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Surgeon: Dr. Kevin Hoddinott, Bethlehem, PA
Surgery date: October 1, 2002
Pre-op weight/BMI: 209/40+
Current weight/BMI: 159 (as of January 11, 2003)

Left: My hubby and I in 1966, on the day we were married; Right: Our newest portrait taken for our church directory in late summer of 2002, showing me at my heaviest pre op weight of 208.

Left: Pre-op; Right: 3 months post-op (down 50 pounds)

Left: Pre-op; Right: 3 months post-op (down 50 pounds)

by Pat:

MY STORY

I have always had a protruding tummy. That didn't matter when I was a chubby, chunky baby. But when I was wearing cute little dresses with bows and sashes in the early 1950's it annoyed my mother to no end. She would always tell me to hold in my stomach. If I didn't learn to hold it in then I would end up having to wear a dreaded "girdle" or even worse a "corset" when I grew up.

At 12 when some kids called me fat I went home crying to my mother who said "well do something about it." My mother who was barely 5' tall at the time and never broke the 110 pound mark, simply couldn't relate to what I was feeling. In later life she shrank to 4'7" and weighed in at about 80 lbs. I inherited my obesity genes from my father a huge, fluffy man who died of a heart attack at the age of 49. I learned to eat seconds, fat and gravy from him as well as cereal bowls filled with ice cream and mounds of baked goods he brought home from the bakery. Mother never could send him to the store for just one thing.

As I grew into my teens my activity level increased. To save money for important things like cokes and french fries, I walked / jogged to places I would normally have taken a bus. Weekends I went Ice Skating or Roller Skating on Friday, Dancing on Saturday and we danced every day after school with Bandstand to keep up with the different dance moves. By the time I graduated from High School I was 5’ tall and weighed 105 pounds. I am still 5’ tall but just before surgey I weighed in at the hospital at 209 lbs. That's a big difference over 40 years. In fact that's practically 2 of me.

I never learned to diet just to exercise. Exercise worked for me, yo yo style, for years. After I got married I began to gain weight and I couldn't seem to stop it. I heard of a diet doctor in the area and began to see him. Weekly weigh ins and diet pills with B-12 shots was his method. I lost 20 pounds going to him until I discovered I was pregnant and my PCP had a fit , reamed me out and had me throw away the diet pills.

I had 3 babies over the next 3 years and needless to say I gained after each birth. Eventually my body leveled out at 135 lbs, which for me meant wearing size14/16 clothes. As the children grew so did I. Eventually I reached 155 and was miserable. In 1982 I joined TOPS, walked/jogged 3 miles a day and lost 40 pounds to goal. I managed to keep the weight off for about 2 years.

In 1986 I had thyroid surgery and after that I began to gain weight again. Familiar story just different details. So I rejoined TOPS and began to exercise, this time I didn't lose any weight but I did stop gaining. Over the next 17 years to present I learned that as long as I kept up the exercise I would maintain what ever weight I was at but I couldn't seem to lose. The pounds piled on and I felt like I was carrying a 100 pound feed sack around my middle all the time.

In 1998 I quit a 43 year addiction to smoking and my weight shot up to over 200 pounds. I was diagnosed with Diabetes II and my HPB was barely manageable with 3 meds, plus Hyperlipidemia [high cholesterol] then my hip and knee joints began to creak and hurt and I was slowly losing my mobility. This was no way to start an “improve your health” program.

Three years ago my hair dresser was all excited about her up coming surgery. She weighed over 350 pounds. A friend of hers had lost tons of weight through the VBG procedure, so BJ had the same procedure done. I marveled in amazement as the pounds litterally melted away from her body. That was the first time I began to think seriously about WLS. I have many pills to take for my conditions and frequent sinus infections so I ruled out the VBG and RNY procedures. I felt I would be unable to take my medications having either of those procedures.

For 2 years I watched BJ lose while I just seemed to get worse. Then one day a gal from an e-mail support group for Diabetes posted about her WLS. She had lost over 100 pounds and her diabetes was "cured" . She had had a WLS procedure called a BPD/DS that sounded amazing and something that would let me take my pills easily if I needed them.

I went to my first WLS group meeting in January 2002 and met many RNYers. The LAP surgeon of choice only did RNY so I opted to go for it given the great reports of the people in the group. I felt the DS was the best surgery but that the RNY was my only viable option. My - FORMER - PCP is not obesity friendly, he drips with disgust in the presence of "fat" patients but he did give me a paper to take to a bariatric doctor regarding my need to have treatment. This paper got me my first appoinment with the surgeon and along with other things my insurance approval for the RNY.

God has a way of working things out for good even when we aren't actively seeking His help. After getting my Insurance approval for the LAP RNY I called the surgeon's office to arrange my 2nd appoinment and was told I would need to find a new surgeon as this doctor was no longer going to do Bariatric surgery, beginning that day. Talk about feeling badly. I was totally bummed out.

In the long run it was a "God send" my new surgeon only did an open RNY but he was so highly recommended that I went to see him. During the course of our interview he noted that my first choice in surgery was the DS. Well, it seems that he had just performed his first DS.

To make a long story short I was his 3rd DS patient. He switched me on October 1st 2002 and I couldn't be happier. Recovery was a bit rocky but nothing that didn't finally resolve itself. At 2 months out I have lost 35 pounds and should probably start taking some after pictures.

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