Cynda59

In 2004 I made the decision to no longer be morbidly obese. After many months of researching the type of surgery I wanted and the process of which this surgery would take place and then there was what surgery do I have..and by the time all that came about it was time to decide OK do I really want this.

I flew home in May of 2003, I spoke to my mother who had been threw the process already, and who was giving me advice. I then went to a few seminars and saw the information there, The doctor there Dr Clarie from Dayton Ohio, told me. If you cannot get Mr Simon Dexter in the UK. Come back to Ohio and we’ll sort out payment.

You see in the USA you pay for health care, and at the time you could pay out of your own pocket to have this type of surgery in the USA, and if you are or were living in the USA maybe your insurance company would pay for it. That was maybe.

In the UK, it is socialize medicine therefore the government and the taxpayers pay for the surgeries and procedures that patients need, anywhere from A&E/ER care to having gallbladder surgery. And other things too. At the time I had my weight loss surgery. Our local hospital knew very little. No one really knew that much about Roux en Y gastric bypass surgery. The lap band surgery was the surgery known about and read about and spoke about in all the magazines and tv shows. Many celebrities have had this type of surgery this lap band. I didn’t feel it was the surgery for me personally; I needed something to force me to comply. If I could have stuck to a diet and had the will power to do lifestyles change my self? I would not have to make the extreme choice to have weight loss surgery.

So in May I went to visit my mother and went to the seminar. I came back to England and went to my Family doctor/GP. I took all the information I gathered and put in a folder. I set that information on his desk. He said I have to look threw this and I’ll get with you in a few weeks. I said great. In the meantime I had 2 appointments 1 with a gastro doctor/Stomack Doctor and one with a bone specialist. Went to see gastro doctor, I said hiatel hernia and needed repaired. He said Your morbidly obese sorry no one will touch you. I leaned back in the chair and said My mother had Gastric bypass surgery, what do you think. Oh yes he said, you need that, I’ll write your doctor right now and say I want you to have it. Went to bone specialist. and he said You have an injury to your right leg, never healed properly and if you re injure you might end up being in bad shape. You need to lose weight. Again I said. What do you feel about gastric bypass surgery, Yes he said Straight away I’ll write a letter to your doctor. And so he did.

3 month later.. I get a letter to go to the Luton/Dustable Hospital. I saw a nurse there first appointment. Did blood work, ask a number of questions. And the nurse said You will be contacted by our consultant and we’ll go from there. About a month or so later I got another letter to go see the dietician and psychologist. Both of them talked to me and put me forward. A few months later I saw Mr. Nick Finer. Consultant. Who wanted to put me on a Milk Diet?

Why not real sure, I guess to make sure I would conform to a post op diet. However I explained to Mr. Finer that however good the hospital was. They did not do the surgery I was requesting at the time. The hospital at that time only did the Lap Band surgery; they did not do the Roux en Y gastric bypass surgery or the Duodeinal gastric bypass surgery.

Mr. Finer referred me to Mr. Simon Dexter in Leeds, UK. Which is who I really wanted in the first place. Mr. Dexter met with me in August of 2004. He agreed that I needed surgery and what my BMI was. At the time I had said my height was 5ft 4in I was wrong. My height was 5ft 2in which made my BMI roughly 52.1 anything over 35 is Morbidly Obese.

Mr Dexter sent a letter to the PCT Primary Care Trust in the UK. These are the people who fund operations and any money that pays for healthcare in a hospital. They agreed to fund my surgery for me. The PCT is funded by the National Health Service which gets their money from the taxpayers of the UK.

My argument was and still is. IF you fund alcoholics to get help, if you fund drug addicts to get help. Why not fund obese people to get help. The answer I usually get is because Fat people abuse themselves and it is self inflicted. Sorry, doesn’t float with me because Alcoholics and drug addicts too are self inflicted and yet. The taxpayers are paying for that as well.

Within a few short weeks I had my funding, I had my surgeon and on Oct 7^th I drove to Leeds . UK. I was in the Nuffield hospital in Leeds. I went in scared to death. I have pre admission testing as you do. EKG that thing they hook up to you with all the stick tags and hook up to a machine that makes squilly lines. And then a machine you had to wear this clip on your nose and then blow like heck threw a tube to measure you lung capacity. Called a breathing test. Then blood tests to see if there was any infections and I don’t know what all they check but you know they always take blood. Also a urine test.

Then they give you a room and a bed. You play with the tv and all the buttons and not thinking anymore how really scared you are. Then comes time to get your self changed for the evening and your friends or family leave cause visiting time is over. Then it hits you. I’m really here, the time has really come. Oh no what have I done, you ask yourself.

No matter how you try to change the idea going threw your mind you can’t you flip threw the channels wondering, am I doing right thing, when is someone going to come. You know you got to have an enema and are they going to give you a catheter or are they going to just let you stew? Then your last meal comes. And it is liquids or soft foods. A lot of hospitals will do this because enema time they will want you cleaned out. And remember for up to 4 weeks you might be on liquids or soft diet post op surgery. You eat your last meal, in quiet or with the tv on in the background thinking OK is my family going to call me again before I go to sleep. You keep checking to see if the phone is ringing. The nurse comes in and says Let’s get you blood pressure and maybe ask if you want tea or coffee or are you OK?

You say kindly Yes thanks, and thinking no I don’t want coffee I want out of here.

Then you chuckle to yourself and start convincing yourself you’ve done the right thing

Then your family member phones and gives you those last minute support talk and says See you in the morning. You realize it is nearly 9pm and they haven’t given you the enema yet. You call for the nurse and say Can I have this now so I might be able to relax.

They agree and come in, It is not as bad as it sounds really. The nurses are very gentle and very comforting. They do the deed and leave you. You run to the toilet many many many times over the next few hours. Then everything settles down and before you know it is midnight and you drift to sleep. You then woken up about 7am to someone saying can we get you in the shower. You wake up and you drag yourself to the shower. Again your sort of left alone to gather your thoughts. You might sit there and cry, you might feel very anxious and again you might feel very excited. As the time went on it went to 10am. My surgery time. I sat waiting and waiting and waiting. And my husband had showed up about 8am to be there when I went down. I begged him several dozen times let’s go, I don’t want to do this. But then he said No , You decided this is what you wanted to do , and you’re doing it. Then came the nurse to collect me to go to surgery. I cried as I walked the hallway. I walked there because I could. Some will be on a bed wheeled and some could be wheeled by a wheelchair. I chose to walk. I got up on the bed in the pre op surgery area. Scared to death. I then kissed my husband and told him. IF anything happens.. I died knowing what I was going into. And that I loved him very much. They lead my husband out. A few minutes later Mr. Dexter came in. He asked me was I sure, I nodded. Tears in my eyes. I was terrified. He re assured me what was going to happen, he went over the procedure and I signed the consent form. The anesthetist explained what they were going to do and found a vein, put the needle in and said he was giving me something to feel sleepy. Put oxygen mask on my face and told me to breath deeply and not to fight going to sleep. And I was out. When I woke up. I had a reaction to morphine and was itching. But they had me in ICU and they were top notch in there. They gave me very good care. I remember one lady saying My name is Julie and I will help you. All I could remember was her name I would holler out Julie, Julie. I didn’t know if it was day or night. All I knew is I was in pain and wanted relief. They kept me pretty groggy for the first night. Day 2. they woke me up and sat me in a chair. I walked a little bit. To the end of the bed. And back. And would get up and walk a bit more. Sometimes I felt better walking then I did lying in bed. The more you walk the better you’ll be. Move that air and pass wind. I got up about ever 15 minutes out of the hour and walked. I was moved back down to a regular room, and got up and would walk around the nurses station, of course not alone, My husband was with me or a nurse. I was in the hospital until that Monday. I was drinking apple juice. just sips. Sips of water and sips of juices. Just sips. But constant sips. Worst of it all was the 4 hour ride home. I felt every bump in the road. The hospital gave me pain medications too, but they didn’t work too well. I had a pillow on my stomach. Had the husband stop a few times for comfort stops other then that I just wanted to get home and in bed.

A few months went by and I went from Liquids to Soft with in a week. Mash potatoes and gravy was my friend for a long long time. Everyone is different. Then I went to mush foods then to purees and then to solids. If I had trouble with 1 sort of food I went back a step and tried again

February 2005 Bad time. I started throwing up ever time I looked at food, I had pain in my stomach. I would go to A&E/ER. 15 times in and out of A&E/ER Finally I was admitted and the gastro doctor who originally sent me about the heital hernia saw me again. By this time it was about June. Months and Months I had gone with just tasting food not really eating it. I had gone from having energy, To being dehydrated, no energy, very lethargic, and very scared of what was happening to me. The Specialist was stumped he did an Upper GI, tube down the throat into stomach. He did Cat scans and he didn’t know what was going on. He said OK, I’m sending you back to Leeds. July 5^th I was sent to Leeds, UK by ambulance because I was too sick to go on my own. Mr Dexter’s college came into the room, Never even touched me or examined me said We’ll prep you for surgery and I know what is wrong with you we’ll sort it tomorrow. July 6^th I went into surgery for the second time, They found a hernia was under my stomach. A hernia however is not rare with this type of surgery and is a known complication. I was not that shocked. However I Was shocked to WHY my local hospital could not find this. Why had I gone 15 times for help and no one knew. Why every time I went to the local hospital did I get the reaction. What is Gastric bypass surgery, Why did you have that. And the funny one most of all “If you lost weight you’d feel better” after losing nearly 8 stone approx 100 pounds. So I came back home and started calling the PCT Primiary care trust and asking them was there a support group in our area. They said no and they were not aware of what Obesity awareness was. Well I started complaining about this obesity awareness months ago. July 14^th 2005 there was a conference of chemist/pharmacists, A few doctors, a couple of dieticians and myself. We walked about Obesity Awareness and HOW Milton Keynes was going to wake up and realize that there was a problem?

From July 14^th until Janaury 18^th There were no obesity awareness in Milton Keynes. However many tv shows were making it know that Obesity was a problem. There were shows like Fat Nation, Biggest Loser in the UK, the popular hospital drama tv show Casualty had a few shows about Obese people who needed procedures but were being refused for whatever drama reason. There were documentary shows called Desperate Dieters on Living TV. Eveyrone was getting on the Obesity awareness bandwagon. And my time to strike was now. I got permission from the Local PCT primary care trusts to start my own self help group and Obesity awareness group. I did just that. I started with drafting an idea of what to call this group. Hmm losers club, No sounds bad. Milton Keynes Fat Fighters, Nah been done. Weightloss Options Yes… Weightloss Options giving you the option to lose weight. Yes that fits!!! OK we got a name. Now how do we get the idea out there? A flyer!! Ok created a flyer, now what Oh okay promote it I called all the radio stations, I sent emails to anyone and everyone that was in the media, I had a contact to the PCT I sent her an email and a flyer. Then the newspaper started doing stories , the radio started calling. People started ringing that heard about Weightloss Options by many ways of the media. It was great.

In the meantime I was working to maintain my weight. I was still losing weight. I knew I needed more help. So I started to think How do I help others.

I create a book that people can use to get information. I made a folder for surgery information, I made a folder for people who wanted just weightloss information IE weight watchers or any other way they wanted help. A lady from Caraline contacted me. An eating disorder group, Fantastic I said that way I could help myself and others same time. I went to one of their meetings. The meeting was very helpful. And am going to go to more.

There was a person who contacted me, and that I was helping during this time said They have this new scheme about patients rights. Do we have a choice of a surgeon, Why are they saying we can only go to a 1 certain hospital. Unknown to me the local hospital had shook hand with a another local hospital The Luton/Dustable hospital which I had went to in the beginning of my journey. Which is great. However no one is telling the same story. I am being told by the PCT that the Patient choice exists for Obesity Surgery. The Lower panel of the PCT are telling me No it is not included. Luton/Dustable is saying Yes it is included and referring their patients if they feel necessary to other surgeons. And the patients are being deined funding if they do not to go the Luton/Dustable hospital. I have a problem with this idea because the Patient should have a choice of who operates, This surgery is not easy. Nor is it something to enter into lightly. And I think patient choice is very important. We’ll see how this develops

There are important things I wish all patients to remember.

Always always know you have the right to ask questions.

ASK the surgeon you are talking to about their mortality rate

How many success stories they have had

How many failures they have had

How long they have been practicing

What surgery they would recommend is best for you

Do they have a list of past patients you could speak to

What is their aftercare process and procedures

What if there are complications

And to ALLOW your family to know exactly how the surgery went after you come out of theater/surgery. And allow your surgeon to meet the person they are going to talk to the day of your surgery after your procedure is finished. DEMAND that they speak to your family after the surgery.

Any complications and things should be told to the family so they can prepare if things have gone wrong.

Remember valuable notes

This is NOT a quick fix

This is NOT an easy way out

This is for the rest of your life

And if you choose to have surgery. DO IT for yourself ONLY not because someone is saying Your fat you need to lose weight

Or any other reasons. You must do this for yourself. Cause it is yourself that will deal with the after affects

ardita

and how are you doing after your surgery 3 years ago?

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