My Story

My name is Mitch Vitkovich. I started my ordeal in September 2008 when I attended my first seminar at Scottsdale Health Care conference room. Our featured speaker was DR. Kurt Sprunger  from the ( SBC ) Scottsdale Bariatric Center. I filled out the packet from the seminar and sent it in the next week. It took about six weeks to get my initial visit to SBC. At this visit I had  my first visit with the nutritionist, my psychiatric evaluation, and my first visit with a surgeon. The surgeon just happened to be Dr. Sprunger. Next  the waiting game began to get approval from my insurance. After a couple weeks I received the great news I was approved. Now It seemed like everything was In fast forward. The first thing I had to do was pick a surgeon. This was a no brainer for me. The only surgeon I had meet was Dr. Sprunger so he was my pick. I'm sure Dr. Blackstone is a great surgeon, but I have never meet her so I was going with who I knew and who made me feel comfortable. Next came all the testing, blood work, xrays, urine test. After that was complete I was ready to go I thought. In doing the test, the xray showed I had a spot on my right lung. This had to be delt with first. After a CT scan and  PET scan it showed to be negitive. Now I'm ready and on 3/18/2009 I had my Gastric Bypass done. I had a three day stay on the fifth floor of Scottsdale hospital where I have to tell you the people were the absolutely the best. Two things they make you do while in the hospital is walk and use you speerometer (sp) . My first walk was tuff but I was able to get ten minutes in. My last walk before I left the hospital was thirty minutes. I have been home for a week now and I have not taken any pain medication since the day after my sugery and I'm up to nine miles a day walking. I will go back to work in two weeks and I am ready. I have to tell all you something after going threw this process and watching how different people are about preparing themselves, don't think that bariatric surgery is going to work without you preparing both mentally ang physically.  If you don't you are in for a very rough time. I have to thank Dr. Sprunger and all the people at SBC, Scottsdale Hospital and my Wife and family for their support. Thank you and good luck to all.

Welcome to the loser's bench Mitch.  You are very right about people preparing themselves.  Some people think all they have to do is have the surgery and that will be the end of it.  Yes, you will lose a lot of weight the first 6-9 months, maybe even a year BUT if you have not changed your way of life and thinking, you are destined to fail because it's very easy to fall into the old habits especially if you don't dump on sugar.  It starts with a small bite of something and then escalates from there.

People MUST also attend support groups.  It is through the help and support of your peers that you can have your questions answered, help others through a difficult time and learn how others have made their WLS the most important thing in their new life.  I thank God every day that I was able to have this life saving surgery.  I also thank Him and all the people in my support group who give me the courage and kudos for keeping to the program.

 Congratulations on completing the big step!!  I know if you keep up with the program you will have success.  I had Dr. Sprunger and he was wonderful, the office was great and this is the best thing I've ever done for myself.  Keep up the good work!

Rebecca

Hi Mitch!

Congratulations! I had Dr. blackstone for my Realize Band placement. I'm very happy with SBC and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone.

When I was prepping for surgery, I was discovered to have a high white blood count which we have since discovered to be due to chronic myelogenous leukemia. Dang! It's treatable and I'll start that next week I think and see what that does to me...

I've lost about 50 pounds since my pre-surgical appointment in late November. It seemed pretty easy-maybe owing to the fact that weight loss is a symptom of leukemia, but I'll still take all the credit. I feel so much better. I'm in a size 22 from 28. I'm in another loss plateau, but it seems during these times I lose some inches so I don't complain.

I need to get serious about support group. I haven't been to one at SBC yet, only Ann's in Sun City where everyone else is RNY. It's so hard to think about driving to Scottsdale after a long day of work. We don't have internet anymore so theo nline one will be difficult to manage. And I should get to a leukemia one, once in a while, too. I've gotten sloppy with my eating and have gone back to sugar...not as much as before, but still any is too much. sigh.

Good luck on your journey!