Monique H.

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I just thought I'd type this out in case any of you were interested.

A 37-year-old female enrollee has requested bariatric revision surgery (duodenal switch) for treatment of her obesity.  Findings:  The physician reviewer found that the medical literature supports the opinion that the performance of a revisional procedure similar to the initial operation will fail in many instances, because the basic problem is metabolic and not mechanical. Rapid gastric emptying, as seen in this patient's case, leads to an enhanced insulin response resulting in either hypoglycemia or hyperglycemic episodes, and the most dramatic rises and falls have been associated with small pouches and wide anastomoses. Duodenal switch is a medically appropriate solution to the problem. If this procedure is not performed, the patient's comorbididites will likely worsen. Thus, bariatric revision surgery (duodenal switch) is medically indicated for this patient.
 

Oh and as of this morning I'm down 25 pounds in 1 month  YAY ME!!!

Or that's what it seems like. I've added protein shakes finally now that I found some that I can tolerate and I've gained back to 222.8 from 221. I know that is nothing at all and I should stay off the scale BUT I can't help it. I don't want this to be a repeat of prior surgeries. My distal revision I lost 22 pounds and then ut was torture to lose the other 12 before I started gaining. I don't know what is wrong with my body!!! Why is it betraying me like this? Well I just needed to write this down. I'm hoping I'll be able to look back on this post today and laugh at my crazy thoughts, but I'm really afraid that won't be the case. I guess all I can do is continue to do my best and hopefully things will go the way they should.

So I'm three weeks and a few days out from revision to DS and I'm starting to be afraid that once again the weight is going to stop. I'm down 22 pounds at three weeks, the same that I was when I had my revision to distal rny. I didn't lose much weight after that and I'm so afraid this is going to happen again. I lost a total of 36 pounds last time and if that happens again I'm basically out of chances to be healthy at a healthy weight. I know I'm probably worried for nothing, but all i can do is look at my past history with weight loss surgery. I'm going to try to think positive and keep going, but if you all could keep me in your prayers I would appreciate it.

Well at three weeks out I've been having a little problem with nausea. It hasn't been too bad, but I can't find anything to eat that I actually like. I've been drinking mostly protein drinks thanks to Milikan01 suggesting I add peanut butter and sugar free chocolate to it. I think it is the only thing that my stomach tolerates really well. That and cheese and crackers, but I don't want to eat that since the crackers are carbs. I also don't have any energy. I'm hoping that I will get to the point where I can eat and where I can actually feel like getting up and doing things. Well I hope I will continue to post updates but for now I'm going to go take a nap.

10/26/10

Well I'm sitting here on my sofa recovering from my revision to DS on 10/15/10. I don't want to jinx it but this has been such an easy recovery compared to my other surgeries. I'm really shocked. I'm still sitting here waiting for something to actually go wrong because I can't believe it

My surgery took over 11 hours I had lots of adhesions to the point that it took 4 hours just to separate everything. I woke up to tubes down my throat gagging me. I couldn't breath because the tubes kept getting blocked with mucus or whatever. I had to write on a pad to beg them to take it out because I couldn't breath. They finally did it and I was able to get air in. Some of my nurses were great and some were horrible. My surgeon made a comment to one of the nurses that I felt was rude and he didn't have the best bedside manner, but you know what, he did a wonderful job as far as I can tell.

At this point all I'm thinking about is going back to work hopefully Monday for at least half-time. There is no way in the world I would have felt this good after RNY. I'm not knocking the surgery. I'm only saying that it was a much harder time. I don't know if that has to do with the surgery itself or with the surgeon. I just know that I'm doing well.

Well I feel like I'm babbling so I will update when I have some stats for everyone.

I just wanted to say that only two days of me being back on track and I'm down two pounds. That is so encouraging to me. I know that if I just do what needs to be done everything will be okay. Everyone stay encouraged because I sure am.

Well it has been 6 months since my revision. What can I say except it has been a long, slow battle. I kind of got sidetracked this past month by someone I WAS seeing and was also out of town one week for a church event and then had a different church event in which every night of the week I was singing in the choir. I barely had time to go home and change after work not to mention trying to go to the gym. When away and after I came back I haven't been making the best food choices. Well I'm now back on track or at least I'm getting back. I was back in the gym and back to the way I eat starting yesterday. I'm even considering cutting the amount of food I eat in half for lunch and dinner. For lunch I have 2 deli slices of ham and 2 of turkey and I roll up cheese, avocado and hot peppers inside and heat. For dinner I eat something like 3-4 grilled chicken strips. I'm starting to wonder if that is too much. Anyway I'm going to see how the next week or two goes and if my weight loss doesn't get going I'm going to try cutting that in half and adding a protein shake or something. I had gotten down to the weight that my ticker says, but of course since I had to go see the surgeon last week my weight went back up 3 pounds . I refuse to change my ticker back though because I refuse to stay at this weight. With my original rny 6 months out is when I stopped losing. Deep down inside I'm so afraid that it is going to happen again, but deep down I refuse to let it happen again. Does that make sense? I know I've been playing the fool but now it is time to get back to business. I've decided to put men on the back burner until I get to where I want to be. Between work, church and the gym I really don't have time for the social life right now that I thought I wanted so badly. I even found myself stress eating dealing with my last friend and I had to put a stop to that really quick. I'm finished beating myself up for the choices I've been making lately and am now encouraging myself to get in there and do what I know how to do and that is work my tool.  I hope everyone else is having great success on your journey and please pray for me as I pray for you.

Well I went to the doctor again last week and had lost 15 more pounds since the last time. I'm glad I've gone past the 240 mark that he spoke about getting and keeping me under and I hope I keep going down. By his scale I'm now 228. I've accepted the fact that this is going to be a very slow process and that I need to stay encouraged. The thing is I haven't been as committed since I last wrote something on here. I've been skipping days when it comes to working out and I didn't think I would ever go there. At this point I'm trying to get myself back into my routine, but it has just been so hard. I'm always on the go and I know that exercising should be the most important thing in my life. I'm also skipping meals and not getting my water in like I should. I have another trip I'm taking at the end of the week and when I return on Monday I'm definitely getting back to business. I still haven't given up this fight and I never will. I'm going to start writing more about the things that I'm going through so when it is all said and done and I reach my goal I'll have something to look back on to remember where I've come from.

I figure I need to get this out and maybe I'll feel better. Since I don't feel comfortable posting this on any board I'm going to let it all out here.

Since I had my revision on 1/13/09 I've been very discouraged. The weight is coming off very slow and it is very depressing. To make matters worse I went to my surgeon and took copies of my food entries from fitday.com so they can see what I'm eating and make recommendations of things I can do to get the weight off. Well I showed it to them and the only thing they could recommend was using some type of egg substitute instead of real eggs. Everything else to them looked good. I take in 800 - 900 cal a day and exercise 90 mins a day 5 days a week and I'm still not losing the weight.

Then to make matters worse the surgeon all but said that he doesn't think I will lose too much more weight, but if we can get my weight under 240 and keep it there that he would consider me to be successful. I'm at 243 now, so all you really think I'll lose is another few pounds? I cried most of the way home and it was a two hour drive. I was very discouraged and depressed. I went home and had a frozen yogurt. Mind you I had no sugar added, but this was still a no no in my eyes. I didn't go work out a couple of days this week and just really felt like giving up all together. I just don't understand how people who are eating all the carbs and fruit and things are losing so much weight and I can't.
 
I really don't believe that I went through this surgery a second time and have only lost 28 pounds in 3 months and the first 22 were lost within the first few weeks. I've finally made up in my mind that I'm going to keep trying though. I went to the gym on Saturday and they were starting a body fit challenge which is like the biggest loser. I had thought about joining, but missed the deadline to join at the reduced rate and I wasn't going to pay another $50. I did go and speak to the fitness manager to find out if they were going to do the challenge again sometime. Somehow I ended up telling him my story about WLS and the doctor and he wants to work with me. I'm meeting with him tomorrow to discuss it and he is going to give me a couple of free personal training sessions to help get me going. All I can say is God is good and I'm going to have to learn to put my trust in Him fully and completely during this journey. When I was down and felt like throwing in the towel He has once again opened up another door to keep me going.

Everyone please pray that I'll get through this one way or another and prove myself and others wrong when it comes to my weight loss journey.