Tim Conway
Surgery approved by nc State teachers(BCBS) etc...Wanted Dr. Champion in Atlanta to do lap surgery. However, he needs almost $4,000.00 of "up front money" prior to doing the surgery. Too steep for me right now. Looking for a "cost wise" surgeon that will still consider lap r-ny.
12/15/2000 Called Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez's office in Winston Salem NC, to schedule an appointment with him to schedule surgery. I'm going in this coming Friday and we will schedule a date then. They said we could do it right after the Holidays! They don't have a long wait at all for surgery times! He is a "cost wise" participant and will do the surgery for insurance only and of course the usual co pays and other small fees. I'm getting excited! I went to Dr. Gonzalez a few months ago for my first appointment with a surgeon, however he says he can't do Lap r-ny on me and can only do "Open" surgery...guess I have to go this route. Rats ! I really wanted it done Laproscopically, don't look forward to 4-6 weeks of "down time" !
12/23/2000
Had my visit with Dr. Gonzales. Everything went smoothly and after his office confirms my Pre-approval they will schedule my surgery date. Assured me that it should be second week of January! Will have to wait til after the Holidays to be certain of a firm date though. Heck of a Christmas present huh??
1/15/2001
I've got my surgery date now and I'm ready and raring to go!
I will get my blood work and things done this Wednesday and will have surgery Thursday, January 18th !! I'm a little bit worried , after all it IS major surgery. I even re-did my "Will" just in case! I guess it's something you BETTER think about. Up to this time I have never had any surgery at all and have never been admitted to the hospital. However, everytime I start to get cold feet about the surgery, I just think about how good I'm going to feel AND look when this is finally done and I start losing weight!
I got some old HS yearbooks out and saw myself at 185 lbs when I was playing Tennis and Wrestling...wow...maybe I can look that good again! Since then I've MORE than doubled my weight!
Since my last entry, a local support group has been formed. It's nice to be able to talk to folks that have had the same surgery with the same Doctor. They are located at eGroups .com
I imagine that there are more groups like this on-line all around the country. Keep your fingers crossed for me !! :-)
1/25/2001
I'm baaaaaaaack !!! Damn, don't know how either! I had a "succesfull" open r-ny done on last Thursday. I am one week post op and back at home for 3 days now. It was the most painful, HORRIFYING event that I , personally, have been through.
What should have a simple surgery managed to screw up all the way through. The surgery itself went well and seems to be progressing well. Mitigating circumstances raised hell however.
I have serious asthma, allergy and sleep apnea problems. THESE are what caused the problems for me. During the "intubation" part of surgery, they had to wake me up and while strapped down still, seemingly crack/force the nose tubes through. I still have nose bleeding from that event. It was like something from the Twilight Zone. Me yelling, while NOT being able to breath. Everyone (surgery staff) seeming to be in a high panic state. VERY scary gang!
Then, after surgery, having a major league asthma attack while recovering. In addition, they were experimenting with a new type of bed called a 'Big Boy" for larger patients. It sucked. The staff didn't know how to use it properly and actually dropped me once while trying to get me out of it !!!
What a colossal comedy of errors...oops....I'm NOT laughing!
Most of my nurses were excellent and met my every need. My doctor even discharged me a day ot two earlier than he initially thought he would.
At this point in my recovery and looking back on what happened. I DON'T KNOW IF I WOULD DO IT AGAIN! One point I would seriously stress is to arrange for someone to be with you the "entire time".The nurses cannot be there to meet all your needs every minute. If you have any additional problems like I did (picture the worst flu you ever had while recovering) you will need someone there almost every minute. We are not "the every day patient", we are larger and less able to help ourselves!
2/6/2001
I'm about 3 weeks post-op and recovery is going slowly folks!
I am having a lot of trouble getting enough food and water daily. I just DON'T WANT IT ! Can you ever imagine me saying THAT before..chuckle! I still doubt I would have gone through all this if I had known what it REALLY was gonna be like for me! I keep hoping to see faster improvement, maybe I'm just too impatient. My stomach(or what's left of it) feels constantly agitated and disagreeable. Haven't been near a scale large enough to get a weight , so I can't tell you how much weight i've lost. I can tell that I have lost a considerable amount though. Everything is smaller (well..blush...not EVERYTHING) :-)
2/14/2001
Hi everyone. Great news. I weighed in for the first time since surgery and I have lost 50 pounds in just under a month !!!! That takes the "sting" out of the tough time I have had. My stomach is still always queasy and the doctor has put me back on a liquid diet for awhile just as I was about to go on solid foods! Rats!!!!! He thinks I have some swelling or irritation in my system and that I need a few days of no stress to help get rid of it. Back to Jello and juice. I AM SOOOO SICK OF LIQUID DIET !! However, I look damn good in my old black jeans that now fit!! :-)
2/17/2001
Surprise...surprise...I was re-admitted to the hospital a couple of nights back. The doctor couldn't explain my constant nausea so he admitted me. I underwent many x-rays (Barium..yuck) and I guess to my surprise NOTHING was found! The doc said to go home and slowly begin to start eating solid foods. I am taking Phenergen for nausea, maybe that will help.
3/11/2001
Things are getting better. I went back to work last Monday and completed the whole week w/o a hitch, other than being very tired . I am now eating solid foods and for the most part they are staying down. Solid foods HAVE made a difference. I have NO strength in my arms and no staying power but I am sure that it will improve slowly! I have (theres no nice way to say this) vomited quite a few times after eating too quickly or too big a piece. Obviously after 45 years of eating badly, now I must re-learn how to eat! Trust me...your new system WILL educate you!!!!!
4/1/2001
This NO April fool ! I am feeling sooo much better! I have been back to work for 4 weeks no and am 10 weeks post -op and can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel . I have now lost 65 lbs and for the first time in years, I can use a regular scale to get weighed on! I weighed in at 337 the other day at the doc's office! At one time a FORMER doctor suggested to me that I could weigh in at a local salvage yard!!!! I am on the last notch in my belt and my uniform literally sags on me! Some throwing up and pretty steady diarreah, but other than that life is good!
5/17/01
It's been awhile since I last posted. A lot has gone on. Yesterday I had to leave work and ended up in the hospital with kidney stones! Apparently you can't directly link this to the surgery, however folks on high protein diets and folks with low fibre and low water intake are susceptible to stones. According to the internet, kidney stones are the single most painful experience you can have medically speaking. I won't argue with 'em !!!!! God, that was painful. I have to stay home for 2 days and rest but have no pain at the moment.
Always looking for the silver lining...while at the doctors office I weighed in (I only weigh monthly). Drum roll please......96 lbs gone forever!!!!! By next week or so I will be under the 300lb for the first time in who knows how long..probably 20+ years! What a wonderful feeling!
My recovery has been going extremely well lately. I have learned to eat and drink in a way that I can tolerate. It's still an ongoing process but I feel great! I have constant diarrhea but I am fighting that problem with higher fibre and small doses of Immodium. For the first time I think I would probably do this all again if I had the choice. For weeks/months I thought I had made a big mistake! Life is better for me though, no doubt.
This brand of surgery requires a lot out of the patient. You have to plan and really think about what you are eating. No more grab and go food. The quality of what I eat has improved so much it's ridiculous. Fruit and veggies are like candy and burgers used to be. I don't even WANT burgers anymore and they were my main source of food! What an amzing lifestyle change this has forced upon me. I WOULD NOT/COULD NOT have lost this weight w/o the surgery. Bottom line !!!!!
10/18/2001
I've been a bad boy in not posting here more often. It's been 9 months to the day since my surgery and I have lost almost 150 lbs !! Can ya believe it ? Pretty soon i'll be posting some before / after pictures. I have had very few if any problems recently. Nothing major since the kidney stones. A very ocassional vomiting episode (my fault ) and I still have severe diarreah but have learned how to control it and live with it ! Gas IS a problem...whew....can I empty out a room in a short time or what!! I'm looking good and feeling good ! This has been a God send to me. I have concerns now that Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez (my surgeon in Winston Salem) is getting shafted by Forsyth Hospital and the Insurance companies and that they may stop allowing/funding WLS. They don't know who they are messing with ! The sight of thousands of angry fat people marching on the hospital should terrify the damn beuracrats !!! I'll try to be good and post more often...
8/06/2002
This will probably be my last update unless I ever get around to posting pictures. It's been more than a year and a half since my surgery. I have lost around 160 lbs or so (depends on the day). I now weigh around 240 lbs. I am very, very pleased with the results of the surgery. I can now eat anything, anytime with no problems. Of course my portions are quite a bit smaller than prior to surgery but most folks seem to think I eat plenty. My weight loss has pretty well stopped or at least slowed to a crawl. I don't excercise at all and imagine that I could help myself some more if I did.
Sometimes I feel like a sharpei (one of those wrinkley dogs) when I look in the mirror. I can live with a few wrinkles though. It's wonderful buying clothes off the rack at stores. My whole lifestyle has changed for the better. YES..I would do it again and I WOULD recommend it to others.
I got married in January to a lovely lady who had been by my side through the whole WLS experience. She also has had WLS since then ( a DS open).Together, we weigh less than I did prior to surgery!! I bought a new motorcycle too! Everything is changing for the better!
I still have problems getting in enough liquid. Dehydration is a constant worry for me. I also tend to feel weaker than before surgery, perhaps it's just the lack of excercise? Other than that it's "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead" into my new life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tiny Tim
May 22nd, 2012 Richmond , KY
It's been a looooong time since I've posted on or used Obesityhelp.com. It might have helped to have checked in here more often! WLS is often seen as a "Magic Bullet" for its owners! My WLS did most of the work for me and kept my weight down for years despite my lack of concern or effort in watching my weight. I have managed to put back on at least 40 lbs over the past few years....bit by bit! I have enrolled in Nutrition and weight loss programs at the VA Hospital to no use. I already KNOW what to do...the problem is doing it. We have all heard that they performed the surgery on our stomachs NOT or brains. Apparently I didn't catch on as I should have! I am now looking into several REVISION type programs such as Lap Over ( don't like it!) and something called the The ROSE PROCEDURE> This sounds like a winner. The VA claims there is NOTHING they can do (they only do lap band anyway) so my search will look elsewhere. I have great insurance that I know has paid for other folks WLS...we'll see!! My WLS still restricts the amount I eat to some extent but my choices are terrible. When I had the surgery sooo many years ago...psychological factors were not taught nor considered. Nutritional aspects were very vague. I need a complete mental/emotional/physical "Do Over" to get this under control! I'll keep you informed!!!
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Surgeon Info:
Surgeon: Eduardo Gonzales, M.D., P.A.
****Some recent developments must be considered by any patient considering using Doctor Gonzales as a surgeon*****..Doc G had stopped doing any surgeries for a 3-4 month period (Early months of 2003) with very little explaination to his patients...his office staff will only say that it is due to "medical reasons"...with little information from his office...rampant rumor and conjecture has led to quite a bit of speculation and even some investigations into why he stopped seeing patients so suddenly. Reports of loss of insurance and loss of surgical privileges at Forsyth hospital have surfaced, perhaps with little validity, but they do exist! Until Doc G. clears this up there will be a lot of uncertainty about what really happened. He has started back with surgeries the first week of May******(the following are my original comments).... I have finally chosen Dr. Eduardo Gonzales from Winston Salem, NC as my surgeon. Dr. G. was the second Doctor I researched/contacted. I initially was interested in Dr. Rutledge in Durham but was put off by his brusque manner and willingness to only operate on "easy" patients. On my first visit to Dr. Gonzales he immediately burst my bubble about having R-NY done laproscopically after initially saying over the phone that he felt he COULD do one on me! I left his office feeling a little lied to and definetly disappointed. I then considered and researched Dr. Champion in Atlanta. He still maintains that he CAN and HAS done lap surgery on men weighing as much as 500 lbs ! His office seems VERY professional and would have been my choice, however, he wanted $4000 "upfront" money to cover HIS costs that he was afraid my insurance wouldn't cover (usual,customary etc). Sorry Doc, I just work for the State of NC, I don't OWN it !! I then sat down and did a very concise list of what the pro's and con's were of each surgeon were. Dr. Gonzales came out on top for the following reasons. 1) I live near Winston Salem, making all follow up visits easier and making the actual hospital stay easier for my family! 2) He didn't BS or sugar coat anything. He explained everything to me and never rushed me. 3) Although he his reletively inexperienced in WLS compared to some of the "studs" on this board...THAT actually allows me to get the surgery done sooner. He has only about a 2 week wait as opposed to some of these guys that you have to wait a year for! 4) I researched his professional and legal status and came up with nothing even smelling like a problem. He has no legal judgements against him and has a solid reputation. (You might be shocked if you check out the lawsuits against some of these guys..public records folks!). 5) Heck, I just liked him!! He's a young guy (40's) with a good attitude. Gotta have that rapport with your Doctor. he said that after the surgery we would be "bound together" for life. He takes follow up seriously. That's about it folks....hoped it helps someone ! Tim
Insurer Info:
NC state Employees/Teachers