounds like my pain is being caused by my bowel getting kinked every now and again. He said he doesn't advise surgery now since there is really nothing that he can do for it. But he did say that if the pain gets were its coming very frequently that he will do surgery. But I actually am going in for surgery on December 8, 2006. Due to my 2 surgeries back in Febuary I have developed another abdominal hernia. My other 3 (which were repaired at the same time) never caused me any discomfort. But this one is painful and uncomfortable. At the same time I am also having another abdominal plasty, yes this will be my second one. January 24, 2007 Well its done. On December 8, 06, I had my second abdominal plasty done. I actually had 3 procedures done at once. First I had my tubes tide, then another surgeon came and repaired a hernia from when I had the 2 surgeries back in Feb 06, (my plastic surgeon didnt do the hernia repair due to the fact that she didnt participate with my insurance company) then my plastic surgeon finished up.... this time I had the T cut, from my ribs all the way down to an inch into my pubic area, and from hip to hip, she actually cut alot further back than the last surgeons did 2 years ago, to get rid of the dog ears....I spent one night in the hospital versus 10 days before. I was cut ALOT more this time and actually recovered ALOT faster. I am very pleased with my results this time....now Im saving money so I can have from the neck up done... hopefully within the next 2 years....thats my dream anyway...... I'm still getting those pains, I had 2 while recouperating. Oh I almost forgot, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! April 28, 2008
I've just been through hell and back. I had gone up to my homestate of MA for my uncles funeral. Arriving back home after a 12 hour car drive on friday evening all was going good. The next night (saturday night) (April 5)around 11pm I started having such bad pains in my stomach, I thought it was gas. By 2am when the pains were getting worse I had my husband take me to the hospital. By noon on sunday I was in surgery. Spent 2 days in ICU,, Thank god I had gone to the ER. My bowel had become strangulated and some of my bowel had died. They said I had gotten to the ER just in time. All I know is that it came on very quickly and I was terrified.. Plus I was left with an open incision...I had to have nurses come to my house to change the dressing, I spent a week in the hospital, then after being out for 4 days I went back in for 8 days. I have another blockage. It was hurting when I ate, but right now Its not that bad.... I will probably need more surgery to fix this, but I know my surgeon really didnt want to open me back up so soon after having this major surgery done...so now its a wait and see game..... The surgeon said that he didnt remove all of the bowel affected since I had gastric bypass and I would need the bowel, so when he had me open he waited to see if there would be blood flow after he took care of the strangulation. so he felt confident leaving some of the bowel there and removing the really dead part.... I am really still terrified that it will happen again.... I never want to go through this again......
July 25, 2008
Well I had the next surgery done,,, spent another week in the hospital, came home on a friday afternoon, went to the ER the next day, was readmitted and spent the next 2 weeks back in the hospital. All of the nurses couldnt believe I was back again. I was very lucky that I was in a great hospital with a very careing staff,,, all the nurses and aides were great,,, some of them even if I wasnt their patient that day they would make a point just to come and say hi to me. I'm still not 100% yet. I still have pain in a part of my stomach. I just had another CT scan yesterday....I'm just glad that Ive been able to stay out of the hospital for over a month now... plus after my second trip into the hospital back in April, I had been home for 2 days when my neighborhood got hit very badly by a tornado, it was terrifying,, thank god our home and family were spared, plus there were no deaths from that Tornado... so thats a great thing..... I still pray daily that I never go through anything like this again...... but on a bad note, Im still getting the pain that Ive been getting for years,,, they come whenever they want,,, I had a couple very painful ones this morning, plus now Im more scared when I have pain because I think oh god is it strangulation again...... I also lost 20 pounds while going through all of this, since I didnt eat for a month and a half....
