Hello!

[Plume]

Hello everyone!

What an incredible source of support and information here! I'm happy that I found you!

As for me, I'm french canadian, 35 and I have a wonderful daughter of 7. I'm a social worker but currently working on my PhD and on a psychotherapist licence to dig in my interest for trauma and homelessness. For the moment, I teach, mainly.

This year will be a year of changes and adaptation, as I'll get a duodenal switch on january 18. I'm 5'1 for 220 lbs. I shed this weight so many time in my life and always were flirting with eating disorder. I came to a point were diet were ineffective and food was an obsession, as it was my way to cope with everything, to reward myself, to punish myself, etc.

Then, after lots of psych work, we made peace. I feel better in my head since I don't diet, but my weight continued to slowly go up, as I hurt my metabolism so much before. I use to say that I would never have a weight loss surgery, and that theres many size to health. However, I feel that my body is not happy with me. My asthma is bad, I have hyperprolactinemia, pseudo-cushings, PCOS... and I don't like the way some people look at me.

So here I am, at 15 days of surgery, switching between happiness and certainty and fear and willingness to cancel it all. But I am ready with my vits, some good knowledge that I will challenge all the way and all my test done, fees paid, etc...

Thanks for welcoming me here!

Anick

P.S.: does any of you know how I can cange my name? My full informations are a bit much and I was inatentive when I created my profile...

 

[southernlady]

Welcome...and read all you can.

Anick

P.S.: does any of you know how I can cange my name? My full informations are a bit much and I was inatentive when I created my profile...

Let me know what you want as a user name and I can fix it.

 

[Larra]

Welcome! I lived in your neck of the woods (Montreal) for several years, but sadly I don't speak French. Beautiful city, wonderful people.

Make sure you and Dr. Gagner have an understanding as to exactly what operation will be performed. Specifically, make sure it's the true DS with 2 anastomoses and a common channel of reasonable length (i.e. 100 cm to 125 cm or determined by Hess method). There are already lots of threads here on this subject and it sounds like you are making good use of the information already here, so I won't get into details. Dr. Gagner is very experienced with the DS but has been known to do different operations on occasion (I'm putting that as politely as I can) so good communication ahead of time is important.

 

[Munchkin]

Do what Larra said!!! And best of luck! You made a good decision!

 

[JackieOnLine]

Dr. Gagner is very experienced with the DS but has been known to do different operations on occasion (I'm putting that as politely as I can) so good communication ahead of time is important.

aha!

Hello to the OP - welcome

 

[bearmom]

Hello and welcome! We have a similar health history, and I put off WLS for years, and regret waiting. I was still panicked when I had it, and only got through it telling myself each day, that I could just change my mind any moment, and was still thinking that as I rolled into the OR. So very glad I got the DS (10 years post op this month). I had most of the issues you mention, plus a few more, and all are resolved for me, but asthma, and I've had that since birth. I still take thyroid meds, but the PCOS cushing's related things are gone. For me it was a wonderful exchange for taking a handful of vitamins every day.

 

[harrietvane]

Welcome!

Dr Gagner was my surgeon, so let me know if you have any questions about the experience. The hotel arrangements in particular worked well.

He did mention SADI/SIPS to me as an option in the initial consult but didn't push back at all when I said I wanted the traditional two anastomoses and why.

 

[hilary1617]

Hello and welcome @Anick Desrosiers. Glad you found your way here and congratulations on your upcoming procedure!

My son has Cushing's disease, so I have researched it extensively. Pseudo-Cushing's is extremely rare - with traditional Cushing's far more common - though both are equally insidious -and because you also mention hyperprolactinemia, PCOS and asthma, if you are comfortable sharing whether you have had a 3T MRI looking for a pituitary tumor and/or scans for neuroendocrine tumors elsewhere? Has Cushing's disease / syndrome been ruled out entirely?

 

[Settledownnow]

Welcome!

 

[Jacks39]

Welcome!!!
I’m a newb and a pre op, surgery next week.
Lots of good advice to be found here. I used the bookmark feature while I read thru all the posts under the Duodenal Switch forum, marking those I wanted to come back to. Lol, I think I convinced myself to cancel surgery about 10 times while reading thru everything, but by the time I was done I felt confident in my decision, my surgeon, and my ability to care for myself with DS.
Wishing you a safe surgery and quick recovery!!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

If I come visit, will I see...drool...Yannick Bisson?

 

[CaitlynR]

Hello and welcome! I am also in the psychology field, with a psyd and work as a clinical psychologist. I also work with many trauma patients but consider myself a generalist. I also have had a lot of personal psych work which I have found is very valuable both personally and professionally. I did some undergrad teaching, and would love to do some more in the future, but love therapy too much to make it a focus, and I’m plenty busy in my day job and rest of my life. I also have one child, a 9 year old son.

Surgery is a hard step. The three months I have experienced have not been terrible but not been easy. I am beginning to see some health benefits, though, which is motivating for me. Treat the surgery like the scholar you are, before and after, and delve into the medical journals and even make phone calls to national organizations and researchers. That may seem over the top to some, but that’s what I did, and the data made the decision much clearer. It was the best chance for a higher quality of life.

 

[Plume]

Thanks for the warm welcome I'ts so reassuring to know that there is a community of supportive and knowledgable people at the other side of my screen!

Dr Gagner proposed SADI, but he did not insist when I explained to him that I would prefer a DS, and I'm still waiting for his answer to know is he can do it with the Hess method. However, he seemed to think that a SADI would be better for me, and I'm still thinking about it, since one of the reason for this surgery is that handle some pills quite badly and that it gives me cramps and diarrhea, Metformin for SOPK being one of the pill I can't tolerate. Maybe a smaller weight loss would trade well for a chance for less intestinal problems. I'm also considering a longer common channel on a regular DS, but I don't want to reduce my chance to maintain my loss. I'm still trying to figure what would be best, with insufficient data for SADI and no way to know how my body will react. For the moment, I'm schedule for a regular DS, and I've heard that Dr. Gagner usually does 100cm CC.

My son has Cushing's disease, so I have researched it extensively. Pseudo-Cushing's is extremely rare - with traditional Cushing's far more common - though both are equally insidious -and because you also mention hyperprolactinemia, PCOS and asthma, if you are comfortable sharing whether you have had a 3T MRI looking for a pituitary tumor and/or scans for neuroendocrine tumors elsewhere? Has Cushing's disease / syndrome been ruled out entirely?

I have a pituitary tumor, but it is a small prolactinoma. My endocrinologist seems confident that I don't have cushing disease, and I did a full round of test this automn (head MRI, saliva test, urine test, blood test...). She suggested that high stress was probably the cause of my cushing like symptoms. It's when the tests came back ok that she suggested a sleeve. When I looked at the 5 years outcomes, I knew it was not an option that I was ready to try... I'm sorry for your son and I hope this is under control.

Welcome...and read all you can.

Let me know what you want as a user name and I can fix it.

What about "Plume"? It's the name of my bird, and in french, it means feather. On that, my daughter is crazy about plums ;-) Thank you so much!

 

[Plume]

If I come visit, will I see...drool...Yannick Bisson?

I don't know who that man is, but I'm willing to trade him for Ryan Gosling ;-)

 

[harrietvane]

For the moment, I'm schedule for a regular DS, and I've heard that Dr. Gagner usually does 100cm CC.

While everyone is different, I have had no issues with the 100cm CC so far - but I also fall in the 'short-ish women' camp, for whom 100cm seems to generally be OK. My surgery weight was 118kg and today I'm 64kg (just shy of two years out); Dr Gagner said that 'mid 60s' was his goal for me (I remember thinking he must be crazy and there was no way that would happen).

I felt the lack of long-term data made SIPS/SADI unappealing, as I was already being revised from a band and wanted the best chance of success so this would be my final WLS.