There were many considerations that pushed us forward.
Probably the most influential factor was our genetic heritage. Nigel is the 5th generation of obesity in our family.
And he got hit with a double whammy in that obesity is on both sides of his family. Both Maternal and Paternal.
My great grandmother was from Germany...She was alive before TV and Fast Foods. She ran a farm and an orphanage at the same time. So you can imagine how physically active she was around the turn of the century.
Her son, My grandpa, became obese in his 40s, and then shorty there after became diabetic and had heart disease. He most likely became obese after he wa**** by a car and his leg was never the same.
His daughter, my mother, is obese. She is the oldest of 7 children. 6 out of the 7 children have diabetes now.
I was an obese child and adult. And I was in the early stages of diabetes and high blood pressure when I had my Duodenal Switch done.
Nigel began putting on weight by the age of 3 year old. And as the weight increased...his ability to be physically active decreased. Even though I tried to keep us all moving.
He had the same pediatrician since the age of 2 weeks old. We have worked on his weight many time over the years and nothing lasted or worked. It was his pediatrician who suggested we look into weight loss surgery for Nigel. He was 12 years old at the time.
So we began the process. Nigel has seen me live with WLS for 6 years now. He understands what is involved in making the surgery work...and how to make it not work.
Dr. Posselt o****F surgery (Who is a transplant specialist) is who did Nigel's surgery. He is trying to work with Dr. Lustig in getting a teen program at UCSF I believe. It is in the conception stage right now. Dr Posselt is OUTSTANDING!!!!!! I highly recommend him. Nigel has healed with no problems. His Lap scars will disapear soon. Dr. Posselt used the skin glue instead of stitches.
What I wanted was for Nigel to have the VG Sleeve done and no by-pass, but Dr. Posselt felt that the insurance would not approve that, so Nigel insisted that we go ahead with the RnY. I insisted that Dr. Posselt not take his gall bladder out, and to give Nigel the proximal by-pass so that he would have more absorption of nutrients, and no gas issues as I have since he is teen, and this is very important to him (And his future dating life!)
Dr. Posselt requested many of the standard pre-op testing, including an very thoural psych evaluation. over 5 hours with mostly Nigel and a couple hours with me.
But he also order a test to see if the bones of his knees had finished growing.
Now I would like to ask Dr. Posselt if he did the
Antecolic versus Retrocolic alimentary limb in laparoscopic Roux-en-Y, as I have just read about this.
http://www.asbs.org/html/pdf/soard_featured_article.pdf
And Nigel is doing so well. He is now down a full 100 pounds. But he lost 75 pounds prior to the surgery by taking Wellbutrin. From Jan 2007 to the surgery July 20th) he took the Wellbutrin.
We went shopping last weekend for school cloths, and we were able to buy him cloths at Walmart, since these are transition cloths. We had a blast! He as gone from as size 54 pants to size 44. He has gone from a size 5X shirts to 3X, and we bought some 2X for him to lose into to. We were able to get him three pairs of pants, 8 shirts, 2 jackets, and 2 packets of underwear for 200 dollars. The same amount would have cost us 600.00 at Casual Male. We ran around like kids just pulling cloths off the shelf. And Nigel was laughing as we waited in line. I hope you understand how special that it when you are an obese person. And he sang in the car ride home...THAT really told me how happy he was.
He is taking Protonix and Ursodiol for the next 6 months to avoid gallstones and ulcers. And he has been fallowing the Cornell University RnY post-op diet since he got out of surgery. (I stay with him the entire time in the hospital, and tried to make sure the nurses order the right foods. They NEVER got it right however. Every meal has sugar...ug. However, someone on the "team" ordered a bunch of these protein packs made by Novartis called, "Just for Kids". each pack is 355 calories, but Nigel never finished one. It has only 10 grams of protein (Not enough), and 39 grams of carbohydrates...too much. But I would pour it in a cup full of ice, and Nigel could sip it from with a straw. It was the perfect "first' foods. He had tha****er, and diet Snapple drinks and that was all he needed the first 72 hours.
He has not gotten sick, or dumped at all since the surgery. He did have one meal get a little "stuck" once, but I asked him if he had chewed it well...and he had not. Live and learn.
Please feel free to ask me any questions. And I am sorry the spell checker is not working...and I have dyslexia so forgive my mispellings.
