How did you first find out about bariatric surgery and what were your initial impressions of it?

I had a co-worker who had the gastric bypass about six years ago. He has been encouraging me ever since to get the surgery. The surgery is major and has some scary features to the recovery, but I know it would be well worth it. I've been researching the surgery seriously for the past five years. At first it was the money, then I got pregnant. Now, I'm actually trying to get my HMO to pay for the surgery. If I get denied after all my appeal letters I will still continue to look for a way to make the surgery happen. It's my only chance at living a normal, thin, life.

Describe your experience with getting insurance approval for surgery. What advice, if any, do you have for other people in this stage?

From what I've read, persistence is the name of the game. I have been on my primary physicians office to get things done as well as the insurance company for approval. Other people don't care as much about the process as we do, therefore we have to make them care about our paperwork and results. If I let everything just go through the normal channels it could take months for all the paperwork to get filed and to get an answer out of my insurance company. My goal is to stick to them like glue until they give me what I want.

What was your first visit with your surgeon like? How can people get the most out of this meeting?

He was nice. He tried to make us comfortable and took time to answer any questions we had. I was a little uncomfortable with the physical. I didn't expect that part of the consult. I just made sure that I asked him everything that I was worried about. Plus they give you lots of material to take home and read in case you didn't get everything he was saying in the consult.

What made you finally decide to have the surgery?

After having my second child and trying very hard not to gain any weight while pregnant, I realized I couldn't live this way. I now weigh 250 pounds and I can't lose weight. I went back to all my sure plan ways to drop 30 lbs here and there. They aren't working this time. I'm physically burdened by my weight. My quality of life is less and my children deserve a parent who has energy and the desire to get off the couch and play with them. I want more out of life than my obesity allows. I want to be thin more than anything right now. After I'm thin, then I'll worry about getting rich. Then my life will be complete!

How did you decide which proceedure to have?

My surgeon prefers the open procedure. He likes to have the opportunity to see the whole picture. Plus he said the Lap is six little one inch scars instead of one six inch scar. He also said that after you lose weight your scar shrinks up.

What fears did you have about having complications or even dying from from the surgery, and what would you tell other people having the same fears now?

I wasn't fearful of the surgery until I read about a woman on the WLS site. She fought with her insurance company repeatedly to get her surgery. After threatening legal action they approved her. She has four children ages 2 - 12. Last I read she was found day after surgery unresponsive and not breathing. They think a blood clot traveled to her lungs. This scared me. What if I'm fighting my insurance company and they keep denying me because it's not meant to be, and then I force the issue and end up leaving my four year old son, 10 month old daughter and my loving husband just to be thin. Makes you really think, doesn't it. But then the normal response of "Oh it won't happen to me!" kicks in. I'll do it anyway because I want to be thin more than I worry about dying from surgery. Chances are I'd die of being obese anyway.

How did your family and friends react to your decision? Would you have communicated anything differently if you could now? How supportive were they after your surgery?

My husband is so very supportive of my surgery! He keeps me going when others discourage me. My friends and co-workers are concerned for my health and don't want me to take any drastic measures. But truly all I have to do is explain to them how I've researched it so well, and how much I want it. They usually end up agreeing with me that it would be a great thing for me.

How did your employer/supervisor react to your decision? What did you tell him/her? How long were you out of work?

I told my boss about my decision almost a year ago. I told him I was planning to have the surgery this spring. At this time we are very busy at work and it will be hard to miss any time for recovery. I will have to do my best to get things wrapped up ahead of time and only be out of work for a minimal amount of time. I'm planning about 2 1/2 weeks off. I work at a desk on the computer so I should be okay. That's also another reason I wanted to lapriscopic surgery since the recovery time is 2-3 weeks versus 6 weeks for open RNY.

What was your stay in the hospital like? How long where you there? What things are most important to bring?

My hospital stay was good. I was in the hospital a total of 4 days counting my day of surgery. The most important thing I brought was my own pillow. It helps to be comfortable when you sleep and my pillow is shaped differently than the hospital ones. You also need a robe and some slippers for your daily walks. I never used books or magazines since I spent my spare time walking and visiting with the other Bariatric patients.

Did you have any complications from the surgery? If so, how did you deal with them?

My only complication from surgery was a nightly fever and headache that I got beginning the night after my surgery. Every day about 3pm - 4pm my fever would go up to 99+ degrees. The highest it ever got was 100.5. I would also get a splitting headache as the fever got higher. My doctor and the nurses said a low fever is common after a major surgery. The body could be reacting to the trauma or the foreign objects (stitches & staples) in my body. I still have the nightly fevers at 5 days post-op.

In the weeks after you got your surgery date, how did you feel? How did you cope with any anxiety you might have felt?

Every now and then I would get scared about leaving my children behind without their mother. I wrote a living trust & will and a letter to my husband. I left all the letters with a close friend in the event something happened to me during or after my surgery. I never felt panicked or deathly afraid. As the surgery got closer and my living will was in tact I got excited. At my pre-op clinic all of the bariatric patients and I who were scheduled for next day surgery were very happy and cracking jokes. I was even excited the day of my surgery.

Describe your first few weeks home from the hospital. What should people expect from this period?

It's really hard to lay down in your bed the first couple of nights home. I suggest putting one leg onto the bed at a time lower yourself down to your elbows and then gently drop from your elbows flat on your back. To get out of bed, let one leg drop off the bed then the other and prop yourself up to your elbow. Then lean forward and your up. Food is harder to resist once home from the hospital. Everyone around me was eating and it smelt so good. Here I was eating broths and liquids. Try to eat before everyone else so your already full when they eat the foods you are craving.

How far did you travel to have your surgery? (If far, how did this affect your aftercare?)

We traveled two hours to the hospital and doctors office. We had to stop 1/2 way home from the hospital so I could walk around for 10 minutes to help prevent blood clots. Being 2 hours away from the hospital was hard on my husband who spent 4 hours in the car everyday just to see me. It also is hard when you have so many post-op appointments in the very beginning. But it was worth it. Pacific Bariatric is a great group.

Please describe in detail what things you could and couldn't eat in the weeks and months following surgery. What foods have been off limits? Please explain how your dietary tolerance changed week-by-week, and then month-by-month since surgery.

I found that at 6 days post-op I could tolerate soft foods. Sugar-Free pudding, cream of potato broth only, sugar-free popsicles & fudgesicles, jello. At two weeks post op I could eat tuna, saltine crackers with peanut butter, chicken and some rice. At three weeks post-op I find that some breads are too filling and cause major discomfort. I can tolerate pasta, turkey, cheese, milk & some bread. Peanut butter on bread causes major discomfort too. I eat spaghetti, rice chex, spaghetti o's with a few meatballs, even a chicken chimichanga. No ground beef, veggies, or fruit. I drink decaf ice tea, water and crystal light. Sugar-Free & Fat-Free ice cream from Dreyer's made me dump. So does the Pro-complex drink. I figured out it's the whey protein that doesn't agree with me. I limit the amount of protein in my drink at a time and I can tolerate it better. Haven't tried the ice cream again..

What was your actvity level in the days and weeks after surgery?

3 weeks post-op I'm feeling good and think I can start exercising more. Planning on doing my aero-fit instead of walking since it's easier to exercise at night when the kids are in bed. Walking is good. I don't tire very easily anymore. I feel pretty normal now.

What vitamins and/or dietary supplements have you taken since your surgery?

I take 2 sugar-free children's bug's bunny chewable vitamins daily along with a prevacid capsule. Every Monday I take a sublingual B-12 under my tongue. At two months post-op I won't need the prevacid anymore and at 3 months post-op I can go back to my normal Centrum multivitamins. I always will take the B-12 once a week. We are also required to drink 8 ounces of Pro-Complex daily for the minimum protein requirements.

What side effects (nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbace, dumping, hair loss etc.) were worse for you? For how long after surgery did they persist? How did you cope with them?

So far the only side effects I've had is once dumping (Terrible) and several times discomfort so bad it feels like terrible heartburn. It hurts so much I tried to throw up. I don't know if I ate too much or the food didn't agree with me. I may not have chewed well enough either. I also had major hair loss. I lost probably a third of my hair and it never came back. I'm now lactose intolerant and have issues with hypoglycemia if I eat too much sugar. I take lactaid on a daily basis with all dairy foods including eggs and butter. I eat sugar but usually in small amounts. Once in awhile I'll over due it and then I'm sick for about a 1/2 hour with sick stomach, yawning and about a hour later I get clamy, the shakes and my heart races (hypoglycemic). I either eat a little sugar or some carbs and I will feel better in about 15 minutes.

What was the worst part about the entire bariatric surgery process?

The recovery was the worst part. Nobody really tells you in detail how bad you feel after the surgery. They basically skip from being approved to getting a date. Then they talk about being on the other side and how much weight your losing. You occassionally hear about what they can eat but nobody really talks about it. I think that once it's over you start to forget how hard the first few days and weeks are for recovery. I'm 3 weeks post-op and I'm already forgetting what I went through in the hospital. It's kind of like the having a baby deal. Once you forget how bad birth is you decide you'd like another baby.

What aftercare support group/program do you have? How helpful/important is this?

I have WLS and I also have a support group provided through Pacific Bariatric Group. I made some great bariatric friends in the hospital and we will keep in touch as well. One of the other girls who had surgery the same day as me with my surgeon and I became really good friends. We look forward to going to the support groups and pre-op appointments together. We also keep in touch through WLS.

What is your scar like? Is this what you expected?

It's a little longer than I thought it would be. I have really ugly bruising above the incision. My surgeon says my scar will shrink as my belly does. I hope so. It's getting a little wider looking as it heals. It's really red but that will fade with time. No stitch marks at least since Dr. Rumsey did a hollywood stitch on the inside with disolvable stitches. We had steri-strips to hold the incision together. My scar actually did shrink up with my belly and it turned almost a pale white color. I had a tummy tuck in 2007 and now my scar is almost completely gone.

Please describe any plateau experiences you have had since surgery.

At two weeks post-op I stopped losing weight. I'm now 3 weeks post-op and I haven't lost any weight in a week. I eventually began losing weight again and got down a total of 112 lbs. I got pregnant 9 months after my surgery and lost the baby at 5 months, so we tried again and I got pregnant a second time. I gained 35 pounds during the pregnancy and it's taken me 5 years to lose the 35 pounds.

Do you notice people treating you any differently now?

Some people get concerned that I'm eating enough and getting all my protein. My best friends are very supportive and try to help out by carrying my 1 year old daughter whenever we're together. Mostly they are all supportive and most don't mention it very often. They just ask how I'm feeling and how's my weight loss for the week.