Kim H.
My battle with obesity probably began at conception, since obesity runs in both sides of my family. The first time I remember feeling "fat" was in 1st or 2nd grade. We had yearly checkups with the school nurse (eyes, ears, height, weight, etcl.) and I remember everyone saying out loud how tall they were and how much they weighed, and being made fun of because I didn't want to tell mine. My weight continued to increase through high school and college. I tried many diets and, while able to lose short-term, I always put the weight back on (and then some). After the birth of my first daughter, and the failure to lose any pregnancy weight, I decided that I needed to do something about the problem. I contacted a surgeon in Waterville,ME and was scheduled for a Vertical-Banded Gastroplasty in 1994. At the time the VBG was the "cadillac" of WLS and I was excited to be beginning my journey to wellness. The surgery was successful for a while. I lost 152 lbs. and managed to maintain most of the loss for a short period of time. Then I got pregnant again. I didn't gain any weight during my pregnancy and weighed 15 lbs. less coming out of the hospital then I did when I got pregnant. I gradually noticed that I was able to eat more, wasn't feeling full anymore and began gaining weight again. This went on for several years and I found myself back at the beginning again (well not quite that heavy...but close). I did some research and found that the VBG surgery was rarely being done anymore because the failure rate was extremely high. Support groups were nonexistent, there were no pre-op phych evals and my dietitian consult consisted of a 15 min. visit in the hospital the day after my surgery. At that point, my PCP and I decided that pursuing a revision to a gastric bypass warranted looking into. At that time (2002) there was nobody locally who did such a surgery so I was referred to a surgeon 200 miles away. I began the process with him, but was denied before I even met him. I was never really given a reason for the denial except that "there was nothing he could do for me". I can only assume that he felt I had outeaten the surgery and a revision would not be covered by insurance. I was quite depressed at that point but decided that I would try on my own again. And again, short-term success with long-term failure. In 2004 I learned that one of our new local surgeons performed WLS and I obtained a referral to see him. He was very helpful and encouraged me to try to lose weight on my own and surgery should be a last resort because a revision is much more complicated than a standard gastric bypass. He followed my progress from October 2004 until May 2007. During that time, I completed all of the steps he required for his bypass patients so that, if I did need the surgery, I would have all that out of the way. It was decided in May 2007 that I did need to continue with the revision surgery; however, at that point my local surgeon felt that it would be better if I were referred to another bariatric surgeon who had more experience with my type of surgery. That surgeon was Dr. Cobean in Portland (300 miles away). I met with him on May 1, 2007 and discovered that he felt I was certainly a candidate for the procedure, however now I had to start the entire process all over again. Which I did, and after waiting for nearly 5 years, these past few months have literally flown by. Aided, I'm sure by all the traveling back and forth we have had to do. Now it is September 2007. My consent has been signed and I am waiting for Dr. Cobean's office to call me with my surgery date.
