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Surgeon: Dr. Dennis Smith, Marietta, GA
Surgery date: December 28, 2000
Pre-op weight/BMI: 273/44.5
Current weight/BMI: 189 (as of November 9, 2001)
Personal Home Page: http://alyssabeenswitched.homestead.com/ALYSSA1.html

Left: Pre-op 273lb.; Right: 10 months post-op (189lb.)

by Alyssa:

I turned 31 in November, and a week prior I made the most important decision of my life. I decided to have lap BPD/DS. I was very fortunate because everything fell into place for me. I contacted Dr. Dennis Smith in Marietta, Georgia, at the end of October, and was approved, without difficulty, by BCBS. I had my surgery on December 28, 2000. That was 11 weeks ago. My pre-surgery weight was 273 lbs. and today I weigh 223 lbs. My asthma is getting much better, my diabetes is gone, my cholesterol and blood pressure are perfect.

My surgery was uneventful, and I slept almost the entire time I was hospitalized. My surgery was on a Thursday, and I was released from the hospital Sunday morning. My only difficulty in the hospital was that my foot had been hurt during surgery and I couldn't put any weight on it. The only other problem was that I couldn't get my right hand to work for a week and it took a month or so for it to work normally and stop tingling. Also, the tip of my tongue was numb. These were just minor frustrations.

My recovery has gone very well, except for the first 8 weeks I had a very difficult time with vomiting. This resulted in low protein levels and an elevated PTH, these are concerns and I will be checked again next week. For the last 3 weeks my appetite has been great!!!!!!!!

HISTORY
Growing up, I never had a weight problem -- but if someone tried telling me that, I wouldn't have believed them. I was always obsessed with my weight. I can remember, staying home sick with the flu, when I was six, and just staring at my calves in hopes that they would shrink because the flu kept me from eating. I can remember being in third grade and fantasizing that I would invent a machine that would suck fat off of kids. I figured it would be located in the girl's bathroom and it would hang on the wall, like the hand dryer, with a tube attached that one could place over chubby spots. This was so silly because I had absolutely no weight problem.

I was adopted, and didn't know any family history until a few years ago. Now, I know that my biological mother is chubby, but not obese and noone else in her family is obese. I know nothing about my bilogical father's side. All I know is that so far it doesn't look likely that genetics is responsible for my obesity. When I was in eighth grade, I was 5'' 5" and weighed 115 lbs. I was horrified so I found my mom's diet pills and started taking them and not eating and within a month I weighed less than 100 lbs. I looked and felt awful, but I was thrilled. I started buying diet pills when I was a freshman in highschool and the speed in them made me crazy and I had a breakdown. My parents found the pills and got me help.

When I graduated highschool, I was 5' 5.5" tall and weighed 135 lbs. I had broken my foot twice that year and spent the entire year on crutches and that is when my health problems began. I spent that summer as a People To People Student Ambassador to Russia, Scotland, Finland, Denmark, England and Sweden. While traveling to these countries I became very ill with migraines and Fibromyalgia. When I returned to the US, I was quite ill and was still wearing a walking cast and I began my freshman year in college on a speech scholarship at the University with the best speech team in the country. The pressure, pain and foot surgery overwhelmed everything and I had my first weight gain. I got up to 200 lbs. I went on a physician supervised liquid diet and lost all the weight.

The summer after my freshman year my headache specialist had me travel to Chicago to be hospitalized for a second time for heavy duty migraine treatment. While there I met a fellow patient, who had cluster headaches, and I fell for him and left home and moved to Chicago. When I married him, at age 20, I weighed 102 lbs. He abused me for our entire joke of a marriage. Half way through the marriage I went on Prednisone for pain, and I ballooned up to 200lbs. and then the abuse became horrifying. He punished me for being fat. He raped me, broke down doors, threw a 12-inch knife at me, broke a table on my knees, kicked me in the head with his cowboy boots... I wasn't strong enough to leave at that point, so I got off the Prednisone and lost most of the weight. It wasn't hard to lose the weight because, although, he was living off my money, he controlled it and wouldn't allow me money for food.

When I was 26, I left him -- got the Hell out of Chicago, divorced him, obtained a Protection Order and went into hiding. Once free of his control, I felt vulnerable to all other men, and I started to overeat in a deliberate attempt to hide all evidence of my sexuality. By the time I made the decision to stop overeating it was beyond my control and I ended up weighing 273 lbs.

Having surgery was the most wonderful gift I could have ever given myself. I have never had one second where I had second thoughts or regrets. I quit living disfunctionally. I quit a two-pack-a-day habit and now with the help of a great surgeon, my family and friends I am quitting being fat, and for all that I am proud!

Best wishes and love to all who have, are planning to have, or are considering having this surgery. May all your dreams come true.

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