Gastric Bypass
September 30, 2008 – 11:07 amHere’s a post I drafted in October of last year. I had considered it too personal to share here, but considering the outcome I thought it best to get some more information out there.
October 3, 2007 - Wednesday
Gastric Bypass — The Beginning
Well, Monday was my first meeting for the required 6-month lifestyle class for the bariatric surgery candidates. This month was a nutrition class and we discussed various nutrition aspects (fats, starches, proteins, etc.). Frankly, this stuff had always confused the heck out of me before. Heh, I guess that’s how I ended up in this situation — not understanding what I was eating.
OK, let me start from the beginning. About a month ago, I was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic. I’m not quite to the stage where I need to take insulin (yet) and can hopefully get it under control with diet. I had been thinking about gastric bypass for some time, but it was always in the back of my mind. When I was diagnosed with diabetes, that all changed.
I’m doing all of this through the UPMC Weight Management Center. Let me tell you, that place is great! They emphasize lifestyle changes as opposed to letting you have the surgery and then sending you on your merry way without any support. They try to make candidates understand that the surgery is just a tool and that you have to make other changes in order for it to be permanently effective. Basically, they’re teaching me how to eat all over again. See, I formed my terrible eating habits when I was really young; about the time I was in 2nd grade. I lost a lot of weight when I was a teenager through exercise, but never really changed my eating habits. As I got older, I kept the bad eating habits and my exercise slowed WAY down for one reason or another. I’ve paid the price; in the past 17 years I’ve gained almost 130 lbs. I’ve done it all to get rid of the extra weight too, but all fad things (Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, etc.). Each fad diet worked, but only minimally resulting in 10% or so weight loss. As soon as I went off the diet, though, BAM that 10% plus another 10% came back. So, here I am, contemplating the only surgery I’ve ever had.
Ok, if you’re still with me, let me bring you up to date. When I wrote that post, I was 350 pounds and climbing. My body was slowly turning against itself. Besides the diabetes, my kidneys weren’t functioning properly and showing signs of future problems. I was later diagnosed with “severe” obstructive sleep apnea. The sleep tests showed I was only getting about 45 minutes of actual sleep out of every 6 hours! The rest of the time was spent trying to breathe. No wonder I was tired and cranky all the time.
The final diagnosis from the bariatric surgeon? “Malignant obesity” which means that my extra body weight was causing issues that would eventually become terminal. The way it was explained was that some obese (even those considered morbidly obese) have a weight distribution that may not cause any other co-morbidity issues. That wasn’t case with me.
I had my surgery (Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass) on August 14, 2008. It was performed by Dr. George Eid at Magee Woman’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. If you’re in or around Pittsburgh and considering this surgery do yourself a favor and investigate the surgeons at UPMC. I could not have asked for a better experience than what they provided.
The surgery was performed laproscopically and required a 2 day hospital stay. I won’t sugar coat it. The surgery is painful. Imagine doing about a million stomach crunches and that’s what your abdomen feels like after the surgery. Post surgery, I only consumed 500-600 calories (if that) and I slept constantly. For weeks, I had to sleep for about 4-6 hours in the afternoon and the smallest amount of activity drained me. I started back to work about a week post-op, but could only work 4-5 hours per day.
As of this writing, I’m 47 days post-op and happy to report I’m doing great!!! Since that original draft in October of last year, I’ve lost 70 pounds, 57 of which was post-op. That’s 1.2 pounds per day or 0.8 oz per hour! A lot of my energy has returned, and I’ve begun working out again. I’m walking 2 miles per day on a treadmill and I’ve started lifting weights again. I’m also back to working a full-time schedule. I’m still sleeping A LOT, though.
More important than the weight loss, my Type II diabetes is GONE!!! It was, literally, cured within 2 days of the operation. When I was diagnosed, my hemoglobin A1C (HA1C or HbA1C) was 6.6. That means my 90 day blood glucose average was 158. Post surgery, my glucose was 140 so I was provided insulin injections. However, after the 2nd insulin shot, my blood glucose bottomed out at 50! At that point, my new body chemistry had kicked in and my body began using my own insulin again. Since then, my blood glucose hasn’t been above 100.
Side effects? I’ve had some problems with low blood pressure (I even blacked out one morning — a first for me), but that’s been corrected since I’ve started on Phase III (solid food). I’ve not had any problems with “dumping” but have had some nausea in the evenings after eating dinner. Eating slower and maintaining smaller portion sizes will correct that. Not encountering dumping syndrome is good because that means I’m eating the right things.
Coffee helps me clear the fog. If you've found any of the posts on this blog helpful, I could always use more coffee.