Paul's Story in Italia - ThinnerTimes

pebitpeb · 06-18-2007, 12:24 PM

Hello to all that I share this experience with. A little about me. I am 44 years young, moved to live with my partner in Italy 14 months ago. I am from Portland, Oregon(born, raised and lived most of my life). I have had overweight issues since childhood and went through weight loss various times with various methods only to always gain back and add more weight than previously. At 42 I was being treated by a physician as a person who was successful at controlling my diabetis with proper eating

, still carrying a weight of 320 lbs(after loosing 100lbs) and severe artheritis in my hip making walking extremely painful and making it neccessary for me to take pain medicine daily.
I love to travel, enjoy being in the outdoors, living life to the fullest even carrying many extra pounds. My Dr. recommended gastric bypass and hip replacement in 2002, 2003 & 2004, unfortunately the insurance I carried did not consider either surgery warranted their support. I felt hopeless and discouraged as I could not afford either surgery on my own nor was any financial assistance offered. I was extremely discouraged and a bit depressed at this ongoing struggle.: Over the next two years I worked 7 days a week taking 2 weeks off every 2 months to spend time when my partner visited from Italy or when I traveled to Italy to visit. Finall in April 2006 I made the permanent move to live in Italy along with my weight at 390lbs, and now walking with a cane to for support. This leads me to were I am today.
Once moving to Italy I sought assistance for my artheritic hip and was told they would do my surgery but that I should loose at least 100lbs, oh my weight is primarly carried in my lower abdomin which is sometimes called an apron, which also puts extreme pressure on my hips and back. The great thing about living in Italy is they have socialized medicine and this was now possible if I could loose the weight. I attempted to change my eating again and now living in Italy found that eating Italian style only added more weight so it was suggested I go to see the specialist of endocrynology at the Univeristy of Pisa where they specialize in obesity issues(a word I hated), we were referred to a Dr. and rather than waiting an extended period to go through the social medicine system got in to see him within weeks of making the appointment, this set me on the path, first was a 4 day stay at the hospital in Pisa were they examined me from head to toe and extensive mental testing, it took about 4 months on a waiting list to get the call for the exams, then I was told I was definately a candidate for gastric bypass and that I should expect the surgery my the end of March 2007, this was told to me while I was in the hospital for the exams which started on Feb. 14th. and ended on Feb. 17th. I was anxious and uncertain about getting this surgery, but very much wanted to have a life where I could move and do the things I loved to do, instead of taking vacations and seeing everything in pain and from the window of a car, because walking was too far and painful to get to the site we wanted to see, you can imagine and especially now living in Europe. They also wanted to perform the gastric bypass and at the same time perform plastic surgery to remove my lower panis(apron area). We were told there were delays trying to get to surgeons one for the bypass and one for the plastic surgery that were available on the same date, so March passed, April passed and I was feeling a bit hopeless again, Italy is famous for being slow and this is true in most everything here, my patience was really being stretched, but during the second week of May we were told I would go in for the surgeries on May 16th and the surgery would be May 18th.
May 16th arrived, I was put in a room with 3 men recovering from surgery 2 having had gastric bypass and the other with esophogous(sp?), there is no phone, no tv and you cant get a cold glass of liquid as you are given a large 2liter bottel of water once a day if you ask. Nevertheless I was feeling very hopeful that finally I was getting some help to finally have the life I had tried to have for many years. Thursday evening the surgeon came in to see me and advised that there would be only one surgery for gastric bybass, I was very discouraged at his news and wondered why we had not been told this before. Friday morning arrived and was taken from the bed and got on a stretcher and taken into a hallway where I laid for 15 minuted with many people walking by and looking at me as I waited to go to suregery at 203kg about 440lbs or so. Next I was taken into the operating room and placed on the operating table where I tried in my best Italian to advise the techs. I was not comfortable and wanted some pillows under my legs and hips which they managed to do for one of my legs, but not the other, I was having numerous needles poked into me and then a mask went over my face and thats all I remember until I woke up 5 hours later in intensive care with extreme pain in my back and not being able to get comfortable, I stayed like this for hours and insisted on seeing my partner, as I felt no one was understanding me enough, the morphine pump was not helping my back and I was crying in pain, having no pain from the 6 insisions from the laporoscopic gatric bypass. I stayed in this intensive care ward in pain for 3 days, the first 2 with no liquid or food. I was thrilled when I could finally have a sip of water. The tub down my nose and in my throat was not so terrible. I was not sleeping at night and I felt bad for the woman who was also in the room with me recovering from gastric bypass as I cried and moaned from the back pain throughout the day and night. On the second day they took me on a narrow stretcher from the intensive care unit to an orthopedic center in the University of Pisa Hospital center which required 4 ambulance employees to strap me on as the stretcher was for someone half my size and being laid on my back I felt extreme pain and fear of falling off this tiny aperatice. They took photos of the operation and my back. The operation looked great and because of the poor positioning I had a 12 by 12 inch hemotoma on my lower right back which was causing all the pain.
On the 4th day I was moved into a regulare recovery room where I was alone for 3 days still in pain, I wanted to go home, that day another man came in my room to prepare for banding the next day. The Dr. told me I could go home on the 8th day, I was happy, but still in pain.
While in the hospital and the first 3 weeks at home everything I ate mostly turkey, chicken, green beans, soup all was pureed, I handled all this well, I immediately stopped eating when I felt my stomache, I know I was eating much less than what they plan recommended, each time after eating I felt the need to go into the bathroom but nothing would happen except some air would release. I went to the bathroom #2 about one time every 4 days the first 4 weeks. Starting week 5 I moved to eating soft skinless fruit pieces, small pieces of meat, I added pasta, and some cheese, I was excited to add more variety and the first day had about a quarter cup of pasta with ragu for one of my meals and a soft cheese with some dry toast and grean beans for my other meal, with yogurts and soft fruit two times between meals, breakfast always was tea with a cookie or two(sugarless, wheat dipped in the tea for making soft), as suggested on the eating plan. On the second day of this new eating for my noon meal I tried rice with one tablespoon olive oil and parmagianno cheese, melon for my mid afternoon fruit all went down well and then for dinner I had boiled potato with some pork cutlet ground medium, but after 2 bites of this I felt like everything was stuck inbetween my throat and stomache. I could not clear it and I felt pain, I could not burp or clear the blockage, I tried I little water and it came back up, I tried to force the food up and it would not come, I started to panic and felt very uncomfortable, after 3 hours I was still in the same condition and I could not lay down I also tried sitting and nothing felt good. I tried sitting on the toilet and that was not helpful, I went from the sitting on the edge of the bed to the living room chair several times, at 4am I think I slept for 2 hours finally and then awoke to feeling better, but totally exhausted and went to bed, my partner called the Dr. who said it was a reaction possibly to eating the rice and cheese. I was totally depressed from this situation and felt like everything had been a mistake. I wanted to go back and undue this proceedure. My partner found this site also one in Italy, but I am not fluint in Italian so I come to join you all and look for support. I want to be positive and look to the future for a positive new life, but I am discouraged from the way my stomache is acting, the bathroom stuff and the pain now in my back. Good news is that I will start physical therapy soon I see the Dr this Friday who will evaluate my situation. I apologize for this lengthy intro, but I needed to vent a bit.
I am one month out from surgery today, people who know me here say I look like I am loosing weight, I go in for my official checkup on June 30th and then see the clinic who referred me to surgery on July 2d. I am feeling good this evening and plan to try to eat some cottage cheese for dinner tonight.
Grazie a tutti per leggere mi storia(Thank you all for reading my story)

Paul (

coptergirl · 06-18-2007, 12:50 PM

Wow - what a story!! Welcome to the forum family! I would advise you to stick to proteins (and soft ones) at this stage as your new pouch needs to be treated like a baby's stomach...and you wouldn't feed a new baby pasta and rice and such, would you? Have protein drinks, bars if you can handle them, but I still have trouble with rice at almost a year and a half out. Pasta is iffy as it often hits hard and fills you up so much quicker since it expands in your pouch thus not allowing room for what you need at this stage...protein, protein, and more protein. It helps with internal and external healing, and it helps to prevent hair loss. Check with your doc as to his requirements for protein grammage, but min required 90-100 grams a day of protein.

Again welcome, and I wish you the best of lucjk on your journey, and look forward to getting to know you better here...log on anytime for great support!

Livin' La Vida Lori · 06-18-2007, 12:50 PM

Welcome to the forum Paul! I'm sorry to read about your difficulties and hope that you soon find relief. You are still healing internally, so hopefully as time goes by your stomach will settle down. Oh - and I'm incredibly envious of you living in Italia! =)

LyndasRoom · 06-18-2007, 04:24 PM

Hi Paul,
Welcome! You certainly have had some extra challenges, haven't you? At almost a year out, I can tolerate almost everything, with the exception of RICE, Pasta, IceCream or other high sugar/fat foods. You're among compadres here.

MiladyB · 06-18-2007, 05:49 PM

Welcome Paul! I'm so glad your partner stumbled across our forum. It sounds like you have had quite the experience! I echo Whitney's advise to you about trying to stick to proteins. I would encourage you to seek out what some of the post-op eating plans are. There are places on-line that I found a lot of that information. If you would like I would be more than willing to email you what the eating plans were for me, from my surgeon. I have numerous pages of each step post-op from 2 weeks post-op to 3 months post-op. Let me know if you would like me to email those to you. Other than that, just do a lot of reading on the forum. It is packed with information and ASK QUESTIONS!! The more education you have the better the process will hopefully go for you.

Once again thank you for sharing your story and WELCOME!

Andie · 06-18-2007, 06:11 PM

Welcome Paul to our little family on the web!!! I'm glad your partner found us for you!!! This is a great place to vent or get info and support others!! I look forward to reading about your progress!

pebitpeb · 06-19-2007, 12:15 AM

Thanks Coptergirl for your response and suggestion as I think it is right on. I will get to see the support team at the clinic I went through for the surgery July 2, I was handed a very non specific what to eat over the next 4-6 weeks while in the hospital for surgery, I know the foods that I have struggled with in the past as far as being able to metabilize and for me it has always been good with PROTEIN, fresh veg. and fresh fruit, very little of the bread, pastas, rice or potato. I am thrilled to be here now and have people who have gone through this and know. Please feel free to share your ideas I welcome them. I must tell you it is a blessing to have gotten this surgery without cost due to Socialized Medicine here in Italy, but they seem to not give the patient good instructions for afterward, maybe this will come when I see the clinic July 2, almost 7 weeks after surgery.

pebitpeb · 06-19-2007, 12:18 AM

Livin' La Vida Lori, thanks for the reminder of the new stomach. Life here in Italy is a big adjustment comparred to living in the USA. But I like it very much, a visit here however would be everyone's dream vacation. Have a nice day.
Paul

pebitpeb · 06-19-2007, 12:20 AM

Thanks Lyndasroom, it is encouraging to feel part of especially when you mention rice, icecream as food items that are not easy on the new stomach. This site is wonderful and I appreciate the feedback.
Paul

pebitpeb · 06-19-2007, 12:26 AM

MiladyB, wow you have accomplished alot in the past year, I would love to see some of the food plans you have, as I have mentioned to another member, the socialized medical system is great to do this surgery for me at no cost, however they are is a piece they could do better with and for me that is the after support, so yes please email anything you would be good enough to share Beth, my email is peb4jp@yahoo.com. Thanks for your response and encouragement.
Paul