Wendy B
July 10, 2006
I finally hit the century mark on my 1st anniversary post-DS: June 14. What fitting present to me! I am now officially just below my goal weight. I could still lose a few more pounds and look good, but I don't care if that ever happens.
Current weight: 156
All time highest weight: 283
Surgery weight: 258
Everything is normal. Blood work looks normal. I no longer take BP meds. I can run, dance, garden, swim, play with my kids, walk the dog ... without pain or huffing and puffing for dear life. My husband thinks I am the hottest woman alive! lol
As someone wiser than me says: "gratitude is my attitude."
Now for the clincher ... wanna know what a post-op DSer can eat at one year out? Here's a sample of my eating day:
Breakfast:
Coffee and cream (10 per cent)
Toasted bagel smothered with peanut butter and a bit of jam
milk
Lunch:
BBQ sausage and fries
diet pop, fresh veggies (I usually never drink pop, but we were out for lunch and the beverage options were very limited)
Snack:
Trail mix (nuts, raisins, M&Ms), a couple of cookies
Dinner:
Chicken wings (lost count... maybe 8 or so?)
fresh veggies
milk
Snack:
popcorn
Protein is the name of the game post-op. I try to get in at least 20 grams per meal, which is why I drink so much milk. It's an easy way to get in 9 grams. I try to get in at least 80 gms of protein per day. When it comes to malabsorptive WLS, the more protein one can consume, the better!
March 18, 2006
I'm back at work for a three month contract, so my time online has been limited. But here's a quick update: I am now down 93 pounds ... 7 left till goal! I feel great, eating like a horse and am reallllly looking forward to summer. This will be the first summer in a long time where I will actually not be morbidly obese!
I plan to update my avatar after my 1 year anniversary. I've changed a lot since the last pic!
January 11, 2006
Happy New Year everyone!
Life is really getting back to normal for me. Some days I completely forget that I ever had this surgery. I'm down 82 pounds and am filled with a new, wonderful energy. 18 pounds left to go till I hit my goal! I hope to get there by my one year anniversary. I'm wearing a size 12 pant and medium to large tops.
I love exercising and am always looking for new things to try in that department ... getting outside has been difficult, thanks to the arrival of winter and the cold weather. I have bid on a pair of ski boots on eBay, so hopefully I'll be able to take my old x-country skis out again very soon!
Eating post-op continues to go well. I try to get in at least 20 grams of protein in with every meal. Plus I drink a lot of milk, so this helps too.
All my six-month lab work has come back looking great, so I think my body is responding to this surgery beautifully!
Tata for now ...
*************
October 17, 2005
Four months later! Sorry for the delay. I am loving this new lighter life. I am down 60 lbs and have officially broken the 200lb barrier. Only 40 more lbs till I reach my goal. Hard to believe, but I no longer qualify for surgery!
Post-op eating continues to improve. I can eat about half of what I ate prior to surgery (and that was a lot!) so I feel more than satisfied. In fact Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. I had a bit of everything, including dessert. I'm still not drinking alcohol and will probably wait until I have reached goal before I have my first drink.
I have to avoid sugar and other simple carbs to lose as much weight as possible, however I am still having nibbles of the stuff from time to time. Excess consumption of sugar and carbs will slow weight loss AND it gives me gas and diharrea. For example, hubby and I went out for our anniversary dinner and I had a Maple Macchiato from Starbucks. Big mistake. The drink, which was far more sugary than I realized, cause me to be up with diharrea three times through the night. Plus I had gas galore.
Anyways, avoiding mega sugars and simple carbs is not a big deal. I'm enjoying a wide variety of foods which make me feel great.
Here's an example of what I ate yesterday:
B: large coffee and cream
toasted cinn-raisin bagel with cream cheese
L: Homemade meatloaf
fresh carrots
milk
Snack: vanilla roasted peanuts, apple muffin
D: spicy chicken cutlet from M&Ms
salad, small piece of foccacia
milk
homemade rice pudding
Evening treat: a Kit Kat bar (taken with Pepto Bismol caps and Gas-X caps to ward off any digestive upset. I don't do this very often.)
With every meal I take several vitamins. The usual post-op DSer requires Calcium Citrate, Vitamins A & D (water soluable), a multivitamin, and any other vitamins as required by bloodwork lab test results. I take Biotin and Zinc for hair/skin health, and iron. I was anemic prior to WLS. The surgery has had not made my condition any worse.
**********
June 30, 2005
Well I'm finally back in the land of the almost living! So glad to be home and healing "where the heart is."
My surgery June 14th went well. I haven't had a chance to fully quiz my surgeon yet, but he did say that everything went according to plan. No surprises. I spent a few days pre-op getting supplies ready for my 10-day post-op stay -- seven of which would be in hotel. Many thanks to a friend of mine in Michigan (a fellow duodenal switch graduate) who helped me and supported me in so many ways during that time. She was a real angel.
Nothing prepared me for the extreme sense of vulnerability I felt the day following surgery. Having to explain what the Duodenal Switch operation was to my nurses was frustrating, especially when all I wanted to do was get moving and restart my gas-ridden bowels. (Lots of people, medical professional included, think there is only one kind of weight loss surgery -- the "gastric bypass." I did not have the gastric bypass operation. In the duodenal switch operation, the stomach is partially resected and discarded, but is NOT bypassed in any way. It still functions as normally as before and will "stretch out" in time. My intestines have been "switched" around as well, hence the name "Duodenal Switch".)
For the most part the nursing care at Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, MI, was great. There was only one nurse who left me to fend for myself for hours, despite my repeated calls for assistance. I forgave her eventually. lol
It just so happened that my hubby called while I was feeling blue ... and he decided at that moment to come down and spend the rest of the post-operative period with me. He called in a few favours at work, got some time off, and he miraculously arranged for eight days of childcare for our two small kids.
I fully intended to soldier through the immediate post-op period with limited on-site support ... but that intention was incredibly short-sighted. I may have endured that period without my hubby's care, but I certainly would not have been able to heal, rest and nourish myself effectively. He became my brain and emotional rock during that vulnerable time.
Part of the reason my hubby and I chose NOT to have him come with me was because we wanted our children cared for as effortlessly as possible. But the moment he realized that my need was greater than that of our kids, he flew like the wind to be by my side. Thank God.
Fast-forward to three days post-op. I was severely lacking sleep and felt trapped by a heavy, cordless EKG monitor pinned to my gown, three pendulous IVs strung through a neck-piercing central line, and two awkwardly painful drains. Thankfully the nasal gastric tube came out the day after surgery and the catheter came out late the second day after surgery.
By three days post-op I was one cranky Momma ... especially when the nurses kept forgetting to give me my blessed Toridol injection. The morphine pump did nothing for me, but the Toridol was amazing! I kept walking, walking, walking, and trying to pass the gas that felt like hot knives in my abdomen. But nothing would pass, except the odd burp. My insides were apparently still "sleeping."
My surgeon surprised me with a few tests to check for blockages: drinking nasty stuff, posing awkwardly for the x-ray tech, drinking more nasty blue stuff and getting a suppository! By the end of the third day I was ready to rip every piece of equipment off of me and run naked into the Michigan woods. (That would have been Oakland University campus, but hey, at least it wasn't the hospital!)
Well the tests came back perfect and doc told me I was free to go. Yahoo! My hubby arrived just in time to take me back to the hotel room that was equipped for the handicapped. There's nothing quite like the security of holding onto a sturdy metal bar when doing my business on the john or taking a shower. That night I slept the sleep of 100 sleeps ... deeply and uninterrupted.
The days passed quickly by as one solid night's sleep turned into another, and then another. Plus naps and more naps. I nibbled cheese, fruit and veg purees, yogurt, and protein supplements and drank lots and lots of water. We went out walking at least twice per day.
As my body slowly released all those fluids that had been pumped into me during my hospital stay, my shrinking abdomen began to protest the presence of those two huge drains. So much so that by the 8th day post-op I bawled to see my surgeon -- and he agreed that they had to come out ASAP. While Dr. Lutrzykowski was at it, he pulled my staples. Then he told us we could go home, back to Northern Ontario, Canada! I was a free woman at last!!
We took two days to come home, with an overnight stop at my folks' cottage. I can't tell you how sweet the bullfrogs sounded or how delicious the fresh air smelled.
So it's been four days since I've been home ... I am grateful to have passed this hurdle in my life and am looking forward to the journey to come. By the way, I have already tossed my high-blood-pressure meds!
Everything food-wise has been staying down, no vomiting. But any kind of dairy gives me big-time gas and, as we call them, "the squitters." Lactose intolerance is a common side-effect of this surgery and can resolve in time as my new "baby guts" mature. Today I had my first bite of chicken. Tomorrow I'll move on to fish and shrimp. Heavier meats like pork and beef will have to wait till I'm at least 6 weeks post-op.
*********
June 2, 2005
Twelve days and counting till surgery! And I finally got word of "official insurance approval." Now everything is kicking into high gear. So much to do and so little time. Not a good thing for a procrastinator like myself. I'll update this profile once I'm post-op. I plan to return home from Michigan on the 25th. Hopefully I'll update this profile by the time July rolls around.
**********
May 23, 2005
My surgery date has been bumped to June 14 ... still waiting for my official "approval" letter from OHIP, but I am expecting to be approved. I had a favourable conversation with Barb Holt from OHIP which gave me great hope! She said it's only a matter of time. Talk about waiting till the last minute!!
*********
April 4, 2005
Got a call from Julie at Dr. Lutzrykowski's office to tell me that I have been booked for surgery June 7. Still waiting on OHIP's yay or nay. My application went MIA (missing in action) for about a month, so the approval process has been slowed a bit. Sure would be nice to have surgery in June!
BTW, during my bone density scan they measured my height ... I'm a full inch shorter than I thought I was. So that ups my BMI a point. :-( Good thing for surgery!
Currently attempting to lose some weight prior to surgery, as per the docs request. Not doing to well on my own, so I'm trying Xenical. What an oily joy ... anyone who's taken this drug knows exactly what I mean!!
***********
March 8, 2005
Had a wonderful meeting with Dr. L last Friday. He and his staff are amazing folks -- really caring, professional and proficient. A couple of tests to go and then I hope to have a firm surgery date.
***********
Feb. 16, 2005
Happy new year one and all!
Lots of changes at my end. I'm having second thoughts about getting the RNY, so have booked an appt to see Dr. Lutrzykowski in Michigan, March 4. I am impressed with the DS, as is my family doctor, so I owe it to myself to look into it more thoroughly. Of course this means I have to reapply for insurance coverage. This shouldn't be a problem however, as I was approved for the RNY without trouble.
I've continued to get my pre-operative testing done, which will be necessary no matter what surgery I go with. Best of luck to everyone in their journeys.
***********
Dec. 28, 2004
Finished my consult with the surgeon yesterday. Found out I will have Dr. Poplawski! Hurray! He is a very sincere, kind and caring man. He is dedicated to my success and has asked me to be an equal partner is this experience. Now that is a partnership I can live with! I'm looking forward to the journey with him at my side. A few medical tests to go and then hopefully a surgery date will be in my hands!
**********
Dec. 18, 2004
I have been approved after 6 weeks of waiting. Praise God for OHIP and its willingness to help those of us in need! Will be going to Ypsilanti Mich. Dec. 27 for my consult.
**********
October 2004
It seems like Canada doesn't have much in the way of bariatric surgery. What is out there is booked solid! So I'm looking to the fair USA for help. I am hopeful for approval by OHIP!
Hospital Reviews
Surgeon Info:
Surgeon: Marek Lutrzykowski M.D.
Dr. L was not a flashy guy ... just down-to-earth and straight-forward about the surgery. He has specialized in the Duodenal Switch and is a big believer in this specific operation. I feel comfortable knowing he will be my surgeon. Looking forward to surgery day! FYI, I've learned that Dr. L has lost three patients in all his years of surgery. That means his death rate is about 0.5%, well below the average among surgeons performing the open DS.
Insurer Info:
OHIP
The key with OHIP is to be patient and persistent. Like any government agency it is slow-moving. Your family doctor needs to stay in contact with them ... calling or faxing them at least once a month. WLS is performed in Ontario, but the waiting lists are long. But if you want an RNY you can get it done by Drs. Klein & Hagen (Toronto) within a year's time. OHIP does not pay for the LapBand. If you want the Duodenal Switch, you'll have to go out of country as the only surgeon who does it in Ontario is not taking new patients.
