A Reflection of My Journey to WLS..............

Jun 06, 2009

I’m writing this blog because my surgery date is near and I just wanted to reflect on my journey. It’s a pretty long post but........Like to hear it?............Here it go!................

In 5 days I will be having RNY gastric bypass surgery.......WOW!!!.........Everything happened so fast!!!!

After reading about all the difficulties some people have gone through to get approved for WLS, I feel very fortune. The process wasn’t that long and it wasn’t much of a struggle. I thought about having surgery for awhile but only started the actual process 6 months ago. I decided to have the surgery in September 2008 but my insurance at the time (Kaiser) had an extensive program to go through and getting an approval was not going to be easy. I wasn’t opposed to following a program but I have been overweight all my life. I have tried almost every diet and exercise regimen and taken almost every supplement put on the market for weight loss. I have had great success at some and but failed at most. I just wasn’t feeling having to be monitored by a dietician who wasn’t going to be able to tell me anything I didn’t already know – eat less and exercise more. Really?.......Is that all you have to do?.......Whatever! So when open season for health insurance came around in November, I researched every plan that was available. I went to health fairs where representatives from different insurance companies come out and talk to you about benefits, and I even called customer service a number of times to make sure that I understood the criteria I needed to meet to qualify for WLS.

I ended up choosing BCBS because they had Blue Distinction Center for Bariatric Surgery and as long as the surgeon determined that WLS was medically necessary the procedure is covered (BMI > than 40 or BMI of at least 35 with failed treatment of co-morbidities). I didn’t even need a pre-approval from the insurance company, only a pre-certification for the hospital stay. No 6-12 month monitored diet programs, no weight loss requirements before surgery, and only a one day liquid diet. Through BCBS I found one of the top surgeons in the field of bariatric surgery, Dr. Michael Schweitzer. He has one of the lowest complication rates in the country and has years of experience in all types of WLS, with thousands of RNYs under is belt. I’m not trying to sound like an infomercial but here’s a portion of his bio:

Michael Schweitzer, M.D., developed the laparoscopic bariatric surgery programs at the Medical College of Virginia (one of the first ten laparoscopic gastric bypass programs in the country), Georgetown University, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently a full-time faculty member. Dr. Schweitzer was the first surgeon in the mid-Atlantic area to perform laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and the first in Maryland to perform laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery and laparoscopic duodenal switch with biliopancreatic diversion.

Currently chair of the membership committee for the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, Dr. Schweitzer also serves as a site inspector for the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Center of Excellence Program. He serves on three editorial boards: the Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (the official journal of the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons) and Bariatric Times.

Dr. Schweitzer was the first to ever publish a technique for endoscopic stoma reduction using transoral endoscopic suturing. A great deal of attention is focused on the future of transoral surgery to avoid abdominal incisions for routine surgery ("No-Scar Surgery"). Dr. Schweitzer is one of the first to apply this technology to bariatric patients.

To say I was impressed would be an understatement. One of the top surgeons in the country at one of the best hospitals (Johns Hopkins) in the country.

In January 2009 I completed an online information session. In early February I met with Dr. Schweitzer with all intentions of getting the Lap-Band but found out that my BMI was too high and I would have to lose weight to qualify for it. Dr. Schweitzer suggested RNY because it would give me the best chance of successfully reaching a healthy weight. He told me to think about it, do some research on RNY, attend some support groups and talk to people who had the procedure, let his staff know my choice and we would go from there. I did all those things and by the end of February I had made my decision to go with RNY and completed my nutrition and psychiatric evaluations.

The longest and most frustrating part was waiting to get a surgery date. I damn near had to beg for it but I called and sent emails faithfully every 2 weeks to see where I was in the process. I know those people were sick of me but I really wanted this and I believe in being proactive (but always pleasant) and going after what you what (while remaining pleasant of course). At the beginning of April I finally got the call and surgery was scheduled for June 11.

I am confident that I am in very capable hands. Talk about being blessed and in God’s favor........Thank you Jesus is I all can say.

There is one thing nagging at me though. As of today I have only told 5 people (none of them family) that I am having surgery. I told my fiancé – we live together so I couldn’t hide it from him. I told my girlfriends, Vernessa and Tremeka, who are always genuinely supportive and my friend Tira who I have known since we were 5 years old. She lives in Atlanta now, had RNY a few years ago and is doing great. And I told my boss who has a daughter that had the Lap Band last year and he has been really supportive too. I have not told my dad, my brothers, my aunt, my grandparents, my stepmother or any of my step sisters and brothers and I feel a little bit guilty. I choose not to tell because most of them have never struggled with weight or only know of some horror story about WLS and I know their first reaction would be you don’t need to do that, all you need to do is blah, blah, blah, blah and I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want the burden of having to justify and argue my decision at this time. It’s almost like being a baby in Christ and trying to convince a life long atheist that there is a God. I don’t want to be bothered with that right now and I feel my focus should be on me and preparing for the life long changes ahead. I feel like I need to walk the walk, have my own experience, and establish my own testimony before I jump out there as counsel for the defense of WLS. I have worked with lawyers for the past 19 years and can argue an issue as well as they can but the most valuable thing I have learned from them is always do your own research and always be prepared. So until I feel like I can argue my case in the court of my family, I’m keeping my mouth shut. I just pray for God’s continued blessing and favor because I don’t want my fiancé to bear the burden of having to tell my family if something happens to me. I feel guilty about that the most but again I am confident that I am in very capable hands and I have faith that everything will be just fine.