Mr. G
MY WEIGHT JOURNEY THE PAST 10 YEARS:
All during my child and early adulthood I had no weight issues, I was in excellent shape and maintained my weight well. This lasted until I ended my active duty tour in the U.S. Marine Corp. Between the ages of 23-26 I really lived the life of a batchelor pursuing my career goals (hair stylist at that time), kicking it to all of the happening events and eating on the go EVERYDAY. Needless to say working out was not a priority on my list. During this time in my life I really packed on the pounds, weighing between 215-275lbs. After getting married I was albe to stabalize my weight at about 275-300lbs until last year(9 years). I was able to maintain by going to the gym regularly and occasionally attempting a diet or two (I HATE THOSE DAMN THINIGS). During this time I became very confortable and had accepted that I was meant to be BIG & SEXY :). However, over the past year and a half I haven’t been attending the gym and my weight sky rocketed to approximately 315-330. At this weight I began to feel uncomfortable, my cloths didn’t fit right any more, I didn’t recover from injuries as quick, I was huffing and puffing a little more and not to mention the health issues became more evident. The straw that broke the camels back was when I tipped the scale at about 340. The health issue really became a primary focus at this point; I began experiencing poor circulation and swelling in my lower legs, my knees began to ache (I found out that was related to the poor circulation) and I was diagnose with having an enlarged heart. At this point I began to really do some soul searching, making surgery a viable option for me. So the research began……
MARCH-JULY 2006 THE ROAD TO SURGERY:
Around March of 2006 is when I figured I knew enough about the RNY procedure and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Reagan for a consultation. After consulting with Dr. Reagan he informed me of my insurance requirements. Which was 4 monthly appointments with Dr. Reagan, at least 1 consultation with a psychologist, an upper endostrophy, and physical therapy for my knees.
Between April and July I carried out those requirements and attempted to lose some weight during that time (no luck in that area). During that time everything was falling into place until June when I found out that I was getting promoted to Principal. The promotion was great, but I no longer had the flexibility to have the surgery late August. Once I completed all of the requirements for the insurance Dr. Reagan's office submitted my paper work and gave me a tenative date of August 22, 2006. With my new promotion I was required to return to work August 21st so that date was not an option for me. The problem was not getting another date, but I was unwilling to take off work to do the surgery. At that point I made up my mind that if they could not get me in ealier I was not going to do the surgery and just return to my weight watchers diet. Dr. Reagan's office was not excited to hear that and informed me that the only way they could move me up was if my insurance approved me by the end of July. They also stated that this was a long shot, since the insurance company normally took about three weeks to approve anyone. At that point I left it up to the Lord. If it was his will that I did this surgery he would make it happen.
As you all know God is good. The office submitted my paper work on a Friday and on Tuesday they approved me. Knowing my situation Dr. Reagan agreed to move my surgery date to August 9, 2006 (a Wednesday and he normally did his suregerys on Mondays). This gave me roughly 2 weeks before I had to start attending meetings and 4 weeks before my students return to school. Isn't God good.
PRE-OP JITTERS:
The weeks leading up to surgery I had tons of mixed feelings. Should I be doing this? Am I going to recover in enough time? What if something goes wrong? Am I taking the easy road? I learned that these were all normal feelings. One person told me that once I was on the other side I would forget all about those feelings and be happy I made the decision. I hope they are right. Ihave been calling everybody I know whose has had the procedure because I am so nervous. One thing I found to help me was to share my decision to do the surgery with my family and friends. This allowed me to gain more support and even when I had to answer tough questions from them it comforted me more.
Operation Day August 9, 2006:
Operation day was here I was so damn nervous. I'm sat at home before going to the hospital on the BAF message board getting that last bit of motivation. Looking at so many wonderful before and after pictures and reading the profiles of some, helped me to become at peace with my decision. Once I got the hospital I was no longer nervous and just ready to get on the other side. The only thing that made me feel sad was seeing the worry in the eyes of my wife and children. They made me want to cry. While getting prep for surgery I said a little prayer to my self and my grandmothers came and said another before they took me to O.R. To be quite honest I felt like the Lord had my back and that it was his will that I do this. I was so calm going to the O.R. and after talking to the Dr.'s for a bit it was lights out. (See ya on the other side).
Post Op (At the hospital):
Once I woke up in the recovery room the first question I asked was did they do anything yet? The nurse laughed and said "you have been out of surgery for almost 2 hours now." After they cleaned me up a little they took me back to my room where all of my family was waiting. Everyone asked me how I felt, besides being a little out of it from the sleep medication, I felt no pain at all. I know alot of that was due to the medicine. Even after the sleepiness wore off I only felt like I had real bad gas pain. But later that night I past gas REAL GOOD, it felt like the world was lifted off of my shoulders. ONce I realized that walking was the key to releasing the gas I wanted to walk all the time. At some point after they removed the cathiter, I went walking on my own just to get the GOOD RELEASE. Surprisingly after the gas pains went away I felt minimal pain in my stomach. To me it felt like I had been really burning my abs at the gym and was really sore. (but I have a high pain tolerance) For the remaining two days I walked as much as possible and sip, sip, sip, sip, sip sip and sipped again the whole entire time. When my sister came to get me she wanted me to get into the wheel chair to go to the car, but I felt better just walking (I knew that was the key to a speedy recovery.
