Heidineub
Since I was six years old I have been overweight. All of my life I tried without success to lose weight. Diet and exercise resulted in losing 20 or 30 pounds at the most only to gain the weight back plus an extra 10 pounds. After 35 years of feeling like a failure at weight loss I decided to have RNY Gastric Bypass surgery. At this time I was living in Florida. The RNY was performed as an open procedure. The first few days after surgery I was in ICU because of my blood pressure, then I was moved to a regular room where I stayed for several more days. Alltogether I was in the hospital for one week. The first few weeks home were difficult. Thankfully I had my mother, cousin and sister who thelped to care for me following my surgery. I had very little energy and I was anxious about all of the changes I was going through. I also had a problem with low potassium which made me feel pretty lousy. This problem was corrected with supplements. After six weeks of recovery I was able to return to work. The first 14 months were very good in terms of my weight loss. My pre-surgery weight (272) quickly declined. I went from wearing size 26/28 to wearing size 16/18 in six months. I'll never forget a shopping experience I had as I was losing weight and buying new clothes. I went to the plus size department and a saleswoman came up to me and said I was in the wrong area and she directed me to the petite department.I exercised every day and I followed the portion control diet. Seven months after my surgery I moved back to my home state of NJ. The weight loss continued and by May 2000 I was wearing size 12. For the next year my weight loss stayed consistent. I got down to 150 pounds and couldn't get down any lower. Then my worst fears were realized when from 2002 to 2008 I steadily gained weight. It was just like I'd never had Gastric Bypass Surgery. I was unhappy, my blood pressure problem was getting worse and I was starting to feel aches and pains in my legs, knees and back. I didn't think any alternatives existed. I had a consultation with a surgeon who informed me that revisions to weight loss surgery are possible. He gave me the name of Dr. Robert Brolin. It turns out that Dr. Brolin is one of the pioneers in the field of weight loss surgery. I think what I liked most about Dr. Brolin when I first met him is that he never made me feel guilty or ashamed of the my situation. He simply educated me about the possibility of surgical revision. I left his office feeling hopeful. The next step was an upper GI so Dr. Brolin could find out what was going on inside of my pouch. It turns out that I had very little or no restriction and insufficient malabsorption. The next step was getting insurance approval. This turned into a real battle. Luckily Dr. Brolin and his staff didn't give up. After several denials and appeals, the external appeal came back in my favor. The surgery was medically necessary. After that things moved very quickly. I had a surgery date and before I knew it my mother and I were driving to University Medical Center at Princeton for my revision. The revision took place on June 5th at 7:30 a.m. The surgery lasted six hours and was complicated. I feel blessed to have Dr. Brolin's team. The surgical resident Dr. Patel has a wonderful bedside manner. He visited me every morning in the hospital and tried to relieve my anxiety by explaining things to me. Dr. Ghandi who assisted in the surgery and also saw me in the hospital is also very compassionate and reassuring. Dr. Brolin made rounds every morning that I was an inpatient and I have seen him weekly since my discharge. His calm manner is comforting. I feel like I am experiencing the gastric bypass experience for the first time but with a lot more education. I did things differently to prepare for the surgery (bulked up on protein, consulted with an endocrinologist for help with deficiencies, met with a dietician, read as many books as I could find about GBS). It has been three weeks since by surgery. I've lost 21 pounds. It isn't easy losing the weight, even with the by-pass. I have to exercise, watch my fluid and protein intake and deal with hunger pains. But I'm hopeful that this time I will be able to get to a healthy weight and maintain it. 
