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Surgeon: Dr. Ranjan Sudan, Omaha, NE Most recent update: December 28, 2003
by Dawn: Well, where do I start? My name is Dawn Bernady and I will be 24 years old on December 18, 2000. I attend college full-time and I work a full-time job. I have never remembered a time in my life that I haven't been heavy or struggled with my weight. My entire family is overweight and it virtually seemed like there was no way for me to avoid it. All the women in my family are short, big in the belly, and big busted. I, of course, got it all. I’m 5’2” and my heaviest weight was 407lbs, which was the day of my surgery. There is so much I want to do in life and I really feel that my weight puts HUGE limitations on what I can and cannot do. I've thought about surgery several times in my life. I have even gone and talked to doctors about it only to walk away disappointed. I've never worried that my insurance wouldn't approve the procedure because I am that heavy and me being at the size I am is more of a risk to them then actually paying for the surgery. I want to get married and have a family. I want to be a wife and mother. At this point in life, I don't feel like that will ever happen. And even if I do get married and have children, at the size I am now, I won't be able to run, play, and keep up with them. I have a godchild now and after a day of watching him I feel like I'm going to keel over from exhaustion. I have never let my weight stop me from doing anything. I had a wonderful childhood and many friends. If someone didn’t like me, I would make them like me. I loved high school and it seemed like I was involved in everything. Of course, I didn’t have many boyfriends. The majority of my friends were boys, but the ones I was interested in always just wanted to be my “friend” or looked at me like a “sister.” I am such a romantic and not having someone made me just eat more. It’s amazing because you’d think it would make you do the opposite. The end of my freshman year, my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I had to grow up extremely fast that year. My grades took a major plunge and I was responsible for so much more. Food became my best friend and my worst enemy. Well when it came time for me to start looking into college my senior year, things had somewhat “mellowed out” and my grades were back to what they were before my mother’s diagnosis. I then had to face three more major blows; my parents couldn’t afford to help me with tuition and my grades from my freshman and sophomore year prevented me from any scholarships, and my mother decided that I could make it through college without any loans. Now I completely understood my parents not being able to help me out financially, but I was not legal at the time to sign for tuition loans myself, which meant I would have to pay out-of-pocket for the first two years or so. I ended up staying home and going to the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Don’t get me wrong, UNO is a good school, but I wanted out of Nebraska and away from my parents. I had to become an adult very quickly at a young age and I wanted to be a kid again, plus experience the “true” college life. Not getting to leave made my depression even worse and of course the eating didn’t get any better. Well since I was working full-time to pay for tuition since I didn’t have any loans, my grades suffered immensely. When I was finally able to apply for a loan myself, my grades prevented me from getting any loans. It’s crazy how it all works. I had planned on getting through college in 4 years and to date, I’m not anywhere near completing my degree. I would take 2 or 3 classes here and there, but would end up dropping them because I was too tired or it hurt too bad to sit that long in those stupid tiny little desks. I’m the first one in my family to go a university and everyone was so proud that I was actually “making” it. I hid the fact that I was dropping almost all the classes I started with. I felt like a HUGE failure and so I would turn to food. The scale, of course, would continue to rise. It seemed like if anything would happen, it would happen to me. A month or so after my 21st birthday, I started having problems with my kidneys (not related to my weight.) I would develop stones and frequent urinary tract infections. My grandmother (my dad’s mom) started having kidney problems when she was about my age. The last 10 to 12 years of her life she went to dialysis 3 to 4 times a week. Her kidneys are what ended up killing her. In March 1999, my doctor had me do an ultrasound on my kidneys just to make sure there were no stones he couldn’t see. It was then he found a small tumor on my left kidney. At the time he said that it was nothing to worry about and he’d check it again in 6 months. At the end of September 1999, I had another ultrasound. The doctor said he would call me if he saw anything wrong. I figured everything was clear because 6 weeks past and I hadn’t heard anything. The last week in November I get a call from my doctor. He said that the tumor has almost tripled in size and looked a little abnormal. He wanted to go in through my back and draw some fluid just to make sure everything was ok. On Friday, December 17, 1999, the day before my 23rd birthday, I went into the hospital for the outpatient procedure to draw the fluid from the tumor. On Tuesday, December 21, 1999, I got a call from my doctor’s nurse asking me to come in so he could go over the results with me. Needless to say I knew it wasn’t good news. The doctor said that when they tried to draw fluid from the tumor, there was no fluid, which meant it was solid. They ended up taking some tissue instead. The cells came back abnormal and he believed I had renal cell cancer (cancer of the kidneys). My doctor’s suggestion was to take the whole kidney. He also said that he could take the whole kidney and it possible might not be cancer. Now I know one can function with only one kidney, but considering my family history, I don’t want to risk him taking the whole thing and have it not be anything but an complex cyst. Anyway, I got a second opinion and it’s the good thing I did. Dr. Taylor said that he didn’t think it was cancer, but since the cells kept coming back abnormal the only way to know for sure was to take the tumor, not the whole kidney. On February 18, 2000 I had surgery to remove the tumor in my left kidney. The tumor, as Dr. Taylor predicted, ended up being non-malignant, which was a-ok by me. I didn’t go to school that semester and I was off work for about 7 weeks. And what do you think I mostly did those 7 weeks? You guessed it, ate. I don’t even think I know how much I gain during that whole fiasco…..30 or 40 lbs? I don’t know for sure. Well during that time period, I ran across an article of Carnie Wilson in People magazine. I had been kinda following her since her surgery, but that was the first time I had actually seen any follow-up. I went to ADoctorInYourHouse.com (now SpotLightHealth.com) which in turn lead me to ObesityHelp.com. This is when all my research on WLS began. I couldn’t stay away from it. I wanted to read and get my hands on to anything and everything, good and bad, I could regarding WLS. It was like it became an obsession. It was the answer to all my prayers!!!!!!!! I ended up talking to some people from Nebraska. I met a WONDERFUL lady named Dottie who introduced me to my surgeon, Dr. Ranjan Sudan. When I went to first go see Dr. Sudan, I went in with the idea that I wanted the roux-en-y with divided stomach. I didn’t even consider the DS because I didn’t think my insurance would cover it, so I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Plus I really didn’t do a lot of research on the DS procedure. Since the DS procedure is what Dr. Sudan specializes in, I knew he would try to talk me into it. Of course he did talk about and the more he talked about it, the more intrigued I got. He also said that the DS was even better for those a little more heavy side. Statistically, if I were to have the RNY, if I would just lose the weight statistics say (even though a lot of people have been known to lose more), my body mass index (BMI) would still be above 40 (morbidly obese). I guess my real worry of even considering the DS procedure was that we would send in for insurance approval and I get denied. Then we’d have to send in for the RNY approval, delaying my surgery even longer. Anyway, I figured what the hell; send in for the DS insurance approval and in the meantime, I’d research into it more. All I have to say is that I’m really glad I went with the DS procedure!!!!!!! The more research I did, the more and more I liked it. I had my biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch with Sudan in Omaha, Nebraska on September 22, 2000. As of December 4, 2000, I have lost 67lbs. My weight is officially at 340lbs. The last time I weighed under 350lbs was when I was in high school. I can finally weigh on the scale at home, which was a HUGE turning point for me!!!!!!!! Although, sometimes I wonder if it is really a good thing because I want to weigh everyday. Now don’t get me wrong, recovery has been very hard. The emotional factor is the worst. Even if the weightloss stopped today (and I hope to God it doesn’t), I would do it all over again. Update: 4/21/01: In December I started having problems with the little toe on my right foot. I went to my primary doctor and he thought maybe I had a stress fracture and took an x-ray. The x-ray came back normal, so he sent me to a podiatrist (foot doctor). I went and saw the podiatrist and he told me I had the problem of every today women. I have a wide front foot and a narrow heel. What I wanted to say to him is that I didn't come here for you to tell me I had Flintstone feet, because I'm well aware of that. Anyway, he told me to get the toe box in my shoes stretched and use theses little gels pads. Well I got my shoes stretched (like 3 times) and used the little pads. It helped, but not too much. I went back to my podiatrist because my foot was still killing me. I was thinking, if he tells me it's nothing again, I'm gonna tell him where to stick it. Good thing he didn't tell me it was nothing!!!!!! I went back and saw him and he took another x-ray. Come to find out I have what they call a hammer toe. It's hereditary and my grandma actually had one some 10 years back. (She also had surgery to correct it.) I've had it for a while, but it was not discovered until after surgery since I'm doing a lot more. What a hammer toe means is that my little toe does not lay straight, it's kinda turned in so that the knuckle is sticking out. That's what was rubbing and causing all the pain. So what the doc did was remove part of the knuckle that is sticking out and made it smooth again. It is suppose to take care of my problem. Now the problem is getting past all the mess and letting it heal. I know it will be worth it in the long run, but it's killing me now. I had it done 4 weeks ago today. I had been wearing this funky shoe, until this past week. He made me put a shoe on. Let me tell ya, it was feeling better, but now it hurts again. It's slowly but surely getting better. I know it's called patience and as you all know, that's something I don't have a lot of :o) What else can I tell ya...........Oh, I'm going to San Francisco in August!!!!!!!!! I'm TOTALLY excited!!!!!! I'm going with some friends for my friend Jodi's 24th birthday. I've never been to California, nor have I ever seen the ocean. My life just keeps getting better and better :o) I love to travel and go to different places, but I use to hate to go because I would never be able to do a lot of walking and was always tired. Plus we'll be going to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days as well. I'm also planning on going down to Florida to see my friend Lisa (who had surgery the same day as me and looks DAMN good!!!!!!) and going to Disney World!!!!!!! I'm a HUGE Mickey fan and Lisa told me as soon as I hit 250lbs, she was going to take me to see The Mouse!!!!!! Plus I've never been to Florida, so that will be exciting. I've always wanted to go, but I was too afraid I wouldn't be able to handle the heat and humidity. That hopefully will have changed. I'm anxious for summer. Life is good and it's only getting better. Well, I don't even know where to start!!!!! My life has done a 180!!!!!!!!! I'm down almost 200 pounds!!!!!! I‘m so close to the 200 pound mark it's killing me!!!!!!!!! I think when I hit it, I'm going to throw a HUGE party :o) Sorry it's taken me so long to get an update. Life is busy and I have really been without a computer because I FINALLY moved out of my parents' house. That was a HUGE accomplishment for me. I still had computer access at their house, but I never really had time to go over there. I finally was able to buy my own computer. My social life has really picked up and my new obsession is dancing!!!!! I go dancing every chance I get. I go for every Friday and Saturday nights until 4am!!!!!! It's funny because at first, I had a hard time keeping up. Now I can keep up with the best of them and sometimes better!!!!!! My friends are always like, "Dawn, let's go get some water." And I'm like, "Oh man, go ahead without me, this song is really good." Who would have ever thought :o) I've done so much that I don't even know where to begin. I've been doing as much traveling as I can. It's awesome to be able to go on a plane and not have to ask for a seat belt extender. Plus not to mention I fit comfortable in the seats. So far, I've traveled to San Francisco, Washington, DC, Seattle, and I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras!!!!!!!! That is something I have always wanted to do and never thought it was possible. Now I know you dirty people thinking I did the "unthinkable" for beads. Shame on you for thinking that ;o) Unfortunately I still have major self-image issues, so that didn't happen. Although I did have this gorgeous man give me light-up beads because he thought I was beautiful. I wanted to look him straight in the face and tell him he was crazy, but my best friend was nearby and heard the whole thing and smacked me up the head before it happened. (Thank you, Corey!!!!) Another crazy thing I did was apply at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas!!!!! The craziest of all was that I was accepted!!!!!! Finishing school is a HUGE goal of mine. I have to go somewhere else to finish my degree because I'm a double major in accounting and hotel management and they don't really have hotel management in the Midwest. I'm a little scared because I don't have anyone out in Las Vegas. Well I guess I shouldn't say anyone because there is a girl out there I use to work with here at in Omaha that now works out at the hotel in Las Vegas. She's a friend, but not someone I was super close to here. I know she won't let me sit at home or anything, so that's good. Now I’m just waiting to hear on financial aid. I have to get enough for tution and books or I don’t think I’ll be able to swing it. I really hate failing. I guess I shouldn't worry about it until it happens. I'll keep you posted. I am working at getting some new pictures posted. I’ve just been extremely busy with work and the holidays that I haven’t had much time. I promise I will try to get that done after the first of the year. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments.
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