Sumo
Hi my name is Jim. I am 37 yrs old and currently weigh 529lbs. I was a average weight as a kid growing up. During High School I started going out with friends and it was fast food most of the time, as much as twice a day.I worked as a car porter for a short time after school then got a job welding at a garbage company. As time went by I started filling in for drivers who fell behind with there routes and filled in for vacationing drivers as well. Then I moved into driving full time. This is where my weight began to increase steadily on the upward move. Most of my years driving were over the road (long haul). In this sort of job its hard to maintain a sort of regular life style. You eat at all different times of the day or night and dont get much sleep or excerise.Your body never gets adjusted to this. Its eat, sleep and drive everyday. When it comes to having down time you are either doing laundry or catching up on lost sleep for the week. As far as eating on the road for most of us drivers its something fast and easy. If your truck isn't moving you are not making money. Well enough about driving I could go on for days about the life of a driver and the losses we suffer from being away from our loved ones. All was going well as far as I knew but my weight kept increasing and increasing. When I was in High School I graduated in 1988 and was 230lbs and was able to do anything I chose to do. Now years later and 100's of pounds heavier I am 34 yrs old and about to suffer my first illness from my weight. Cellulitis. It's an infection in the soft tissue of the skin and in most case's very painful. It occurs in your legs and arms. Well mine is in my leg. Along with open oozing ulcers on my shin and the top of my foot. Wow what a change of pace going from working to in the hospital with not knowing the outcome of this. I am now 34 yrs old and my weight is 400-450 lbs. The infection got so bad I was within days of losing my leg. And that scared the hell out of me. So with following every bit of the doctors advice and 5 days in the hospital and 49 days of IV antibotics I was able to beat it. Since Feb, 04 I have been getting reoccuring cellulitus in both legs. While I was in the hospital I was also told I had obstructive sleep apnea with hypoxia which i had known about for a few years before but never knew how serious it was. My PCP had me set up on a BiPap machine with a oxygen Concentrator to help me with the apnea. My PCP had often told me about the gastric by-pass surgery and wanted me to look into it. After she had told me about it I agreed to look into it. I called OSF hospital in Peoria IL and got them to send me some information on it. I recieved it a few weeks later and looked it over and never looked at it again. Not a good thing to do at all. I am still gaining weight and cant work due to getting these infections all the time in my legs every 2 to 3 months now. Well by now I have another infection and its back to the hospital once again. My PCP talked about the by-pass surgery again and this time I promised her I would consider it. Well once again I lied to myself and said this is not for you. Things will get better. By now its mid Aug 05 and guess what, yup another infection and back in the hospital again weighing 601 lbs, the heaviest I have ever been in my life. God I was not only depressed cause I couldnt do things for myself or work I was as big as a house with an infection so bad in my leg I can't bend it at the knee at all. Well I came to my senses and told myself it was time to do this or I was going to die, bottom line. I got home from another 5 day hospital stay and I filled out the application for the gastric bypass surgery. It's mid October and the wait is on. I got a call from Mary at the OSF Riverplex for the Bod Pod. At this time I am 558lbs. Well to a big embarrassment, I couldn't fit in the machine. I needed another 2 inches. I thought "Damn what a loser". But I sucked it up and held my head up and told myself "give it time and you can sit in there and have room for someone else." After the Bod Pod, I needed to take the education class. Expecting everything to happen overnight, I called to make the appointment. I was ready for it that week. Well, the next class I could get into wasn't until December 19, 2005. I got mad and pissed off. I wanted things to work as fast as they could but I had to think, I wasn't the only person going through this. OSF in Peoria IL has a very in detail program on how and when things are done. Well, I make it through November with no problems getting all excited about finally going to Peoria, which is a 90 mile ride one way from my house. Things are going great until December 3rd. Another infection sets in. Six days in the hospital for this one but I am still excited that I am going to Peoria on the 19th of December for my education class. I get out of the hospital on December 9th. I had to spend my birthday in there but that's ok too. I made it to 36 years old and going to be able to make my appointment for the 19th. I weigh 529 now. All goes well at the class. They tell us you will get a call within a week to schedule your appointment with the surgeon. Here you can pick the surgeon you want. I chose Dr. James Debord from OSF Hospital. I chose him because of his experience in this type of surgery. He has 30+ years. Time is going fast now. I have an appointment January 3, 2006 to meet with the surgeon for the first time. I did some reading up from other people that have had him. Well January 3rd is here and its 6:00am. I am so scared and nervous that I want to cancel my appointment. But I chose to go. I kept telling myself if you don't like him you can change doctors. I get there and his nurse Melinda is great. She took all the fear out and set me up to see Dr. Debord. He comes in and shakes my hand and explains 2 WLS. One is the Roux-en-y and the other is the Duodenal Switch.He draws them out on paper for me and tells me he thinks the DS will be the best for the amount of weight that I need to lose. I agreed with him. He answered all my questions and looked me in the eye while doing it. He never painted a pretty picture or sugar-coated it for me. Don't know about anyone else, but I like that from a doctor when they are straight forward and tell you all the risks up front. He spent 40 to 50 minutes with me and right now I am ready for the surgery today. But there are some things that need to be done first. In the office he said he was sending a letter to my insurance that day. Well, it's January 8th and as of now I am waiting for the letter of approval and the appointment with the psych doctor. I will update this as time goes by, week by week, waiting for the good news. Until then, take care. Jim
