Tracy

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

Well it's been a while. 6 years?? I am so ashamed! The fact is, I had the sleeve surgery and lost 20lbs but put it right back on because I started having back pain right after recovery. I still wonder if it was the way they had me on the operating room table that did it because I woke up with severe back pain that never went away. 2 months after having my sleeve I went to see a spine specialist and had an MRI. At that time the radiologist who read my MRI missed that i had a tear in my L4/l5 disk. Unfortunately that meant that my doctor didn't believe me when I said I was in severe pain. He ordered physical therapy but it was excruciating and I asked if I could do them at home as the co-pays were expensive. Remember I was also working 60hrs a week as a software engineer at that time as well so stress didn't help. 

 

So the entire year they sent me to a pain management center. I say that very loosely because they did not manage my pain but made it worse. These anesthesiologists are making money off poor people who just want their back pain to go away. These doctors go on weekend getaways where they are wined and dined and taught how to give injections and come home and start offering them to their patients at outrageous prices and the insurance companies pay it! Even though the FDA had the manufacturer of all steroids put a warning on the bottle "not to be used for epidural steroid injections". Doctors are not warning their patients. If so, it is in the very time fine print. Just this past October the issue was revisited with the FDA where they had a chance to ban the use of steroids for epidural injections and they decided to leave things as they are. In other words, do nothing! Thousands of people are getting injured which is where my point is coming to. I have Arachnoiditis now because of these injections. It is an injury to my spinal cord. The doctor missed the nerve he was supposed to bathe with steroid and instead punctured my spinal canal and shot steroid into my spinal canal. Any foreign object in the spinal canal acts as a binding agent. There are nerves in there that run up and down the length of the canal. So in certain places, or the place where the injection was done, the nerves will clump together. That's it, there is no saving them or un clumping them. It has been tried. Picture you trying to do this to spaghetti noodles that you forgot to rinse the starch out of? 

 

Anyway I had to tell my story I'm case anyone reading might be having back trouble. Do not get the injections! It is a temporary fix for a problem that needs to be worked out by a neurosurgeon or good sports orthopedic Doctor.

 

so here I am, mostly bed bound or in a wheelchair. Some days are better then others. I have therapy sessions to learn that my life isn't over, it's just different. It's hard getting used to my limitations. My husband is a rock. I do need to lose the weight. I was thinking of getting my sleeve revised since it has probably enlarged since 2009. I k ow it has. I used to only be able to eat half a cheeseburger. Now can eat a whole one with everything I it plus half the fries. No that is not what we normally eat. Your yeah we need to get our act right. My hubby has the sleeve and has only had one fill. He has been afraid to get it filled any tighter because when he is stressed his band tightens up and he can't eat. 

 

So so that is it for now. I hope I will be joining in on some of the conversations again. 

I thought I would tell my story of how I got to have surgery so quick. I went to see Dr. Castro's on May 20th. I weighed 227 at his office.  For some reason, Dr. Castro gave me a fill. I think he went to check to see if my fill was there and felt he should give me a slight fill so I could lose weight before surgery.  I believe I actually lost 10lbs that week because I couldn't eat, my fill was too tight. On the 28Th Dr. Castro's office removed my fill. That evening I had esophageal spasms which felt exactly like I was having a heart attack. I went to the ER. They thought it was gas because it went away after I threw up. At this point, I didn't know it was spasms. The next day I had one again. I went to bed at 11AM and didn't get up until 7PM. I had another one at 7:30PM that was so bad, hubby called 911. The ambulance got there fast, but once they found out I had a lap-band, I guess they felt it was probably something with that but not life threatening so they took about 30 min to get me to a hospital that was 10 min away. I was still in excruciating pain (chest pain). 20 min after I arrived at the hospital, the pain went away. The doctor didn't know what it was but guessed about the spasms (remember, he was not a bariatric doctor). So I went home and looked it up and there it was, all the symptoms of a heart attack. Chest pain, nausea, chills, pain in the back.

So on June 1st, the following Monday, I went to see Dr Castro and told him what I had been through over the weekend. I brought my labs and things from the ER visits. Dr. Castro said he felt like I had a prolapse of the band or a slip. He did an upper GI which confirmed that I had intermittent prolapse where my stomach was slipping up through the band causing a "pelican pouch" that was so severe,it was putting pressure on my diaphragm and causing my esophagus to spasm. He ordered surgery for the next day. They had already received approval from insurance and now because it was an emergency, they would probably pay for all of it. (Have not heard from insurance yet).


So here I am on day 14 exactly 2 weeks after surgery and today I got to eat mushies. I have lost 22lbs (I couldn't count this morning and told everyone I lost 25 DUH!) Anyway, 22lbs is awesome!
So I have basically been on liquids one day short of 4 weeks. Now I have 4 more weeks of mushies and then I can finally have solids!!

Cant write much now, will at some point. I am in the hospital a day afer surgery. Not sure if I will go home today or tomorow.

I went last Wednesday and met Dr. Manuel Castro. He operates in two locations, Dallas, and Mansfield. I met him at the Mansfield location. I was impressed with the office waiting room and how I was treated there. I only waited for maybe 10 minutes. I was called back by Sandra (I believe) and she went over my history and my reasons for being there. Then Dr. Castro came in and I was impressed with his friendly manner and smile. He actually spent about 45 minutes with me!

He asked me why I wanted to remove my band and I explained to him that it was no longer working for me. I said that I thought that I might have a leak and gave him my reasons for thinking so. I did say that it was not the bands fault in the beginning as to why I had gained the first 20lbs back. I explained I started eating soft foods and my life situation at the time (met and fell in love with hubby, started stressful job, moved from the country to the city, blah blah). I then explained that when I tried to get back on track my body refused. I was diagnosed with insulin resistance. I got discouraged. In the mean time, I had very little to no restriction. I went to my Mexico doctor who pulled out no saline when he went to check my fill. It made me believe i had a leak. He filled me with 1.8. I came back the next day, it was still there. But after a few weeks, it felt like it left me. I gained the other 40 lbs over the next year.

Anyway, he listened to me and tried to tell me he could fix the leak if there was one. He did the "doctorly" think and tried to attempt to discourage me, which I appreciated. It meant I wasn't just chattle to him. Then I told him I didn't want to have to worry in 5 years wether my band was still working, wether I would eventually get a leak. I told him I wanted the reduced hunger effect of the sleeve, and the restriction "right out of the box". I also liked the fact that I could revise again to a DS if I wanted to. I guess that convinced him plus the fact that he recognized that I did well with good restriction before.

He pulled me into another room and proceeded to check my fill. Surpisingly he pulled out 1.9-2 cc's!! I told him "does this mean I am crazy?" and he said "no no no" . He proceeded to explain to me that I probably had a small slip causing a pelican pouch which was then causing me to have GERD and causing my esophogus to expand acting like a second pouch. He explained this was probably why I could eat more. He let me set with no fill and I sat up. He then laid me back down and gave me back my fill plus 1cc. Now I am not sure why he gave me a fill.....it would make more sense to leave it alone I would think??? But maybe he was thinking if i could lose a little before surgery it would help? I was thinking more along the lines of I didn't want any further trauma to my stoma before surgery? I am going to ask Sandra when she calls me after submitting my insurance.

That was another positive thing! They told me that they have had sucess with my insurance-United Healthcare. They said that if anything, they would at least pay for the band removal and then I would just have to cover the sleeve which would only be $2000! Hey, I think I can come up with that!!

So I finally called Dr. Castro's office because the waiting was killing me. It turns out they had submitted to insurance for approval and I have an appointment on May 20th to meet the doctor. Why can't it be tomorrow!! WAHHH! I want to hurry up and get started. I sorta have it in my head that I was going to be down to 180 by my birthday in October. That's 40 lbs in 4 months if I have my surgery in June. I know it may be a little unrealistic so honestly if I get down to 190 I will be extremely happy because I will at least be back in my size 12's. Right now I am 5'5 1/2 and weigh 223 and I am in a comfortable size 16 and a tight 14 stretch.

I found out that my 401K rules will not let me take out all of the money that i need to get my sleeve done in Mexico with Dr. Aceves 

However, the good news is I called my insurance company and my company, Stryker, has lifted the weight loss surgery exclusion this year!!

So all though I hate the thought that Dr. Aceves will not be putting in my sleeve, I am happy that i don't have to do self pay and that there is hope!! I was put in touch with a couple doctors through OH but one that really impressed me was Dr. Castro. I am hoping to meet him soon and be able to tell for myself. His website has impressed me but more than that meeting some of his patients last weekend was awesome. They really liked him so I am hoping I will too!

I am just excited now that I have an option and that I will be getting the sleeve!!

So reality check...it is now 4/2009 and I have gained 50 lbs back from my 120lbs loss. The truth is, I am only guessing. I have refused to get on a scale or look at a scale for months now. I know by my clothes that I have gained significantly. I am in a size 14-16. The 16's are baggy but still, they fit. I made up my mind that i needed to stop wishing for a miracle. I don't know what is going on with my band but i want to say this, it is not all the bands fault. In the begining of the weight gain, I don't think it was the bands fault at all. 

I met my hubby in March 07 and I fell in love. He is a big man who had just had lapband surgery and let's just say I went from living in the country and only eating out maybe once a week to moving up to the big city and hardly ever cooking. It seemed like we were constantly going out. Anyway, I think he was trying to impress me with big city life haha. So I gained 20lbs and I freaked out. I also moved, started a new job with a huge corporation, and got really stressed out. I hovered around the 20lbs gain for a while then gained another 10. At this point I was desperate and traveled to get a fill. I was told I had stretched my pouch and was given a tiny fill-supposedly. I think I either got accidently unfilled or I have a small leak because just 2 months later I went to Dr. Aceves in Mexico and he checked and I had nothing in my band. At this point I was around 195lbs. I felt terrible but I had hope that now my band was filled back up I would be ok. But no, I went on liquids for 4 weeks and I didn't lose a lb! I exercised religiously for 6 weeks and still, I had gained and lost the same pound. I new then I had better get my thryoid checked out again (I am hypothyroid).

I went to a specialist and she said I had been taking too much hormone, that my blood sugar was out of whack, and put me on metformin and lowered my thryoid. She also gave me another thyroid pill called cytomel. I started feeling better but the weight stayed put and that is where i am today. I am going to borrow money out of my 401K and get the VSG! I am excited but nervous. I am in that "newbie" stage all over again.

I encourage everyone to join me in my exercise challenge. The challenge ends Nov 16th. You can join in anytime! The challenge is to exercise for 30 min in the morning and 30 min in the evening for a total of 1 hr a day. Or you can combine your exercise to one hour all at once. The kicker is, it has to be EVERY DAY! Yeah, that's why it's called a challenge people! :) I know you can do it if I can do it. I am on day 7 and so far so good. I have learned a lot about target heart rates and I learned how to NOT over do it! 

One thing I realize is I must make exercise fun. I try to change the songs on my MP3 player so I stay motivated. I put all fast beat songs on my mp3 player so I have a continuous rythm when I walk. I am saving my pennies for a heart rate monitor to wear while exercising. This is so important!! I didn't even know how important it was to stay within your target heart rate. I was overdoing it all this time! Now that I am watching my heart rate, I can tell I am sweating more but not over exerting myself. This means I am burning fat! WOO HOO!

Hey, I like the new format! SO today is October 14th and I am at Goal. I reached it before my birthday on the 28th! WOO HOO! Now I am just trying to enjoy the new me and maintain. Advice to newbies? Don't give up! Follow the post op diet, stay on top of your fills, know your body and most importantly, learn your band. Know when that last bite really is the last bite. And THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is EXERCISE. When I stopped exercising, I stopped losing and the inches actually increased even though my weight didn't. When I started exercising, I didn't change how I was eating and the weight began to slide off again. Make exercising fun, get a new MP3 player, join a fun gym, whatever you have to do!