DSRIGGS
Yes, that is chocolate covered bacon
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2014
- Messages
- 4,635
It has been a long and winding road, but even with the crap I have gone through I am still very happy that I made the decision to have a DS. I had this surgery to get rid of my Type II diabetes which was becoming uncontrollable no matter what I did. My A1C was in the 9's and the last reading 4.4 I went off of all my Diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol meds immediately after surgery. My BP is typically around 100/60 and my last cholesterol was 123.
I came into this with a BMI of 46.3 and a weight of 361 pounds (actually lighter at surgery but that was artificial from the 5 clear liquid diet so I count from the 361) and today I am 175 pounds with a BMI of 22.5.
At the end of September last year I went to the ER with a bad pain in my gut. I had lunch with a coworker that day for the first time and I had to go to bathroom because my gut was killing me and I felt like passing out. I scared the bejeebers out of her because I was in there 30 minutes and for some reason we didn't have each other's cell number. She sent somebody in after me and I was just coming out. She drove us back to work and I sat around for awhile but ended up driving myself to the ER (about 7 miles away) about an hour later. I get yelled at by a couple of my female coworkers for being stupid and they were right but I made it there okay. Long story short is I was admitted and 4 days later they finally did surgery to fix a mesenteric defect (Hernia). I was realeased and a week or two later I kept getting extremely lightheaded and felt like passing out. I was admitted for three days with a very low heart rate and BP. Testing was run and I was given a drug to bring up my BP and released. A day or two later after my wife and I went to lunch I ended up back at the ER and my heart rate was 35 and BP was around 75/40. A heart specialist was called in to see if I needed a pace maker. My ticker was very strong and said you don't need a pacemaker but they need to check your nutritional levels. The family medicine guys then figured out that I was extremely malnourished with an Albumin count of 2.3 and total protein around 4.5. I was then started on a low dose of CREON that quickly ramped up to the maximum dose and about 400,000 IU's a day. The CREON fixed the malnutrition for about 8 months, but it had bad side effects (what I called burning butt and gut because it made my poop so acidic and pretty much diarrhea all the time).
Fast forward to the end of July this year and I lost 17 pounds in about a week and a half span. I went to see my surgeon who did my original DS and he said, you are like the poster boy for DS. I said to him, are you freaking kidding me? I take the maximum dose of CREON and lost 17 pounds in two weeks and my albumin and total protein are either out of range or the exact bottom of range. He said come back and see me in 30 days. He also said there was no real science behind how much to add for a revision and all he was going to add was to my common channel. I had already been talking to Dr K for months and he theorized it was my Alimentary limb that was too short. I told Dr Marshall that and he looked at me like I was crazy. I was done at that point and just said okay I will see you in a month........I immediately went home and emailed Dr K what my lab values were and that I had lost 17 pounds in a very shot time period. His response was, "you need a revision ASAP and if you can't get here quickly you need to have DR Marshall put in a PICC line and get on TPN. 2.5 weeks later I was in Pasadena/Glendale and had my revision where he increased my AL to 275 cm, my CC to and effective 124 CM of absorbing length (It is longer but due to atrophy of the BPL that was used for the side to side anastamosis it only absorbs as if 125) and he repaired the mesenteric defect that had failed from the prior repair the year before. Somehow the wound got infected and on the 28th of August I ended up in the hospital for 3 days on a high dose IV antibiotic and had a procedure to remove fluid and air from my peritoneal cavity and the wound.
I went back to work on Thursday and today I feel like my energy is back. As I posted in another thread it is clear the procedure is working and I am absorbing more because most of my key values are now solidly mid-range.
I am very thankful for the people of this board for the advice I got when they were at the other place and now here. They gave me great information on vitamins and nutrition that I would not have had without them.
Thanks
I came into this with a BMI of 46.3 and a weight of 361 pounds (actually lighter at surgery but that was artificial from the 5 clear liquid diet so I count from the 361) and today I am 175 pounds with a BMI of 22.5.
At the end of September last year I went to the ER with a bad pain in my gut. I had lunch with a coworker that day for the first time and I had to go to bathroom because my gut was killing me and I felt like passing out. I scared the bejeebers out of her because I was in there 30 minutes and for some reason we didn't have each other's cell number. She sent somebody in after me and I was just coming out. She drove us back to work and I sat around for awhile but ended up driving myself to the ER (about 7 miles away) about an hour later. I get yelled at by a couple of my female coworkers for being stupid and they were right but I made it there okay. Long story short is I was admitted and 4 days later they finally did surgery to fix a mesenteric defect (Hernia). I was realeased and a week or two later I kept getting extremely lightheaded and felt like passing out. I was admitted for three days with a very low heart rate and BP. Testing was run and I was given a drug to bring up my BP and released. A day or two later after my wife and I went to lunch I ended up back at the ER and my heart rate was 35 and BP was around 75/40. A heart specialist was called in to see if I needed a pace maker. My ticker was very strong and said you don't need a pacemaker but they need to check your nutritional levels. The family medicine guys then figured out that I was extremely malnourished with an Albumin count of 2.3 and total protein around 4.5. I was then started on a low dose of CREON that quickly ramped up to the maximum dose and about 400,000 IU's a day. The CREON fixed the malnutrition for about 8 months, but it had bad side effects (what I called burning butt and gut because it made my poop so acidic and pretty much diarrhea all the time).
Fast forward to the end of July this year and I lost 17 pounds in about a week and a half span. I went to see my surgeon who did my original DS and he said, you are like the poster boy for DS. I said to him, are you freaking kidding me? I take the maximum dose of CREON and lost 17 pounds in two weeks and my albumin and total protein are either out of range or the exact bottom of range. He said come back and see me in 30 days. He also said there was no real science behind how much to add for a revision and all he was going to add was to my common channel. I had already been talking to Dr K for months and he theorized it was my Alimentary limb that was too short. I told Dr Marshall that and he looked at me like I was crazy. I was done at that point and just said okay I will see you in a month........I immediately went home and emailed Dr K what my lab values were and that I had lost 17 pounds in a very shot time period. His response was, "you need a revision ASAP and if you can't get here quickly you need to have DR Marshall put in a PICC line and get on TPN. 2.5 weeks later I was in Pasadena/Glendale and had my revision where he increased my AL to 275 cm, my CC to and effective 124 CM of absorbing length (It is longer but due to atrophy of the BPL that was used for the side to side anastamosis it only absorbs as if 125) and he repaired the mesenteric defect that had failed from the prior repair the year before. Somehow the wound got infected and on the 28th of August I ended up in the hospital for 3 days on a high dose IV antibiotic and had a procedure to remove fluid and air from my peritoneal cavity and the wound.
I went back to work on Thursday and today I feel like my energy is back. As I posted in another thread it is clear the procedure is working and I am absorbing more because most of my key values are now solidly mid-range.
I am very thankful for the people of this board for the advice I got when they were at the other place and now here. They gave me great information on vitamins and nutrition that I would not have had without them.
Thanks
not me!! 
