“Only Needed to Lose 80 Pounds - Gastric Bypass Surgery Due to out of Control Diabetes - Resolved! - Greensboro, NC”

I am so happy that I had gastric bypass surgery! I simply cannot tell you what a huge difference it has made in my life.

I was not the traditional candidate because I was not 100 pounds overweight. However my diabetes was out of control regardless of what my Dr and I did to try to control it. My latest A1C, prior to WLS was 8.5. And the medications we had tried made me feel bad and in some cases caused weight gain. My Dr and I were doing everything possible to avoid insulin because we both understood that while insulin will control BS, it almost always leads to weight gain and more insulin. I was desperate to avoid the diabetic and high blood pressure complications that I had seen in my family; my mom went blind due to diabetes and died at age of 64, my maternal grandmother had her leg amputated due to diabetes and my father died a long painful death after a stroke due to blood pressure problems.

Did I want to lose weight? -Well of course I did, but these other reasons were even stronger. I asked my Dr several times to refer me over to a bariatric surgeon, and he always refused saying I was not large enough. Finally I almost begged him just to let me pursue it to see what the bariatric surgeon would say. He relented. I attended my first information meeting in 2009.

After attending several different bariatric surgeon and looking at different procedures, I began the process to have the gastric sleeve bypass at the Regional Center for Bariatric in High Point NC. I choose this procedure because of it's high resolution of diabetes - over 90%.

My surgery was performed in February 2010. Once I left the hospital, I have no longer needed drugs to handle my diabetes. My last A1C was 4.5! I have lost over 80 pounds and have acheived my weight goals. It has not always been easy, but I am extremely glad that I had the surgery. I have learned alot about how to handle the side effects of gastric bypass and even plan to write 2 books about it. One on handling the side effects and the other just a collection of stories from gastric bypass patients. I know how much I wanted to read about others and how important it was to learn to manage a few of the side effects (dumping and gas.

Recently, I had a tummy tuck to remove the loose skin from my midriff to my lower abdomen. I look and feel totally different from the woman I was a year ago. I am glad to answer any questions or help in any way.

Updated on 10 Jan 2011:
Tomorrow is 11 months post op for me. I am now 3.8 pounds below my goal weight and suddenly losing weight daily again. Trying to figure out what I need to do to stablize the weight loss. I am concerned that if I lose more weight that I will look hagard and older. My face, arms and legs are already pretty thin now.