duh_Mom
Well-Known Member
One year ago I had surgery in hopes to cure a terminal illness – SMO. I weighed close to 300 and am 5’ 4.5” or 5ft 5” – I have shrunk… used to tell my brothers I was 5 foot 5 and three quarters. . . . My BMI has been over 50 – at surgery time is was high 40’s. I use my starting weight as 296.6 which gave me a BMI of 49ish.
My history:
I was fat all my life – weighed 235 when I graduated high school. Been on every diet and almost every diet pill that was available. My first go at diet pill was 7th grade and yep, Mom took me to the doc to get them.
I am a childhood sexual abuse survivor – was 16 for 2 whole days when my daughter was born.
I have a binge eating disorder. Fought it for years and years . . lost lots of weight several times – 80 pounds, 90 pounds 75 pounds… you all know. I always put it back on plus.
I was dying. I work from home so I was able to eat what I wanted when I wanted and did not have to go out in public. I could eat without anyone knowing I was eating.. in my pea brain it did not count if you could ‘hide it.’. Those 66 inch hips could not be hide but hey. . .
In 2008 after some years of therapy and on the upswing of a weight loss episode I investigated having a lap-band. Thought if I could just lose it again, the band would help me keep it off. So, found a doc close by and went in – told him I did not want my guts rearranged so wanted a band. 6 months of a supervised diet and he fixed me up. I went for my fills as suggested for the first 6 months. Lost 25 pre op and 20 post op.. whew.. rocked it. Think I weighed about 250ish then. At the time I did not want to go to Dr. Boyce because he did surgery where I worked and people would know.
My back was / is bad from an injury when I was a teen. Fell and got hurt and never made it to the doc. Literally an unexpected knee in the middle of my back and pulling on my shoulders was all that was needed to stand straight again. – oh the medical treatments.. I digress – fast forward to years of obesity and nursing and that back could no longer support me. My legs would go to sleep as I walked more than 100 ft. I was definitely a Walmart buggy lady. I stopped running around with the wife and her older mother because we would be at the store – the 90 yo walking around and my fat ass in a buggy. Never mind the stores that did not have buggies. I just could not keep up.
I developed sciatica – and let me tell you that pain hurts – you can’t get away from it. I could not sit, stand, lay or anything to relieve the pain. So, off I went with my 300 pounds to the neurologist to have my back looked at again. The neuro passed me off to an orthopedic spine doc who very nicely told me he did not want to do any surgery on my back until by BMI was 30. I did not have any neuro deficits so they did not think it was critical to have something done immediately. Well, I laughed out loud – I knew there was no way that was gonna happen.
So, decided to go see Boyce this time. I had moved on to another job and he had moved to another hospital. I went in to see what my surgical and non-surgical options were. He told me about some surgery called a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch – He told me that folks that get over 45 BMI just can’t lose it with D and E. Actually, he said that research had shown over 40. Well, I had no idea what a BPD/DS was – he told me it was an old surgery that was modified. That scared me… I heard about those old gastric bypass surgeries. So, I told him I would think about it. I came home and started researching – did not research with the crappy band just was so desperate to get something done, some relief.
So, in my research I found FB and @southernlady told me about Bariatricfacts.org. and the Bariatricsinfo web page. I read all I could and together with the wife decided to go for the BPD/DS that I learned was called the switch. This started the approval process for surgery. Lord help – was told since I was a revision did not need 6 months of supervised diet – so then 5 months and 5 denials later. . . . the insurance agreed to have the lap band out, but not the DS. Seems I did not meet their requirements for compliance post LB… now could not find out what those requirements were – it was and still is a secret. @DianaCox and @Larra tried to help me – but I could not get my hands on the EOC. Called the insurance, call my HR – all the way up to the VP and everyone wanted me to have the summary. Well, they won – I got sick and tired – so we put our heads together and figured out how to come up with the money to selfpay.
6/16/2015 I had the lifesaving surgery. I had some pretty serious complications – a part of the blind loop became “incarcerated” in one of the muscles – evidently as the trocar was coming out. So, on the 18th I had a second surgery to get it out of jail so to speak. However, went into shock and had gallons of IV fluids – white count went to 2. The bowel did not rupture but was very close. That shock and second surgery really kicked my ass. I had fluid in my hips – extra ba- donka donk butts. Fluid everywhere evidently. Had just been home a couple days when I had to go back and have a thorocentesis to remove over 400 cc of fluid from my right lung, that’s 12 ounces. Oh, but I breathed easier then! Had weeks of liquid stools –doc thought I had c-diff – there is something way too intimate about carrying your poop in a cup to the hospital to have it checked. Wife was angry ‘cuz she thought they had killed me – it seemed to be one thing after another. Had to have CT Scan looking for abscesses in the abdomen.. had strong antibiotic a week on and a week off then on again. . . . we had no choice but to go thru it. hell, there was no turning back. Finally, at about 2 months out I started to feel human again.
So, now – 1 year later it is a whole new world. I have done more physical activity in the last few months that I did in the preceding 5 years. The only medicine I am taking now is thyroid. My antidepressant, my stomach medicine, my heart rate medicine, my prn back pain medicine. All stopped – done – finished. I have lost 120 pounds – 80.5% EWL – based on a normal BMI. Oh, and the back – doesn’t hurt more than ‘normal’ – freakin’ amazing.
The doc is recommending that my BMI be around 26 or 28 that is about 157 to 168… whew – almost there. Again, Flippin amazing. I swear to you this is a freakin’ miracle of epic proportions.
I started this saga off with saying that I had surgery in hopes of recovering from a terminal disease. I was dying. Today, on my surgaversary – I am a whole new person. The universe directed me to Boyce and the switch as I sure did not know to go after it. I am so thankful for that.
I hope this saga helps someone – and I’ll post some pics this weekend. thanks for reading all this crap!
My history:
I was fat all my life – weighed 235 when I graduated high school. Been on every diet and almost every diet pill that was available. My first go at diet pill was 7th grade and yep, Mom took me to the doc to get them.
I am a childhood sexual abuse survivor – was 16 for 2 whole days when my daughter was born.
I have a binge eating disorder. Fought it for years and years . . lost lots of weight several times – 80 pounds, 90 pounds 75 pounds… you all know. I always put it back on plus.
I was dying. I work from home so I was able to eat what I wanted when I wanted and did not have to go out in public. I could eat without anyone knowing I was eating.. in my pea brain it did not count if you could ‘hide it.’. Those 66 inch hips could not be hide but hey. . .
In 2008 after some years of therapy and on the upswing of a weight loss episode I investigated having a lap-band. Thought if I could just lose it again, the band would help me keep it off. So, found a doc close by and went in – told him I did not want my guts rearranged so wanted a band. 6 months of a supervised diet and he fixed me up. I went for my fills as suggested for the first 6 months. Lost 25 pre op and 20 post op.. whew.. rocked it. Think I weighed about 250ish then. At the time I did not want to go to Dr. Boyce because he did surgery where I worked and people would know.
My back was / is bad from an injury when I was a teen. Fell and got hurt and never made it to the doc. Literally an unexpected knee in the middle of my back and pulling on my shoulders was all that was needed to stand straight again. – oh the medical treatments.. I digress – fast forward to years of obesity and nursing and that back could no longer support me. My legs would go to sleep as I walked more than 100 ft. I was definitely a Walmart buggy lady. I stopped running around with the wife and her older mother because we would be at the store – the 90 yo walking around and my fat ass in a buggy. Never mind the stores that did not have buggies. I just could not keep up.
I developed sciatica – and let me tell you that pain hurts – you can’t get away from it. I could not sit, stand, lay or anything to relieve the pain. So, off I went with my 300 pounds to the neurologist to have my back looked at again. The neuro passed me off to an orthopedic spine doc who very nicely told me he did not want to do any surgery on my back until by BMI was 30. I did not have any neuro deficits so they did not think it was critical to have something done immediately. Well, I laughed out loud – I knew there was no way that was gonna happen.
So, decided to go see Boyce this time. I had moved on to another job and he had moved to another hospital. I went in to see what my surgical and non-surgical options were. He told me about some surgery called a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch – He told me that folks that get over 45 BMI just can’t lose it with D and E. Actually, he said that research had shown over 40. Well, I had no idea what a BPD/DS was – he told me it was an old surgery that was modified. That scared me… I heard about those old gastric bypass surgeries. So, I told him I would think about it. I came home and started researching – did not research with the crappy band just was so desperate to get something done, some relief.
So, in my research I found FB and @southernlady told me about Bariatricfacts.org. and the Bariatricsinfo web page. I read all I could and together with the wife decided to go for the BPD/DS that I learned was called the switch. This started the approval process for surgery. Lord help – was told since I was a revision did not need 6 months of supervised diet – so then 5 months and 5 denials later. . . . the insurance agreed to have the lap band out, but not the DS. Seems I did not meet their requirements for compliance post LB… now could not find out what those requirements were – it was and still is a secret. @DianaCox and @Larra tried to help me – but I could not get my hands on the EOC. Called the insurance, call my HR – all the way up to the VP and everyone wanted me to have the summary. Well, they won – I got sick and tired – so we put our heads together and figured out how to come up with the money to selfpay.
6/16/2015 I had the lifesaving surgery. I had some pretty serious complications – a part of the blind loop became “incarcerated” in one of the muscles – evidently as the trocar was coming out. So, on the 18th I had a second surgery to get it out of jail so to speak. However, went into shock and had gallons of IV fluids – white count went to 2. The bowel did not rupture but was very close. That shock and second surgery really kicked my ass. I had fluid in my hips – extra ba- donka donk butts. Fluid everywhere evidently. Had just been home a couple days when I had to go back and have a thorocentesis to remove over 400 cc of fluid from my right lung, that’s 12 ounces. Oh, but I breathed easier then! Had weeks of liquid stools –doc thought I had c-diff – there is something way too intimate about carrying your poop in a cup to the hospital to have it checked. Wife was angry ‘cuz she thought they had killed me – it seemed to be one thing after another. Had to have CT Scan looking for abscesses in the abdomen.. had strong antibiotic a week on and a week off then on again. . . . we had no choice but to go thru it. hell, there was no turning back. Finally, at about 2 months out I started to feel human again.
So, now – 1 year later it is a whole new world. I have done more physical activity in the last few months that I did in the preceding 5 years. The only medicine I am taking now is thyroid. My antidepressant, my stomach medicine, my heart rate medicine, my prn back pain medicine. All stopped – done – finished. I have lost 120 pounds – 80.5% EWL – based on a normal BMI. Oh, and the back – doesn’t hurt more than ‘normal’ – freakin’ amazing.
The doc is recommending that my BMI be around 26 or 28 that is about 157 to 168… whew – almost there. Again, Flippin amazing. I swear to you this is a freakin’ miracle of epic proportions.
I started this saga off with saying that I had surgery in hopes of recovering from a terminal disease. I was dying. Today, on my surgaversary – I am a whole new person. The universe directed me to Boyce and the switch as I sure did not know to go after it. I am so thankful for that.
I hope this saga helps someone – and I’ll post some pics this weekend. thanks for reading all this crap!
