Say Hi to the EGD Doctor

The last Endoscopy I had was done with no medication, it was a horror and because of it I wasn't looking forward to this...AT ALL. But wait, the first thing the nurse did was insert a lock...Good sign that I will be given something. Not that I'm a chicken you understand, I just have a serious problem with someone shoving a tube down my throat and telling me to swallow while I'm gagging and trying to expel my insides. Dr. Bersitis and his staff were wonderful, I don't remember a thing..No seriously..the Doc talked to Rich, I remember waking up in my own bed and not knowing how I got there..What ever that stuff was that they gave me, I'd like a bottle :-)
Rich said the Doc took some biopsies, he saw something suspicious, but wasn't sure. Gee, something else to add to summer stress, how nice.
The letter arrived a few days later..Good news, stomach looks good, no H pylori, However....Arrrugh why is there always a "However"....The Biopsy showed Barretts Esophagus, a pre-cancerous situation that needs to be watched..The only up side to that is that I get more of the "happy" stuff. I have an appointment to see my surgeon. Will he still do the surgery?
Sometimes I feel like my life is one BIG question mark. Is this trip fun or what?

Meeting the Captain of the Ship

June 20th came fast. Bob Mc Cann is about the busiest man I have ever met, yet be pulled up a chair, asked questions, answered many of mine. He looked at my legs with deep concern. The adema that had stopped my knee replacement was back. He made a note of it. We discussed medications. He asked if I'd made up my mind. I'm pretty sure I will go for the Lap Band, this is a band thats put around the upper part of your stomach. It sort of looks like a Little Fairy inner tube. They fill it with saline to tighten it and form a pouch in the upper part of the stomach. The weight loss is slower, the surgery safer. A lot was covered in that half hour. I was told, although I would go forward with appointments, my name would not be considered until I had lost 16 pounds...Oy!! Isn't that why I'm here? I didn't think cheating was part of the plan or I would have done the Cabbage Soup diet and lost it in a week. I figured they wanted to see how good I was at dieting. It had to be a trick :-)
From Bobs office I was sent for blood work up, an EKG and chest xray...sheesh, they weren't fooling around.
Mean while Summer company has started coming and my quilting projects (swaps and stuff) have fallen by the wayside because of my hunger to learn as much as I can about this surgery. I have fallen back on WW and my core program...Hoping I could lose the weight in 8 weeks.....You still with me? Bless your heart.

The Journey begins....(part1)

I attended the orientation meeting May6,2008. At that time I learned, with a BMI of 48, I was considered morbidly obese. Wow that's a real hit to the old self esteem. My ideal weight is 130 pounds. Gee I didn't know they'd be telling jokes here. Health risk from obesity are:

Type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, High blood pressure,coronary artery disease, stroke, sleep apnea, back and joint problems,Gallbladder disease....and the list goes on. Okay I'm not smiling anymore, this is serious. Other related problems are depression, self esteem issues and increased surgical risk...BINGO!! I'm listening now.

I had gone there, after reading the packet, thinking I'd look into by-pass. They explained both surgeries and the risk involved with both. Then we got a chance to talk to people who had the surgeries. We got to hear the good and the bad. I dragged Rich with me and I noticed when one man talked about his by-pass and his 14 pints of blood, Rich paled a bit...I'm thinking I did too.

The meeting was more then a reality check for me...I left knowing I had a serious problem.

Rich and I discussed both surgeries and decided lap band may be a better way to go.

I went home and began doing research, waiting for my appointment with Bob ,a nurse practitioner in charge of setting everything up. My research convinced me even more that I was in need of WLS ( weight loss surgery). I was not just "overweight" by 20 or 30 pounds..heck I wasn't even considered obese, I had swung into morbid obesity 50 pounds ago. In all probability my weight would kill me before anything else (or some weight related disease).

Welcome to my Blog- This is something I have pondered doing since this new adventure in my life started. So many people seemed interested in my journey, but at the time it was a very personal matter. Something I wasn't sure I was ready to share and something I felt some would not understand. Perhaps I didn't want to deal with the questions because I didn't know the answers.

I did keep a diary because I thought one day I may want to make a quilt depicting my long and arduous journey.

As some of you know, the past few years have not been my best. Painful knee problems, became excruciating to the point where it was difficult to walk from room to room in my own home. Shots and scopes no longer worked. I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, which at least accounted for some of the horrible pain, a need for knee replacements made up for the rest. Surgery was called off at the 11th hour...No serious, I was on the table...but due to an infection in that leg the surgery was cancelled and I was sent home on anti-biotics...Which didn't work. That was Dec 10th 2007.

By February I had had enough of the three P's (poking, proding and pain)

I switched doctors (Orthopedic Surgeons) and what a difference. The first thing I was told that knee replacements in Obese (ouch! That hurt) people was much riskier. He went on to explain why, then given the fact that I also had diabetes and High blood pressure, the risk increased. He ask me if I had ever researched Bariatric surgery. My answer to that was yes, but it didn't sound like it was for me. I was also told about shots called Simvisc for my knee, but I had heard they didn't work. Turns out they don't always work, but the usual reason they don't, is because doctors don't tell patients to go home and stay off the leg for a day or so.I was willing to try anything at that point.

The shots were given once a week for 3 weeks. No they were not painful, just a great deal of pressure that felt very weird. They took almost a month to kick in, but when they did, I was a new woman.

Meanwhile, I once again contacted the bariatric group in Cooperstown just to see what it was all about.I was sent a packet and invited to an orientation meeting...A meeting that would begin a whole new chapter in my life. A meeting that would send me into unchartered waters without a map or compass. A meeting that would shed a whole new light on a very old problem and I would gain a new respect for the medical profession as a whole. (Never been fond of doctors)

Are you still with me?