How did you first find out about bariatric surgery and what were your initial impressions of it?

I found out about it when I was a teenager and was horrified that people were being all stapled up in the stomach and then having so many side effects after the surgery. Since close to 20 years have past since then, the procedures have been refined and work so much better, so when i heard Carnie Wilson had it done and she was having no bad side effects, I started doing more research and became very interested in the recent results.

Describe your experience with getting insurance approval for surgery. What advice, if any, do you have for other people in this stage?

I'm Canadian and we go through a different process. We deal with the provincial health insurance plan for approval and they are quite willing to pay for the surgery, our problem is a lack of bariatric surgeons. So you need to get approval of the surgeon to have him/her preform the surgery on you. I waited 5 yrs on waiting lists and ended up going to Rochester NY and the provincial health insurance plan payed for all except travel expenses because of the length of the waiting lists in Canada which are 5 to 6 yrs long.

What was your first visit with your surgeon like? How can people get the most out of this meeting?

Dr. O'Malley has all his patients attend a general information session in a group. His session was very good and informative, he covered almost all the questions I had in that session. He then sees all of the people from the group individually and I was quite comfortable with him and felt very reassured by his track record of successful surgeries.

What made you finally decide to have the surgery?

Health reasons: Wanted to have my diabetes go into remission and wanted to become fertile enough to become a Mom

How did you decide which proceedure to have?

Through research I realized that the Roux N Y was the best surgery to have since i'm diabetic.

What fears did you have about having complications or even dying from from the surgery, and what would you tell other people having the same fears now?

With any surgery there is a risk involved, so many factors can come into play. I was just very confident in my surgeon and his surgical staff, I knew that if something went wrong during surgery or afterwards that they would do everything possible to pull me through. My surgery went on without any problems whatsoever and I have had no side-effects.

How did your family and friends react to your decision? Would you have communicated anything differently if you could now? How supportive were they after your surgery?

My friends and family were supportive in my decision once I explained everything to them, but it still didn't stop them from being very worried about surviving the surgery. They are so very happy now and amazed at my progress. It's like they didn't believe that it would work, but I felt the same way before surgery myself. Living it is believing it.

How did your employer/supervisor react to your decision? What did you tell him/her? How long were you out of work?

My employer was very supportive, told me to take as much time off as I required and then some. They didn't want me to stress out over rushing back to work, they wanted me to heal well and be rested. I took a total of 2 months off of work. I didn't need a full 2 months to recuperate, but my parents live in another province and I wanted to go visit them to reassure them that I was doing well, that visit really helped them realize that the surgery was a really good thing.

What was your stay in the hospital like? How long where you there? What things are most important to bring?

My stay in the hospital was quite short. Surgery on Wednesday afternoon, was discharged late Friday morning. The nurses were excellent, but if you don't ask for stuff you won't get anything.. including pain meds. I went through the first 12hrs without any pain meds and kept walking every hour on the hour around the nurses station. The nurses changed shifts and the new nurse asked me if I'd had any pain meds since surgery and I said no, she was quite shocked that I wasn't screaming for meds. I wasn't in a lot of pain, I was just really tired because my roomate kept walking everyone up once an hour. In retrospect i should have brought earplugs and a sleep mask. The next night my roomate felt better and we all got a few extra hours of sleep.

Did you have any complications from the surgery? If so, how did you deal with them?

No complications, I feel quite lucky about that.

In the weeks after you got your surgery date, how did you feel? How did you cope with any anxiety you might have felt?

I had been waiting a loooong time for surgery so i didn't have any anxiety, but what I felt was mostly disbelief.... kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.. all the way up to surgery day I kept waiting for someone to pop out of the woodwork and take my date away LOL

Describe your first few weeks home from the hospital. What should people expect from this period?

I got lot's of rest, took 30 min walks everyday and took my time learning to eat again. Food amounts gradually increased and best of all energy increased and I was back up to full steam after about 4 to 6 weeks.

How far did you travel to have your surgery? (If far, how did this affect your aftercare?)

I traveled about 5 hrs by vehicle from Ottawa Ontario to Rochester NY. The only way it affected my aftercare was the requirement to stay in Rochester for the first week post-op to ensure that if there was a problem we'd be close to Dr. O'Malley. All said and done, there were no emergencies and I was cleared to go one week later.

Please describe in detail what things you could and couldn't eat in the weeks and months following surgery. What foods have been off limits? Please explain how your dietary tolerance changed week-by-week, and then month-by-month since surgery.

I followed Dr. O's diet lists for the required time lines pretty closely at first. During the pureed state (week 2 to week 5) I didn't have a food processor or blender to puree the foods, so I just chewed a lot. then from weeks 6 to week 10 I relaxed a bit more on the chewing and felt a lot less like a lama :D My stomach was able to handle most foods on the diet except pasta and some types of whole wheat bread. Pasta just made me feel too full and whole wheat english muffins seemed to be made with too much sugar and made me feel ill. after week 10 we were on the full diet and I've been able to tolerate most things unless they are dry (dry turkey or chicken) then I need some sort of sauce to make them slippery. Fish and seafood are still a big time favorite except for tuna. The texture of tuna has given me some problems... it's not a slippery kind of texture so i've tried it plain(made me puke) tried it with fat free mayo(made me feel ill but wasn't sick) tried it with light mayo(made me feel ill because of the grease) I'll wait a month or two and try tuna mixed with cottage cheese as that seems less greasy and will still help the tuna be slippery.

What was your actvity level in the days and weeks after surgery?

The first weel after surgery I kept going to the Marketplace mall near my hotel for a few hours of window shopping. I was usually good for about 3 to 4 hours at the mall, then my energy was totally tapped out. I'd go back to the hotel and just relax for the rest of the day. After that my energy came back bit by bit and I was able to walk with a more vigorous pace as time went on... I didn't push it much until I was cleared after 2months post-op. Now i can walk 6kms in 1.5 hrs and feel just fine with plenty more energy to spare.

What vitamins and/or dietary supplements have you taken since your surgery?

I take 300mg of Iron, a multi-vitamin (pre-natal) and I also take B12 in liquid form. I might have to switch to B12 sublingual pills, but for now my bloodwork seems ok.

What side effects (nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbace, dumping, hair loss etc.) were worse for you? For how long after surgery did they persist? How did you cope with them?

I haven't vomitted much, maybe 2 times total and the one time I made myself vomit to feel better. No dumping yet, but I stay away from sugar. I had more hair loss before surgery due to a massively bad diet, now i eat lot's of good proteins and my hairloss has stopped.

What was the worst part about the entire bariatric surgery process?

So far there is no bad part unless you count saggy skin and flat boobs, but I think those are a very small price to pay for my health. :D

What aftercare support group/program do you have? How helpful/important is this?

I belong to the OSSG-Ottawa support group in yahoogroups. This support group is very important as i've been a member for many years before during and after my surgery. The people in the group are a great source of information, inspiration and support.

What is your scar like? Is this what you expected?

I always figured i'd have RNY with an open scar, but I ended up with 7 little laproscopic scars, they are all healed and they are fading nicely. They have greatly exceeded my expectations

Please describe any plateau experiences you have had since surgery.

I did hit a bit of a plateau, but nothing major to complain about. I think it was mostly due to eating too many nuts as they are higher in calories and fat than most proteins. I still have nuts but try and limit them a lot more.

Do you notice people treating you any differently now?

So far everyone is quite supportive. I don't think I get treated better than before *yet* but people are excited for me and their positive energy is something that is kind of new.