Gastric Bypass Saved my Life -Lakewood, CA

My motivation for GP was simple, I was up to 395 lbs, I was retaining fluid around my heart and I had to stop living off of Prednisone (as a result of being diagnosed with adult asthma at age 30. I had to take it so I could breath because my asthma was not stabilizing properly. One year I went to the ER 6 times for emergency breathing treatments and IV treatments of Prednisone) My legs and feet were swelling up all the time and I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired all of the time. All this time though, my blood sugar and blood pressure remained normal which my Dr. at that time found miraculous. I had never had such a weight problem in my entire life until I had to go on prednisone. It's a steroid and while it helped my breathing, it messed with my emotions, causing weight gain, increased my appetite 10 fold, messed with my thyroid, not to mention other things. I tried weight loss programs which didn't seem to work; if I lost 10 lbs it would come right back due to water retention. Finally, I told my Dr. I couldn't continue to live like this any longer! That's when he mentioned gastric bypass surgery. I had heard about it but was hesitant at first. There were guidelines; 6 months proven track record of a weight managed program and a minimum of 3 psychological session with a therapist to determine if I was ready to accept the responsibility of what it was going to take having a malabsorptive procedure done (I had what is called the Roux-en-y gastric bypass procedure). I completed all of my pre-requisites(sp?) and had surgery 11/5/2004. I lost 215 lbs and I have kept it off. Was it easy to do? In the beginning I had to get used to my eyes being bigger than my pouch, I had to remember that my protein intake had to be 80-120mg daily, I still have to remember this! I sometime times still experience "dumping syndrome" if I have something with too much sugar or something to starchy. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! The down side is I have 2 ulcers at the end of my esophagus and the opening of my pouch from undigested food. Since I'm post-op 11 years, this could be a long term effect of the type of bypass I had. It's hard to know according to the Dr. Another thing is after you have this type of surgery, your bathroom habits do change some because your not eating as much (well at least for me they have) , so you may only go #2 every other day or so. Well, I seem to have developed IBS about a year ago (with constipation) and again, the Dr. doesn't know if that maybe a long term side effect of the surgery. It's hard to tell. I had my surgery done laparoscopically and my scars are hardly even there. I think I went back to work in a week or so, been so long I can't remember. In the beginning, drinking that 2oz. of protein every 3-4 hours was sooo weird because it filled me up!! After about a week of doing that, I wanted something crunchy so bad but you can't have anything like that (except maybe ice chips and even then they have to dissolve before you can swallow). I know this surgery and recover time has come a long way in 11 years but for me, I would do it all again if I had to because I had no quality of life from the ages of 30-39. I didn't let anyone take my picture during this time because I hated to be photographed. I'm sure there are some out there somewhere, if I find them I will post. Oh, I can't remember the cost at this time, I did have awesome insurance though, it was done PPO.

I didn't experience the hair loss other than the normal amount (like when you brush your hair) that is talked about with this surgery. The other thing is, even though I try and remember to take my iron each day, I'm very anemic. Every time I have blood work and they check my RBC levels, they always come back extremely lower than normal. This is one of the major side effects of having the Roux-en-y procedure. Gotta watch the iron levels and the protein levels!! Very important, the Dr.'s aren't messing around when they talk about those two things. I do have a trick that I do which I'm not supposed to do. If I find that I have eaten too much (and you will feel it more with certain foods than you will with others), I slowly sip some seltzer water or club soda to get me to burp so it will help my food to go down. The reason your not supposed to drink carbonated drinks is because it can expand/stretch your pouch. But, sometimes it does help me on those occasions where I do forget and my eyes are bigger than my "pouch" . It has been reported that after gastric bypass surgery, women turn to alcohol more because they don't want to eat. In the beginning, like the first 2-3 years, my alcohol consumption increased quite a bit. I stopped drinking 4 years ago for other reasons than bypass surgery. Make sure you watch your alcohol intake, it's easy to have more than the typical "1-2 glasses..." After my surgery, my Dr. gave me a card that I could present at restaurants asking that I be allowed to order off of the Children's Menu due to medical reasons. Most restaurants have accepted my card. I had to go back in for surgery about 4-6 weeks out to make sure my pouch was not leaking. I don't recall the exact symptoms I was having at the time but it warranted going back under. I was totally fine with it and everything turned out to be healing to schedule and in fact, looked very well. I'm very lucky that I can tolerate eating red meat. A lot of people cannot tolerate eating red meat after this type of surgery. The thing is though, it has to be prepared medium-well. It's weird, sometimes I can hear my food or drink go into my pouch! It's not a big deal, it just feels funny and probably sounds weird to hear someone say that, LOL! Pasta/rice will fill you up very quickly so make sure to eat a protein first. To this day, even after all these years, I still fill my plate up like a "normal" person would (serving size wise) and end up eating only 1/4 of it. It's easy to forget! And when you do forget, your pouch is there to remind you! I don't experience hunger pangs since having this surgery which is kind of weird. Hunger pangs are a normal function of the human body because they tell you when you need to eat. I go by the time which tells me when to eat. I'll post more things as I think of them.