I didn't get registered on this board before mostly because I wasn't sure I would ever get my surgery. Well it happened and happened fast. I was in the hospital on Weds the 22nd and released on Friday, two days later. I had never had more than a two hour stay for a broken bone before and the idea of a nurse with a needle was very scary. So it took a lot to make the decision to have the surgery. I was glad I was able to get Dr. Callery, I was most impressed with Kelly Neil and her no BS attitude.
She told me on day one that I would need to lose 50 pounds to have the proceedure. The day I lost the 50, was the same day I was operated on.
I'm at home now and I am still a bit sore, but in all counting my blessings that all went well, I didn't have to travel thousands of miles to get the operation, and that my family was there for me the whole time.
My sister writes for the Scripts newspapers, she came down for a couple of days, and published a story that went out on the "wire". It is a pretty good look at what got me to this point, and may be of interest to you or a family member that is having trouble putting this whole thing into persective.
here is a link:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs...211194,00.html
if that doesn't work I will cut and paste it after I say thanks to Dr. Callery, Kelly and the rest of the staff for making me feel at ease about something that scared the **** out of me.
Jay
reprint of Colleen Cason Sunday article:
Brother makes a weighty decision
By Colleen Cason ,
ccason@VenturaCountyStar.com
September 26, 2004
My brother had made up his mind: The only way to save himself was to lose himself. Or an equivalent thereof.
So he underwent gastric bypass surgery last week at a San Diego-area hospital to rid himself of what he calls in lighter moments his "lunch tumor." But he knows better than anyone there is nothing funny about the 200 excess pounds that are killing him slowly.
After two hours of surgery on Wednesday, the little brother I nicknamed The Keed looked as helpless as a baby bird. His eyelids were puffy and half-shut; his hair stuck up at right angles to his head. An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth. He was craning his neck off the pillow, trying to shake off the anesthetic to speak to his wife, his mother and me.
How did it come to this? Where is that skinny, towheaded little boy who could not sit still to finish supper?
True, The Keed and I are marooned on the flabby end of the gene pool. A tendency to come down with prodigious love handles runs on both sides of our family.
This genetic disadvantage has weighed far heavier on my brother than on me. Now 48, he has experienced whiplash-inducing seesaws in weight since adolescence.
In the last heartbreaking reverse, he lost 100 pounds over the course of a year of dieting and regular exercise. He regained it all and more in three months after going off the diet.
His blood pressure shot up. He developed a potentially lethal sleep disorder and then circulatory problems.
An avid drag racer, he all but gave up the sport because he had to put the seat back so far to accommodate his spare tire it caused visibility problems.
He first considered the gastric bypass when he faced the fact he had to rest 20 minutes for every 2 minutes of effort.
Little did he know he'd get a workout just trying to get the procedure approved. More than once, he felt the burn.
His primary-care doctor, who had been a sincere cheerleader for his dieting efforts, was dead set against the operation. Without his approval, the process would not go forward.
So The Keed researched the procedure to answer all the physician's objections. He then made a half-hour appointment to convince his doctor and then a second appointment immediately afterward for his wife, Kathy.
He figured if he failed to persuade him, Kathy might succeed by telling the good doc how she'd hate to be a young widow.
In the end, the doctor was convinced and signed the paperwork.
Next, his insurance company rejected it. He was advised to go on a medically supervised diet, which would cost $900 a month. The insurer would not, however, cover that. And when The Keed asked why, he was told it was because the success rate of diets is so low.
He responded with a deeply personal letter asking the insurer to reconsider. He concluded with this line: "Since you don't think my health is at risk, I'd like you to sell me a $1 million life insurance policy at the same cost as a man who weighs 165 pounds."
The insurer relented. But the doctor who was to do the surgery put another obstacle in front of him.
Dr. Charles Callery (no kidding) said The Keed must lose 50 pounds before he'd operate.
So he went on a low-carb diet and attended a support group for patients who already had the procedure.
It was there he learned what his biggest obstacle would be. One day, a now-slender young woman spoke to the group. After her bypass, she said, she lost her best friend.
Her friend was not a person. It was food. Food had always been there for her, she said. But the bypass constricts the stomach and restricts what patients can eat. She had to find new ways of coping.
Anyone -- in this time of extreme makeovers -- who thinks this is a quick fix should have been in intensive care with my brother. He had a 12-inch incision, catheters, monitors and a case of nausea that wouldn't quit
"It was either this or dying," he told me after he came to.
I watched as my tough-guy bro choked up telling his nurse he plans to succeed this time. And when he does, he will be there to support anyone who takes this same route.
And The Keed is making plans -- a thin man's plans. Next year, he and his wife plan to dive the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
To do this, he will have to be slim enough to occupy a single airline seat for the hourslong flight.
Will he make it? I don't know. But I do know this.
After his weight forced him to cut back on his activities, he took up the sedentary game of poker. He got good enough to win a seat in a recent TV tournament.
Now he's betting on himself. He risked his life to try to save it.
-- Colleen Cason will keep readers posted on her brother's weight-loss progress and would like to hear your gastric-bypass stories. Contact her at
ccason@VenturaCountyStar.com or phone her at 655-5830.
New to the board
Awesome
again, welcome!
Give her another story of gastric bypass.... one a few months out.. another one who's life it saved... 
Jay
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