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Surgeon: Dr. Pranchand, Chicago, IL
Surgery date: pre-op
Pre-op weight: 280
 

by Heather:

When I was 3 years old I was diagnosed with severe food allergies that resulted in ear infections. I was allergic to many foods, which were categorized into major and minor allergies. Examples of the Major allergies were: Sugar, Milk, Dairy, and Wheat. Examples of the Minor allergies were: Rice and Oats. The Major allergies were so severe that my parents had to check every food to see if it contained any substitute products such as whey, dextrose, glucose, etc. I was allowed to have one food from the major category once every two weeks and I would switch off weeks, i.e. sugar free ice cream one week, cake the next week at a wedding, a piece of bread the following week ect. The minor allergies I could have once a week, with the exception of rice cakes. A sample lunch would be rice cake sandwich with natural peanut butter and fruit preserves, hydrated fruit slices, sugar free hard candy. My parents had to be very careful what foods we had for dinner. I had to take under the tongue drops twice a day, large calcium pills daily, allergy shots. I also had to go for allergy testing twice a year. This continued until I was 11 years old when I was told that I had grown out of the allergies. The freedom of eating all the foods I had been deprived of as a child as well as puberty caused me to gain weight quite quickly.

Also, to add to the diet problems, I had inherited dislocative knees from my father. However, his problems started when he was 17 years old and he was able to have surgery on both knees to correct the problem. Mine started when I was 7 years old and over the next 10 years they would dislocate over 300 times. I had one knee surgery on my left knee when I was 8, but it didn’t really correct the problem. By the time I had gone off the restrictive diet, I was not able to exercise do to fear of my knees going out.

According to one doctor, I had literally no metabolism. Due to stress I was going through during junior high caused me to turn to food as a comfort and I started gaining to no avail. In high school I started trying different diets, including a very short-lived anorexia. I would take herbs that caused me to lose about 50 lbs and then they became expensive so I quit and gained back the weight plus more.

When I was 18, I had a double knee surgery that kept me in the hospital for 6 weeks. The first few weeks, I could not eat anything and after the first week, I had developed a bleeding ulcer from the medicine and no food. I could hardly keep anything down. By the time I had been released from the hospital I had lost a whopping 50 lbs, but I wasn’t eating that much. When I got my strength and I was able to eat again, I gained the 50 lbs plus some. It also took me nearly a year and two more surgeries to walk better.

Through college, I would go through up and down of eating right and realizing that was cheaper to buy canned foods, canned meats and nonperishable items. There were times that my work schedule was so crazy that I had to eat out. I joined a weight watchers group at one point and lost about 20 lbs, but of course gained it back. After I moved back to Chicago one doctor put me on a strict No Carb diet. I stayed on it for about 4 months, but after eating the same foods over and over and not losing that much, I had to quit. I also tried the counting the calories, but saw no results from it, mostly hassle. February of last year, I started on a nutritional supplement from my Chiropractor called Calorad. It really worked and I lost over 20 lbs. But my Ob/Gyn put me on birth control to help regulate my periods and it caused me to plateau my weight. I didn’t gain any, but I didn’t lose anything either. The Calorad was too expensive to do with not getting good results. I really haven’t gained back too much of the weight from that.

Early this year, I decided to look into surgery. It used to be Taboo for me. I thought I would never be able to afford it. Then another girl at work had the RNY procedure and the insurance covered it. I started looking into it and researching. As I was researching, I knew I would never be happy with it, but I was willing to settle. Then I came upon this website, and realized that there was another possibility. I immediately went to see Dr. Prachand at the University of Chicago Hospital and passed through everything with flying colors. My insurance had approved me and I was ready to go. Then my company decided to change carriers so I had to put everything to a halt. Now, I have been denied, but only because they didn't have records of a medically supervised diet, which I had just done last year. I am waiting for them to look over the new information and see if I will be denied or not.

My highest weight was 297, which freaked out at. I was so scared to get the 300 lb mark. I am flucuating in the 280's right now. I am hoping that this surgery will cure the PCOS and someday I can have children without any problems.

Love,
Heather

Pre-op DS University of Chicago
Dr. Prachand
Still awaiting insurance approval
280 lbs 5'6, some drs. say 5'5

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