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Surgeon: Dr. Dennis Smith, Woodstock, Georgia Most recent update: February 2006
by Ys:
My grandparents raised my brother and me while my mother finished college. I was a bit scrawny until I was about 6 years old. What happened? The normal – I was forced to clean my plate. Translation: I was given food fixed by adults who gave us kids smaller portions than their own BUT they were still giving us heaping non-childsized portions. To top it all off, Paw and SugaMaw had a surefire way to get our plates clean at each and every meal – they took our Kool-Aid. We had to show clean plates before we could get our beverages back. As they confiscated our Kool-Aid cups they would make the disclaimer: “The chil’ren in Africa starving and the good Lord gave y’all food and you won’t eat it”. This ritual applied to breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and THEIR leftovers. So at a very early age I was taught that I was being ungrateful if I didn’t eat whatever I saw, to eat when I was not hungry, to stuff when I was full, and that being eating unnecessarily offered a reward (i.e.: the Kool–Aid).
Life went on, as it tends to do. In high school, I was always much bigger than the other girls were, but never so much that it became an issue. I was a very confident teenager - I loved clothes, make up and boys. Each of the aforementioned loved me back. I was popular, I had good grades, I was a majorette, I was on the homecoming court, I always had boyfriends, I had adoring friends, I sang in talent shows, I won beauty contests - the whole nine yards. I even had boys to fight over me in two different occasions in high school. Actually, my relatively normal teenaged existence was possibly a result of all those “fat’ compliments. Consequently, I never realized that weight could ever be a problem...so long as you “fixed yourself up” and smelled good. November 2002: Had my consult with Dr. Dennis Smith for the Duodenal Switch on the 25th and 26th. Happy that there is hope for me to not have to fight my weight for the rest of my life. February 2003: Denied by BCBS of Alabama. The morons say the DS is investigational. April 2003: BCBS of Alabama denied my first appeal for the DS. I have a new job by now and new BCBS of Illinois insurance. They say they will cover my DS. Wahoooo!!! October 2003: BCBS of IL denied my DS as investigational!!! December 2003: BCBS of Illinois denied my first appeal. I have a new job by now and new United Health Care EPO insurance. I asked if they will cover the DS, they said yes. Well, so did the IL insurance. Not getting my hopes up again... April 5, 2004: I have a DATE!!! May 4,2004 is my DS date! My UHC EPO came through for me and I was approved after the first letter. Thank you LORD!! I can barely believe it but I am SO ready. WOW!!! I thought the raves about DS post-op life were exaggerated but they are not. Life is fabulous. My current weight is 152 pounds at 10.5 months out. I am in size 8's and some 6's - who would have thought that was possible?? My foot size only changed from a 10 to a 9.5 but I can wear regular width shoes and that is a first!! My weight loss has slowed but it hasn't stopped - I am happy that it slowed. Personally, I don't have to lose another ounce - this surgery is already more than a winner to me!! My health is still not stellar but it’s better overall. My labs are reasonably good. At my November 2004 labs, I was low on Vitamin K, low on Potassium, and had elevated parathyroid hormone. Rechecked in February 2005 and my Vitamin K is normal but my Vitamin D dropped...still low Potassium and now through-the-roof parathyroid hormone. The Vitamin K and D drops were quickly corrected with some added prescription strength supplements AND by me remembering to take my ADEKS 4X per day :-) I try my best to do as I am told. Admittedly, I do forget the last dose or two on some days if I get real busy. Overall I'm a pretty compliant patient because I don't want anything that's more serious than adding a pill here or there!!! I will also share that I have noted a fringe benefit of having WLS – the loss of weight as a catch all cause. Trying to figure out the reason for my parathyroid issues, my doctors back-tracked to preOp labs and noted that my parathyroid hormone was elevated even before my DS. My blood pressure is still quite high so I continue on all of the same medicines as preOp – and we all know that my blood pressure was through the roof as a preOp. As a preOp, my doctors had casually dismissed the parathyroid thing for whatever reason and they figured that my obese weight was the cause of the high blood pressure. Now, post WLS they suspect that the low Potassium and high blood pressure are actually symptoms of some kind of endocrine malfunction. Hence, why medicating these problems only give a temporary effect…they have an undiscovered root cause. My PCP says I have probably had some kind of endocrine problem for years and had I not lost the 113 pounds after the DS the doctors would still be telling me to lose weight in order to lower my blood pressure. Had I not had the DS, no one would even be checking my potassium levels. Having the weight gone, they are now forced to find other causes for my unresponsive blood pressure and low Potassium... causes that they wouldn't have even looked for when I was morbidly obese. I'm undergoing endocrine tests now. That’s the wonderful fringe benefit of having WLS...my health problems can no longer be blamed on obesity. I know the health stuff sounds like a lot, but it really isn't - I have great doctors and a TON of energy...so yes, I am doing FINE!! I am so thankful that I waited and struggled to have the DS. I am proud of myself and people who I have known for years don’t even recognize me!! I enjoy a delicious variety of food, RAVES of attention from gents who wouldn’t have glanced my way before, great shopping, successes that I'd only dreamed of before, my confidence is unwavering...plus I'm making my way toward stellar health. I'd have my post WLS life NO other way!! Take care and may your tree of better health be fruitful and plentiful!!!
Here I am at 21 months postop and this DS is still an ADVENTURE. I am down 134 pounds...weighing in at 133 pounds. I wear a size 4 down from an 18/20. My show size is a 9.5 down from a 10.5. I am slowly but surely losing blood pressure medicines. I am down from 5 BP meds to 3...they expect me to lose 2 more by summer. I take my vitamins, eat ALL THE TIME (stay hungry), and I just enjoy this gift. Every morbidly obese person needs to know how it feels to be free from the burden of being an MO. Chronic headaches are gone, my knees do not pop, I don't pant when I walk the mall and I can even touch my scalp with my toes...hahaha - I feel MARVELOUS. I look 10 years younger and I thank God for this chance. If you'd like more details, my updates AND PICS are more frequent at the Obesity Help site. Click my personal link and read all about it. Feel free to email me with any questions that I don't answer in these profiles. ~*****~ ~*****~ ~*****~ I would say to all who are still researching &/or fighting insurance to "hang in there, your time will come". I won't say that even though it is true. For nearly 2 years, I couldn't get insurance approval nor could I accumulate enough money to go to Brazil for my DS. This was sad state of affairs because all of my research and my decision to have the DS seemed to be in vain...& so those words "hang in there, your time will come" disgusted me the most. Accordingly, I know you don't want to hear those words so I will not make that superficial attempt at empty condolence. I will offer this: if you are yet undecided on which surgery to have...KNOW YOUR OPTIONS!! I can't say that enough and I wish I could scream it to you. I researched and I CHOSE the DS. The insurance company didn't force me into any other surgery and I didn't listen to hearsay. I hand picked the DS based on facts - & I would have it no other way. |
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Hi! Pleased to “meet” you and thanks for stopping by. I’m Ys (wy-ess) and my story is pretty much the same as most stories that you come across. Since we’re here, you know that I want to have the DS weight loss surgery.
In addition to being programmed to overeat, we were also taught that being “pleasingly plump” was cute. Well, this is true for babies and small children, but after that it becomes a self-perpetuating curse. Sorry, that was a tangent… At any rate, relatives on my mother’s side of the family range from regular obese to super, super morbidly obese. My father’s side of the family is just the opposite. When my brother and I started to grow fat, my SugaMaw was pleased - I guess because we blended in with the rest of the relatives. My Granny Rae (my Dad’s mom) was amused at our pudginess - I guess because we looked different from the rest of her family. Either way, the popular consensus was that we were “pretty little fat children”. Yes, we actually heard that (people in Alabama are not schooled in tact). Either way, we wouldn’t want to lose our competitive edge, now would we? So anything that looked, tasted, or smelled good was fair game to be devoured.
