Duodenal Switch Information Zone

Previous patient
Next patient

Surgeons: Prof. Dr. R. Weiner and Team (Dr. Winterberg, Dr. Stubbig,
Dr. Pomhoff), Clinic Sachsenhausen/ Frankfurt a.M. - Germany
Surgery Date:04/18/02
Pre-op weight/ BMI: 363.8/BMI 51
Current weight/BMI: 216.1/BMI 30.2 (as of February 11, 2003)

 
Left and Center: Pre-op; Right: Post-op

by Helge:

My BPD and I

My name is Helge Conrad and I already was a “Big fella” when I was born in Hamburg 37 years ago.

I never had the weight I was supposed to have. Unfortunately any kind of achievement were always rewarded with food. As a child I never actually had a problem with my weight and was always lucky not to be teased or be cast out.

Basically I didn’t care about my weight as a teenager until I started my job-training to become a hairstylist. My boss cared a lot about good looks and a “Fat guy” didn’t really fit in her world.

So I started to starve myself from one diet to the next. With a fairly good success. But the YoYo-effect was right around the corner and soon the weight, I had lost and MORE, was back.

Then, I heard, that one can get a LAP-Band in the USA and loose weight with it.

“Great idea”, I thought, but America is far away and I am here in Germany. It was my dream to scratch together enough money to travel to the states and have this OP done myself. You can imagine how that turned out. I HAVE been visiting the states but only for vacation. So I kept living my “fat” life. Sometimes I was rather unhappy, but still I could convince myself that I was content.

But in November 2001 I realized I was lying to myself and wanted to change something. Surfing the internet, looking for info’s about us “Obese” and if the LAP-Band-surgery was finally available in Germany, I stumbled over a homepage with a forum where people discussed about the band.

There were tipps and tricks but the most important thing was, I realized I was not alone with my problem. I met people that shied looking in the mirror and shop windows when passing one. Most of them already had their band and many of those were already down to their normal weight.

I have never known what is it like to be normal-weight. “How does that feel?” I wondered. Like a sponge, I absorbed every bit of information and grew more and more convinced to try this procedure.

I was fat, not just big or overweight, and over the years I became fatter and fatter until I finally reached the 363.8 pound-mark.

My pullovers looked like one-man-tents and it was impossible for me to wear off-the-rack pants, so I had them handmade by a taylor. But they never lasted very long, for the fabric was worn through on the inside of my things pretty fast. My shoes “lived” a little longer, but were ready for the trashcan after 6 weeks the most, so I started buying safety-shoes because they were strengthened with metal inlays and would be the only one’s to support my weight.

Something had to be done!!!

Finally, with the help of the internet, I found the address of a surgeon who did the surgery laparoscopically here in Germany. I just didn’t like the thought of a big, ugly scar on my belly thus being unable to go bare-chested. Even if I had not been to a swimming-pool in years I planned to do so in the future.

So I mailed this doctor, who worked in Frankfurt, and asked him, if there was any other doctor in my area. Unfortunately there was no surgeon in Hamburg who could could do the LAP-Band.

My decision was made, I had to meet the doctor in Frankfurt and made an appointment.

I drove to Frankfurt and met Prof. Dr. R. Weiner and because I had seen him in a TV-report a couple of weeks before recognised him right away. I felt, I was in the right place there. He didn’t ask me for my whole story (the diets, the sport I wasn’t able to do, the counseling, the unsuccesful negotiations with the insurance and so on) but listened to it nevertheless and made me feel secure.

This man was supposed to change my future.

I decided not to rely on my insurance and pay the operation myself.

Prof.Dr. Weiner introduced me to a relatively new OP-method, the BPD with DS. After he explained the procedure to me I decided to try it. I drove back home and gave all of this another thought and then got an appointment April 18th 2002, just 3 weeks after speaking to the professor.

April 18th was the day I got my new “friend”; the BPD with DS.

They operated aprox. 5,5 hours. Unfortunately, soon after the operation, they found that one of the staples had not closed properly and that I had to be reoperated again a couple of days later. It took them about 1 hour to get it fixed.

The OP’s themselves I mastered pretty well, but unfortunately some more complications nobody had expected, occurred. My abdomen got inflamed and I had to stay in the hospital even longer then planned.

But it got really bad after I was released and at home. I strictly obeyed to stay on liquid and mashed food, but still couldn’t hold it down. I had to throw up in a 10-minute-frequency.

I consulted a doctor in a hospital in Hamburg, but quickly found out, that the had no clue about my OP and I felt pretty left alone. I had this “phase” of throwing up every other day or so, and had to call a doctor or go back to the hospital, where they only medicated me, easing the pain, but not really helping the problem.

Today I suppose that it was just a reaction from the stomach fighting the food which obviously troubled the still sore organ.

The scars have healed well, except for one little cut, that had to be reopened because somone had left a piece of thread.

Today I can eat almost everything I ate before the surgery, but I stopped craving for certain foods. Certainly the portions are a lot smaller and I am full pretty fast. I cannot over-eat because I get a feedback from my stomach right away that it is ENOUGH.

Even though it was a rough time after the OP I only regret not to have done this a lot earlier i my life. I am doing fine now. The quality of my life has increased unmeasurably. My blood-stats are back to normal, my “Fat-liver“ is normalizing as well and I feel awsome. I can buy clothes I had alway dreamed to buy before, I like to look in the mirror and smile at the face that is looking back at me.

Although I have not reached my goal yet, I m proud of what I already achieved. My current weight is 216.1 pounds (BMI 30,2).

I’d like to take the oportunity to thank Prof. Dr. Weiner and his team very much for giving me the chance for a new life.

Also I’d like to say thank you to Iris and “Slinky”, who helped me get through the hard times and who became very important people in my life.

Last but not least I’d like to credit Kerstin “Snowcat” for translating this text.

I am looking forward to a further life with my best friend BPD.

Sincerely

Helge Conrad

[Home] [Procedure] [Surgeons] [Patients] [FAQ] [More Info]

Email the site administrator with questions, corrections, or suggestions.

Copyright © 1999-2006 by The Duodenal Switch Information Zone, all rights reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission.