Just starting to think about this seriously again

  I
got a wake up call at the end of July. I saw my physician to discuss the
results of my blood work. Good thing I did because she didn't contact me and
I suspect she did not even look at it until I came in for my appointment. So
I go in and my fasting blood sugar was 120. She tells me it is high and she
is putting me on Glucophage (Metformin) 500mg 1X day. What does this mean, I
ask. She tells me I have diabetes. This is the first high test and frankly I
kind of wonder about her, which is confirmed when I have an hour and a half
meeting with an advice nurse who tells me about diet and exercise.

Was I told to test BS (Blood Sugar)? No. Was I taught about testing? Of
course not. Since my husband sees an endocrinologist that he is impressed
with for his thyroid I made an appointment with him. I saw him today. He was
nice but is aggressive in how he wants to treat this which is going to
involve injecting an enzyme twice a day. :( I guess to say the least I am
upset and angry and scared and really stressed. Oh and my BP was too high so
he wants me on a BP med. I have a horrible headache today and naturally of
all the medicines they had here the only one they were out of at the
pharmacy? The BP med. :(

I weigh about 250 (have dropped about 5 lbs lately) and I am
5'6".  That gives me a BMI of 40.3 But I have been this heavy or more for 10 years now and not able to lose the weight. 

I'm pretty upset and scared, but it's time to lose some weight to see if
this will subside or settle down. The doc warned me he sees folks in his
office all the time who have had limbs amputated because they don't take
care of the disease by proper diet, etc.

I feel like I need to quit my job to take care of myself to have time to
cook all these meals healthy, shop for diet food or whatever and work out.

I'm pretty overwhelmed and am reconsidering this surgery again.  I would love advice. I can't seem to get into my Aetna web page to look up docs in the plan, but that's next. I don't want to put up with all these health issues.
I have asthma, diabetes now, stress incontinence, heel spurs (but they don't bother me much now) and high blood pressure (now).

Lisa M
275/250
BMI 40.3
  

Hi Lisa:

I hear what you are saying and I think I would be rather upset too.

Your health is nothing to mess around with and if I were you, I would seriously consider thinking about having wls again. I was diabetic, was not on meds even though my doc wanted me on them. My fasting blood sugar was much higher than yours at the time of surgery.

Also I knew that my grandmother was an insulin shooting diabetic and I did not want to do that either. Surgery was the solution.

I was much more heavier than you at the time of surgery and I have to tell you that my fasting blood sugar now is gratefully low and I feel great. Most people who are stage 2 diabetics do not have to take meds after surgery and that can be all in about a couple of weeks.

Really consider having this surgery...it is life saving and transforming in so many ways!

Good luck!  

 That's why I'm back here again posting. I think it's time to consider some other options. Today I had to give myself a shot of Byetta and I couldn't do it. I made my husband (who injects growth hormone daily) do it for me. I have to learn to do this but I couldn't inject myself. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. 
It's already hard just to stick myself to test BS. :( Seriously I want this to go away and I want to live long enough to see my 10 year old have children. My older two are 20 and 18.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. After just about a half hour poking around these message boards I realized how many co-morbidities I have that I'd just taken for granted.

Thanks.

Welcome to the boards. I to weighed 251 at my highest (down 5 pounds pre-op) and feeling that my health was becoming a major issue so started looking into weight loss surgeries as have tried all the diets and end up weighing more than when I started.  So glad I found OH as the people are great. I am scheduled for surgery the 14th (ugg!! 1 week away) and having the DS (duodenal switch) as for me that surgery most fit my life style as I still wanted to eat "normally". I did research into the lap and RNY but just wasn't right for me. So good luck on your weight loss journey, ask questions and do your research into the different wls so you can make an informed choice.

Di

Lisa,
Aetna it does cover the surgery.  The big thing is it is a covered benefit that the employer purchased.  Do not depend on the web page contact the inusrance directly.  I can tell you how to do it  What endocrinologist out here did you see?  I also live out here in the Antelope Valley.
Liz

 I saw Dr. Ashiq Patel. 
He was great. He went to school at USC- so many of our Valley doctors were schooled out of the country, I hate that... and he trained under the guy who was treating my husband when he had his brain surgery on the pituitary tumor. 
    We have Lockheed Martin Total Health plan under Aetna. I should maybe call them first. Plus we could always make our tax deferred health care spending account bigger so that when the % we have to pay hits, we can get the money back quickly. Hmm

 Oops.I replied with the wrong button- scroll up to see my answer to you. Thanks Liz :)

When I had surgery last year my BMI was 50+, I weighed a little over 300 pounds.  My only comorbidites were high blood pressure and GERD which I was treating with medication.  I had a history of heart disease and diabetes in my family, and even though I had no signs of developing either I was still afraid for my future.

I watch my mom and sister getting older and losing their mobilty as obesity slows them down. I was already experiencing lower back and knee pain, I could not take a walk in my neighborhood without taking pain meds before and after.   I had experience working for a podiatrist who specialized in diabetics and had seen up-close the effects of amputations and unhealed wounds.

The future for me as an obese person was not looking good, and I felt that the risks of surgery were nothing compared to the possibilty of living with heart disease and diabetes.

My only regret is that I did not have surgery sooner. The life I have now is so much better and my recent blood tests came back completely normal.... blood pressure, lower back pain ...all those things are gone.

I don't know what your fears/concerns are, but if you're looking for support/encouragement you've come to the right place.

Lisa,

Can you find out what your A1C came in at?  That's the true indicator of diabetes.  It tells the doctor what your average blood sugar has been over the past three months and that's a much more acurate indicator.

When I had the surgery I was on five different meds and had severe lower back pain.  It hurt me to walk from my apartment to the car.  My quality of life was terrible.

Now I can go out and do just about anything I try.  I'm down to 2 meds and one of those has been cut to less than half dosage.  My PCP feels by the time I'm finished I should be able to stop taking all my meds.  While all surgeries have risks, I have no regrets so far. 

Call your insurance company and find out what's covered and check back here so we can help.

My doctor, the GP is inexperienced. (that is being generous) and she didn't even order that test. The nurse who gave me the class was shocked but not suprised. She told me I am not a 'brittle diabetic" but she thought a testing machine would be a good idea. When I went back to find out about the test they said I could come in for one but they needed me to make an appointment to get a scrip for a blood glucometer. So I figured to heck with them and I went and bought my own and started testing for a couple of days while eating healthy and lowER carb than normal and my sugars were high so I took the metformin and saw that it lowered it.

I have a test for the A1c that I plan to do fasting, I think, tomorrow. I see my endo again next week.

It appears Aetna will cover a Roux-en Y. I have a friend who had that done and is happy with her surgeon and the results but she is about 10 years younger or more than I am. But I am pretty sure I have fibro along with umpteen other issues that I have been living with not thinking they were related to my weight. :(

I just need to find a new GP. I think I can go right to the surgeon though because my insurance is Lockheed Martin Total Health and I can go to anyone I want