Fred Weber
I weigh over 350#. I have diabetic neuropathy in both my feet severly and slightly in both my hands. I need a cane to walk and a wheelchair to avoid standing for long periods of time. I have tried every diet known to mankind and lose and regain, etc. I am a sugar and carbohydrate addict and I need help. I am hoping to have gastric surgery because I feel that it is my last hope. Since I cannot find a place where I can go covered by my insurance so I can be watched 24 hours a day and taught how to eat. Drug addicts and drunks can get insurance covered plans but we, the morbidly obese, are always told that it's will power. Why aren't the drug addicts told that they need will power to stop their habit. It's not fair. HELP
I had an appointment with my surgeon Dr Colberg in October. I've been calling for cancelations to no avail. But the other day I didn't even think about it until I was moving some paperwork around and found the letter confirming my October appointment. I called and got a cancelation for an appointment on May 14. I was amazed. I talked to Pat and told her about all the good things I've read about her and Dr Colberg. I cannot wait.
Today is May 14, 2001 and I had my initial appointment with Dr Colberg. After a 2 hour wait, I got to meet him and we talked about my medications, medical problems and other problems associated with becoming a candidate for surgery. He told me that I have a few things to straighten up before I can have the surgery. I have grown from 375 to 392 since Mar 14 when I was in the hospital for an infectious cat bite. One of my doctor's changed one of my diabetes medications and it has thrown my sugars off. That's a problem I have to clean up. And I have a psychological problem to deal with about my wife's medical problems. Dr Colberg suggested that I get these things under control and then I can call back. I'm a little disappointed but hopefully I can do these things and get my chance at the operation.
Today is June 25, 2001 and I am more disappointed about what I thought was my last best hope to lose weight. All that has happened to me is that I have gained more weight from the disappointment of not being a candidate for the surgery. I have found an eating disorders clinic that I am going to try. I am trying to "blackmail" my insurance company into paying for the obesity clinic, which they probably won't pay for, at $6000+ or pay for the surgery, which they will, at $50000+. You'd think they would choose the lesser of the options. I do not believe that an insurance company wouldn't want to save all the money that they spend on diabetes supplies and gastric surgeries by sending morbidly obese people to inpatient eating disorders clinics to learn how to eat. I need someone to watch me like a hawk 24 hours a day. I find myself getting up in the middle of the night and eating. When I am alone, I tend to eat more. I NEED SO MUCH HELP and no one will give it too me. This sucks!!!
Today is August 5, 2001. I have not heard from my insurance company. They are sitting on my request and I'm p o'd. I have found what I thought was an in-patient facility at Duke University but it is not in house and it's not cheap. You almost have to rich to lose weight. My computer crashed, totally, 2 weeks ago and because I had no computer to play with, I spent all my free time eating and I know I am well over 400#. Duke will cost $6700 dollars, not including housing. It will include an 8 hour day of learning how to eat, exercising and eating 3 meals and a snack a day. Anybody have about $10K for me so I can lose some of my weight? Thanks anyway. I have found a bariatric physician in NJ and am going to call him and get an appointment. Let's see what that will do for me.
Today is August 21, 2001. I had another appointment with my psychologist. My surgeon said I had to get over the problem I have with my wife's illness. The problem I have is the same that I have been saying for a long time, why can't the morbidly obese get insurance covered non-surgical detoxing like alcoholics and drug addicts? You would think that covering obesity would cut their having to pay for thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on type 2 diabetes and all it's complications. You would think that they would cover obesity so that they do not have to pay thousands and thousands and thousand of dollars on knee and hip surgeons brought on by obesity. Do you think that covering obesity would help cure or at least helping to level out type 2 diabetes? I think the doctor's and the insurance companies have it backwards
Today is September 4, 2001, 5 days from my 49th birthday. My endocrinologist has written a fantatsic letter for me to my insurance company. We are trying to tell them that sending me to Duke University's Diet and Fitness Center would be a finanacially better alternative to surgery. i have told them that I want to fo there but will have the surgery is it is my last alternative. I really want this.
Today is September 8, 2001. Tomorrow is my 49th birthday. I want to thank Shirley Muller. She has referred me to her surgeon Dr Gus Slotman in Camden NJ, close to where I live. She now works for him. She emailed me first and we emailed for a while then we talked on the phone and I have an appointment to see him September 27. I hope I will have better luck with Dr Slotman than with Dr Colberg. I was bothered by the fact that Dr Colberg would not operate on me being 400# and I was told that it taked longer to perform the operation on a 400# person. My wife is going with me this time. She is an RN and will ask more questions than I will. She is more scared than I am. We sort of have this thing where we're going to die together because we do not want to be alone without each other. I'm now hoping that my insurance company will see both sides of the monetary portion between the Fitness center at Duke U and the surgery. I've said that I want the fitness center more than the sugery but will get the surgery as my last resort. THANK YOU SHIRLEY.
Today is September 11, 2001. I AM IN SHOCK!!! 300 of my fellow brothers in firefighting are missing and presumed dead. How are we going to get throught 300 funerals when it's hard enough to get throught 1. 8((((
Today is September 26, 2001. This has been a horrible 15 days since the atrocity in New York City. I used to work for the FDNY as a dispatcher. I knew some firefighters. Losing 1 is hard enough but 300. It's been quite overwhelming. I have done nothing but watch the TV hoping to see a bunch of them coming out of the rubble. But I must get it together. Tomorrow is my appointment with Dr Slotman. I'm not going to let this opportunity slip out of my hands. I need to lose some weight soon or I'm going to explode. I cannot pick things up from the floor when I drop them. I am having knee and hip problems and the biggest problem is that I cannot clean myself very well after defication. I still have not heard from my insurance company about the possibility of going to the fitness clinic instead of the surgery. I will get the surgery if I must.
Today is September 28, the day after my appointment with Dr Slotman. I must retract a statement I made the other day. After further thought and discusion with my wife, I am going to go for the surgery. I had a great appointment with Dr Slotman and met my Angel, Shirley Muller, who works for him. I also got to meet Shirl from Lindenwold NJ which is right around the corner from me in Blackwood. Meeting Shirl was great. She told me quite a lot about herself and others that have had the surgery. She gave me some more confidence about having the surgery. Then I net Dr Slotman. How do you describe him? He is large than life, gave my wife more confidence in him and he was wearing an American flag tie. My wife asked him to let her see the rest of the tie and he "flashed" the girls. The man is a riot. I guess you need that attitude when promoting a dangerous procedure. He was very serious about telling us about the surgery but put in just enough humor to keep you lose. Oh yeah and I'm under 400# by a little. I'm trying not to get there before the surgery and try to get ready to learn how to eat in smaller doses. I have my preop testing scheduled and hope to be ready by November. Thank you Shirley and Shirl. 398#
Today is October 5, 2001. I had my an appointment with my cardiologist today. He wants me to get a chemical stress test before he approves me for surgery. It's set for 10/16. I passed a regular stress test and stress echocardiogram in January. Monday the 8th I am getting my gall bladder ultrasound and upper GI. So I am zeroing in on a surgical date. Then it's on to the insurance company. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!
Today is October 8, 2001. I had my gall bladder ultrasound and upper GI today. They need to make bigger gowns for us big people. They gave me pants and a top. The pants were about size 44 and I'm a size 62. The gown ripped at the top when I put it on. I just felt so embarassed when I had to turn to get all the barium in my intestines. I left a card for them in their suggestion box about the gowns. I have a chemical stress test on the 16th and I see my PCP on the 23rd.
Today is October 12th. I have delurked from an obesity Yahoo group I am on so I think it is time to delurk from the message board here. I am grateful that obesityhelp.com has allowed us to use their space on the internet with a webpage. I mentioned in the group and here that I've had a big problem with 9/11. I do not know how I and going to get through "Third Watch" next Monday. It was pulled back and they made an extra hour to recognize the heroes and the dead in the first hour and then on to the actual episode which dealt with a black out in NYC. I feel so sad for NYC. I didn't like it when I worked there. Living in Philly, which is a much slower paced city, in my estimation is better to live in. But I wish there was something more I could do for them but I cannot. I wish more of the big boys with the bucks would help. That's enough of that.
Today is October 15, 2001. I have been fighting a nasty cold since before the 12th. I have a chemical stress test tomorrow. That should be the last test I need and then my PCP will finally clear me for the surgery. You know, play the insurance game. I have received emails from some nice ladies, giving the old Good Luck and that feeling of, "There's people there just like you with the same problem." I didn't sleep last night because of the cold. I can't breathe very well because I'm so congested. Becuase of that, my C/PAP makes the back of my throat raw and I have to caugh. It's annoying. Also our supply of cold remedies is gone. We don't keep much because my wife and I have not had a severe cold in several years. I have to go to the pharmacy and get some Nyquil. The stuff is great. But I'm waiting for a call from the hospital for instructions for tonight and tomorrow for the test. If you only knew how many mistakes I had to correct. I'm losing it. So we're coming down the stretch and the horses are running neck and neck. I don't know why I'm using horse racing for this. It just came to me. lol
Today is October 17, 2001 and I have been approved by my insurance company for a November 14th date. I had a chemical stress test yeasterday and have been fighting a major cold which got into my lungs. My PCP has prescribed an antibiotic and a cold syrup. I hope that this does not hinder the chance of my surgery. Being diabetic, I heal slower than non-diabetic people. I spent an hour on the phone with my nurse case manager from my insurance company. She explained to me all the things that I needed to do before and after the surgery, in regards to the insurance games that need to be played. I hate having to tell a man who makes 100 times more than I do what to say on a blank presciption blank instead of a letter. Unbelievable. So I have been sendoing emails to my friends, doing this right now and will go to my listservs to tell all of those people. I've said this so many time but THANK YOU-My Angel, Shirley Muller. She has been a God send for me. It has not been a great year but I am hoping that this will be a greaqt ending to this year. AFter my wife told me that Shirley had called and said I was approved, I felt my life drop on me like alead balloon. Sorry for the cliche but I began thinking about, what do I do now? Who do I call? I need to get my affairs in order. Call my family, call my friends and go on vacation for my last time as a "normal" eater. The place is a golf lodge in the Pocono mountains in NE Pennsylvania and they treat you like kings and queens with 3 full meals a day. It's very relaxing. My wife and I do nothing out of the ordinary up there than we do at home. The only differnce is that we don't clean and we rock in homemade wooden rocking chairs. I'm scared, really. I wish I knew how I can get settled a little more. I need to sit down and write it all out and do it a little at a time. I'm scared.
Today is Halloweeenie 10/31/2001 and I'm getting increasingly scared. Today there maybe Anthrax at our local mail distribution building. That's all I would be to hear. That would be the sour cherry on the top of a rotten year if I get it. BUT!!!!!!!!! I go to the surgeon tomorrow to sign my consent forms aand get my before the surgery do's and don'ts. 2 weeks to go after that. I have been calling my friends to tell them that I am getting the surgery done. They have all given me encouragment and support in their own ways. I am going away to have my last fill of gourmet meals and fine dining. 2 days before my surgery I will be having my lasy big meal. I am of German decent and LOVE saurbraten, roast beef in a sweet and sour meat sauce, with dumplings and red cabbage, DAMN I will miss that. I have also been going to early dinner with some of my family. Just clearing the air and making peace. I wish I could do that with other members of my family. But that's here nor there.
Today is November 1, 2001. I signed my consent today. 13 days to go. Everything went well except I gained another 16 pounds in 1 month. That's what a sedentary life will do to you. I need to lose some weight and some of the neuropathy pain in my feet to subside before I can even think aboout doing any kind of exercise, even walking. With eating less, and less of the junk, I'm hoping that it will. I can barely get around our cul du sac now as it is. I can just about make it from my parking spot. Now for the humor. It looks like baby turkey for me. Do you think I could get out the juicer and put the turkey and the peas and the mashed potatoes in and juice them to dead. It could probably work with the cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving is American, "Smile when you say that fella.!!!"
Today is November 11, 2001. 3 days to go. We got home from vacation late yesterday and I'll bet I gained 20 more pounds. I'm sitting here crying like a baby and holding my cat while reading the wonderful posts from my surgery page. Thank you. We didn't tell my wife's mother because we thought that she would worry too much. Well I told one of my wife's cousins and she told the rest of the family. I told her because when I emailed my address book she was not in any file of addresses, just as a single entry and just added her to the addresses of the people I told about it that were just single entries. Confused? Me too! So her family knew about it long before we could tell them. Oh well.
Today is November 13, 2001. As I write this, there are 11 hours until my surgery. We went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and had a wonderful meal. I have had many emails from other wls patients and I want to thank all of them. It is getting closer and I guess I'm not as scared as I once was. I do not know why but I am. Ah'll bee bock!!!
11/19/2001 391
12/06/2001 367
12/17/2001 348
01/03/2002 341
01/15/2002 338 Losing slower, eating more. Better appetite after spotting my gall bladder medication for 2 weeks. Since then I've been able to eat without being nauseous.
01/31/2002 325 I am walking more. I am up to 1 mile going 10 laps around our cul du sac which is just about 1 tenth of a mile. I have pushed to 11 laps.
Today is October 24, 2006 and I just changed my profile over to the new set up and I weigh 240 pounds. I just happened to come over because I just saw on TV that Oprah Winfrey is going to have some gastric bypass suregry lasies on hewr show today and it seems that they might use the surgery to blame it one their personal tragedy that has befallen them. Alcoholism and an unusual sex drive. I'm going to the chat room and see if I can talk to some of the people to see if they will turn to the show and see what they can do about it.