Dave H.

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Wow... guess I got busy and forgot about updating this blog.  Oops.

Okay, so overall I'm thrilled with how things have turned out.  In February 07 I weighed in at 376 pounds... unbelievable.  Now, on December 11 07 I weigh 234 pounds... equally unbelievable.  That's a total of 142 pounds lost!

I still work out at least 4 times weekly, still monitor what I eat, still eat minimum amounts of carbs and almost no sugars.  I am diabetic (Type 2 - adult onset).  In Feb 07 my A1C was out of control at 9.0.  In Oct 07, my A1C registered at 5.0.  I am in perfect health now.

This will probably be the last post on this blog, at least for a while.  Maybe I'll post again when I hit my target weight of 205 lbs, who knows.  I tell you what though, I realize now how fortunate I am in life:

I'm thankful for my wife who supported me through the surgery and recovery, and who will always be my best friend.

I'm thankful for my employer who paid for the surgery and who provides me with the opportunity of 'living the dream' every day.

And I'm thankful to God for not allowing me to die of a heart attack at an early age due to my size like my mother did.  (I'm 36, she died at 38 of a heart attack.)

... that's all folks! :)

Dave

July 02

Post-Op Week Ten (Gastric Bypass)

Wow, I'm ten weeks post-op.  Holy cow time goes by fast.   

The past few weeks have been a little dissapointing.  I hit a plateu recently and couldn't lose any weight no matter how hard I pushed myself working out.  So, I finally decided to try to 'shock' my body by eating junk food, not exercising, etc.  Well, that worked, believe it or not.  This morning I weighed in at 271.4 pounds (105 pounds lost!) after working out at the Y.   

Yay!   

I feel so much better now.  My feet and knees don't hurt from standing or walking around, I'm not out of breath anymore, and I even jogged the other day.  Granted, it wasn't far... but if you knew the old Dave Howe, you'd realize just how out-of-character jogging is for me.  And I didn't die of a heart attack doing it! :)  

June 04

Post-Op Week Six (Gastric Bypass)

I've decided to post updates on my weight loss every other week now...   

Today marks six weeks since my surgery!  I have now lost a total of 92 pounds, with 44 pounds lost since my surgery date on April 23rd.  Wow, what a difference.  I was wearing size 56 jeans in February.  Now I'm wearing size 46, moving into a size 44.  I'm now wearing XXL shirts instead XXXXL shirts!   

I have a check-up with Dr. Kuwada's office tomorrow.  I wonder if they'll be pleased with my results.   Well, class is starting... I'm outta here... :)

May 21

Post-Op Week Four (Gastric Bypass)

Wow, today makes four weeks since I had surgery.  Today I jumped on the scale and weighed in at 295 lbs.  That's a total of 81 lbs lost (33 lbs since 4/23).  I'm finally less than 300 lbs... a personal goal!!!!  I haven't been less than 300 pounds in probably 13+ years.  I'm so friggin' happy I can't stand it. :)   

I'm finding that foods aren't disagreeing with me so much as before.  However, there's always the peril of eating too much.  Basically if you eat too much, you have two options.  1) Suffer, or 2) Get rid of it.  Suffering sucks.  The first time I overate I thought I was having a heart attack.  Since your pouch is so small, there's only one place it can go... right up your esophogus to the back of your throat.  Which leads to option #2.  Yeah, there's no glamour in it.  Making yourself be sick is horrible, but making yourself suffer is much, much worse.   

So, today I resign myself to TRY to lose another 33 lbs over the next four weeks.  If I can do that, I'll weigh in around 262... which is only 12 pounds off my next goal of 250.   

Wow, me at 250.  That'd be some coooooool stuff!

May 15

Post-Op Week Three (Gastric Bypass)

Yesterday marked three weeks since my gastric bypass surgery.  I'm proud to say that everything is still going well with my recovery.  I'm down 25 lbs in three weeks, with a total weight loss of 73 lbs since 02/20/2007.  Most everyone notices now, which is nice.  They all say that my face has slimmed down considerably, and that my belly has all but gone away.  Of course, I still see a 376 lb man when I look in the mirror.  I guess it'll take time to get over that.    

I've done some experimenting this past week to see which foods I can tolerate.  I can eat mashed potatoes, egg salad, a little chicken, and refried beans (which are a good source of protein).  I can't eat the following (noted here, so that I won't make the mistake of eating them again):   

The Official 'Do Not Eat' List 
Grits 
Macaroni-n-Cheese 
Homemade Chili (from Microsoft)   

Hopefully I'll be below 300 lbs next update! :)

May 07

Post-Op Week Two (Gastric Bypass)

This morning marks two weeks since I had gastric bypass surgery.  Everything has gone well for the most part.  I met with my doctors on Thursday for a post-op follow-up, and they both said I was doing everything right.  I'm down a total of 18 lbs in two weeks.  I'm a little frustrated though.  Last Tuesday I weighed in at 311.  Today I weighed in at 310.  So, for an entire week I've pretty much held at the same weight, even though I'm only eating small portions (liquids/soft foods) and exercising.    

It's kind of funny.  You don't realize until you've had the surgery how much experimentation you have to do with food.  For example, although I can eat oatmeal with no problems, a small can of Beenie Weenies hurts like a son of a bitch.  The beans aren't all that bad, but the weenies - man!  Even after you chew it up into the tiniest of pieces, it literally hurts when it hits your stomach and then causes your stomach to cramp like crazy.  Last night my wife made mashed potatoes and meatloaf (my favorite).  The potatoes went down fine.  The meatloaf, even when chewed up REALLY well stabbed like a knife going down.  I finally gave up on eating it.   

I can't wait to be under 300... I haven't been less than 300 in 12 years.

Post-Op Week One (Gastric Bypass)

Well, yesterday marked one week since my gastric bypass surgery on April 23, 2007.  I weighed in on Friday morning at the gymn, but my weight was exactly the same as before my surgery.  I was disheartened.  I practically killed myself to lose 50 pounds leading up to my surgery, by exercising three times a day and restricting myself to less than 1000 calories.  Even after surgery, am I still going to have to kill myself exercising to lose any weight?!  

I spent some time talking with my wife about it on Friday, wondering aloud why I had even bothered to go through all this if I wasn't going to see better results.  I had been practically living off soup, yogurt, and fudgesicle ice cream bars for a week, and I felt that maybe I was eating too much or something and that maybe it was causing me not to lose weight.  She assured me that I had no choice, the weight would come off whether you exercised or not.   

On Monday, I weighed in at 317!!!  Down 11 pounds in one week!!!   

Finally, things are looking up...

April 30

Gastric Bypass Surgery

If you know me, then you know that I have struggled with my weight all my life. I have never been thin, even as a little kid. I've successfully lost weight a couple of times, only to put it back on again and again. So, last year my wife and I began looking into the prospect of weight loss surgery after talking to a few people at work.

Step One: The Informational Meeting

Jennifer found that informational meetings about gastric bypass surgery were held once per month at Carolinas Medical Center/Mercy. So, she and I registered and attended our first meeting in August 2006. There, two doctors gave an overview of both Laparoscopic Roux-Y bypass and the lap band method and answered dozens of questions from the audience. Jen and I were very impressed with one doctor in particular, Dr. Timothy Kuwada. So, we paid the start-up fee of $150/ea and scheduled our first appointments.

Step Two: The Initial Medical Consultation

Jennifer and I had our first appointment with Dr. Kuwada a few weeks after the informational meeting. After taking our vitals, we were asked to go into two different rooms. First, Kathy Head came and discussed with us our desire to have surgery, and asking which method we would like to pursue. She also took 'before' pictures of each of us for our medical file. Then, Dr. Kuwada came in and inquired about our medical histories, and then began outlining each of our paths toward surgery.

Jen's path involved a visit with their nutritionist, psychological evaluation, upper Endoscopy, ultrasound of her heart, consultation with a sleep doctor, full overnight sleep study, appointment to obtain a five-year medical history from our family physician, and a bone density scan. My path was a little more involved since I have heart disease on both sides of my family. My path involved a visit with their nutritionist, psychological evaluation, upper Endoscopy, nuclear echocardiogram, nuclear cardio stress test, ultrasound of my heart, consultation with a sleep doctor, full overnight sleep study, appointment to obtain a five-year medical history from our family physician, and a bone density scan. I was also advised to see a weight-loss doctor since I weighed 355 lbs. My BMI was around 53 at the time, and their limit for doing the surgery was 55.

Step Three: The Never-Ending Series of Doctor Appointments

Jen and I decided that she would go first, since both of us couldn't be off our feet at the same time (we have kids). So in late August/early September, we started going to her various doctor appointments. Since I am off work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday each week, we scheduled her appointments on those days.

Around mid-October, I began going to my own various appointments. It was crazy. For three months, we double-stacked and even triple-stacked appointments on the same days. Finally, by December we had completed all the requirements for her to have surgery. I finished all of my appointments in mid-January. It was a VERY stressful five months.

Step Four: Submit Request for Insurance Coverage

In December, we notified Dr. Kuwada's office to inform them that Jen had completed all of the necessary steps for surgery. We thought this would be the easiest part since Microsoft's insurance is the most wonderful thing since sliced bread. However, that was not the case. Since Dr. Kuwada is a VERY thorough surgeon, he not only submits the proper insurance request forms, he also includes a five to seven page document including his medical opinion on why surgery is necessary. So, given his busy schedule and the amount of detailed documentation that is included in each request, it takes time for the submittal process to happen.

We called Justina, the person who handles Dr. Kuwada's insurance requests, several times to inquire about whether insurance coverage had been approved, but she only responded to 1 out of every 5 of our calls. Finally, my wife (the delicate flower that she is) called the office and demanded to speak with her boss. Finally, we started getting some traction, as Kathy Head called us back and told us that everything had been submitted and that we were just waiting for a response. Twenty-four hours later - APPROVAL! This was around December 15th.

My request for insurance coverage happened around January 20th. After my wife's surgery was completed, I notified Dr. Kuwada in person that I was ready, and he told me that he would get the ball rolling. Well, after about a week I had still not heard back on whether the request had been submitted, so I started calling his office. This time Justina was more responsive, and my request was submitted around January 27th. Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock... Ten Days later, finally - APPROVAL! I nearly died from holding my breath.

Step Five: Pre-Op

So, Jen's insurance approval came in around December 15th, which meant now we only needed a surgery date. So we waited... and waited... and waited... then out of the blue, Jen gets a call on January 1, 2007 telling her that she needs to come in to CMC Mercy Hospital for Pre-Op the next day. It was aweful. She had THE WORST cold/fever ever, and had to go to the hospital and to Dr. Kuwada's office sick as a dog, and she couldn't get out of it. Why? Well, no one had told us, but her surgery date had been scheduled for January 15th, and if she missed her Pre-Op appointment, she would lose that date. Luckily, her Pre-Op was uneventful, and she was cleared for surgery two weeks later.

As for me, well, I thought I'd take a few minutes to live it up while waiting for my own surgery date. Although I had been approved for surgery, my own surgery date had been scheduled for March 19th. My Pre-Op date was March 5th. So, I pounded down the snacks... and how! Without realizing it, I had jumped from 355 lbs in August 2006 to 376 lbs on February 20, 2007. I was now well over the 55 BMI limit, and so we quickly joined the YMCA and began working out. By March 5, I had dropped 9 lbs and was back under the BMI limit, so I felt pretty good when I walked into Dr. Kuwada's office for my Pre-Op.

First, Kathy Head walked in and basically slammed me for gaining weight, and made me feel like I was ready to be harpooned at any given moment. I really dislike that lady. She has the bedside manner of Orville Redinbacher. Then, Dr. Kuwada walked in and explained that since I had gained weight, I would very likely suffer SEVERE complications after surgery. He described that he would much rather operate on a female at 55 BMI than a male at 45 BMI -- and I was nearly 55 BMI. Ouch. So, he gave me 10 days to lose as much weight as I could, and he also took a Hemoglobin A1C sample to check on the state of my diabetes.

10 days later, I had dropped from 367 to 352 lbs, and was now at 52.6 BMI - much better! However, the phone rang. It was Dr. Kuwada telling me that he had bumped my surgery date to April 23 because my A1C score was nearly 8.0, which meant that I would not heal properly after surgery. I accepted this without argument, and began working out harder at the gymn... I walked 5 miles each day on the treadmill and at work, and I restricted my diet to zero fat, zero sugar, zero carbs (or as close as possible).

By my surgery date, I had dropped a total of 50 lbs in just over a month and a half. Sweet!

Step Six: Surgery

At 4:00am on January 15th, my alarm clock went off... we had been up late the night before packing Jen's bag for the hospital. We were beat! But we got up, got showered, got dressed, and out the door we went. We made it to the hospital amazingly quick (no traffic) and were registered within a few minutes. Now it was simply a waiting game. Finally around 7:15 am, I was allowed to go back to the Surgical prep room, to see Jen lying on a table all prepped for surgery. We talked for a few minutes, and then they gave her a dose of Versed. Immediately she was out of it - her eyes glazed over and you could tell she was a space cadet. Not long afterward, they took her back for surgery.

Gastric Bypass sugery is a LONG operation (4 hours). I sat in the waiting room watching Band of Brothers on my laptop, and paced the floor so much I left a path in the carpet. I haven't smoked in 7 years, but if I had a pack of Marlboro Reds on me that day, I would have lit all 20 of them at once. Finally, Dr. Kuwada came in and told me that her surgery had been successful and that she was in recovery. I was allowed to go up to her room on the 5th floor and wait. They finally wheeled her in, and I could not have been more happy.

That was on Monday, January 15th. By the next evening, Jen had developed pneumonia. Her hospital stay was extended nearly a week while she struggled to heal from the surgery and struggled to even breathe. She ran back-to-back 103 degree fevers for four straight days in the hospital. Finally, I was allowed to bring her home where she completed her recovery without any further incident.

As for me, the same alarm clock went off at 4:00am on April 23, 2007. We got up, showered, and headed out the door, making it to the hospital at exactly 5:30am. It took longer for me to get registered, but I finally go through and was taken back for prep. Everything was going great. Dr. Kuwada came in and met with me, and set me at ease a bit. It was weird, in the days leading up to my surgery, I thought I would maybe pussy out at the last minute or something... I was scared to death. But in that moment, literally 30 minutes before surgery, I was at peace with it. They let Jen come back, and I remember talking to her and telling her I loved her.

Then, they gave me a shot of Versed. I was coherent for about 10 seconds, and it was lights out baby. I don't remember anything after that (except, maybe a foggy memory of them taking me away to the OR) but apparently I told Jen that if I died I wanted her to move on and be happy and take care of the kids and blah blah... Swear to God - I don't remember it. LOL! But a few minutes later (actually four hours later), I woke to some old dude jiggling my bed and some whiny young girl doing stuff... and an aching pressure in my stomach... was I hungry? Maybe... no. Was it gas? WTF was wrong with me?! Where the hell was I? And where were they taking me?

Oh yeah... the surgery was over and they were taking me up to my room. Cool! When I saw Jen I wanted to cry. My nurse Stephanie was there, and she began working on a mountain of transfer paperwork from recovery. I was groggy, was in and out of it, but I remember Jen saying that the surgery went off without a hitch. Within 2 hours I was up and walking down the hallway. I walked those hallways repeatedly every couple of hours, bored out of my mind. And because of it, three VERY uneventful days later on April 25th, I was at home!