harley03
The reason I found this website was because the first of July 2007, a few friends and myself who have struggled to lose weight for years decided to visit one of those free seminars on lapband. We heard about people having success and actually losing lots of lbs.
The rest of my story is below the next paragraph.
A little about me, I'm 44 years old 5'5" weight 255 (been told I'm a light weight compared to others) BMI 46
Been overweight my entire life.
I have been a Diabetic for 20 years now, on 4 different meds for Diabetes, also on high blood pressure and cholesterol meds, my Endocrinologist says, I'm on the raod to being on Insulin.
My Endo. Dr. and the Dr. I have seen for RNY agree that I carry my weight in the most dangerous way, all in the mid-section.
I'm Blessed to have a very Supportive Wife, who goes to all my Dr's visits with me, not just the Bariatric Dr.
So, we all went and listened and we were all gung ho on doing this procedure, but being the person I am, I needed to do much more detailed research about it.
Well, my wife and I really were not impressed with this Dr. or his staff. He seemed Very arrogant. So we did some research on the web and found Dr. Spivak, we called and made an appointment for his free seminar and went ahead and scheduled the one on one Dr's consultation.
The seminar was at the end of July on a Saturday, early in the morning, from the begining of the first phone call, we were very impresed by Dr. Spivaks' staff etc. Once we met his staff in person we really felt comfortable.
Well, to our surprise after we met Dr. Spivak and he examained me, he felt that RNY would give me the success I needed to lose the weight and take me off all my diabetic and blood pressure meds. He did tell me that he would do either one on me, but that choice would have to be made by me.
Hmmmmmm, man we were not ready for that, we already did research after research on the band and knew nothing about RNY, even though in his free seminar he gave all of us data on both. Our problem was that we paid no attention to the data on RNY and gave all out attention to the data done on the band.
So I told my wife........my mouth hit the floor when he said I needed the RNY procedure. Well, we decided to visit my personal Dr. , who 3 months back warned me about losing weight in order to keep me off the road to insulin. We asked him how many pounds would it take for myself not to be a Diabetic anymore. He said anywhere from 80 - 100 lbs, in the same breath, he told us that would be impossible for me to do on my own.
We also found out the reason for me gaining 20 lbs in a matter of 2 months was because he increased the dosage of one of current medication I am on.
My personal Dr. was very supportive and agreed that the RNY was the correct procedure for me to have succesfull weight loss and that I would be able to get off all the medications I am on now. This was on Aug. 3rd 2007.
Where I am now, my medical insurance will not cover the RNY procedure, so guess what that means, I'm paying for it myself. My Dr. ran an EKG on me in his office while I was there and he said it looked good, but of course there are a few more tests that have to be done before I can schedule the procedure, since my HMO will cover the tests, now it's a waiting game, my first consultation is with the cardo. Dr on Aug. 29th 07 and then once I see him he will schedule the stress tests etc. to clear me for surgery. My other Dr. appt. is with the Gastroligist in mid Oct. we are trying to get that moved closer, this means we have to call the appt. line everyday to see if their are any cancellations which will hopefull get me a closer Dr. visit to see him.
My wife actually found this site the first part of July, she emailed someone on here and asked for info on support groups for RNY. Well, we found Debra from the Pasadena area (where we live) and she has been a blessing to us, we have had so many questions and had no where to turn until we found this site and Debra. She invited us to a get together at Joe's Crabshack in Kemah on Saturday Aug. 11th 07, she told us that people there would be more than willing to share their story with us and answer any questions we might have.
My wife and I attended the Kemah party on Saturday 08-11-07 we had a Blast talking to everyone there. We had such a great time we lost track of time and before you know it, 5 hours had gone by.
The Moral of this story:
Find a Dr. That You Feel Comfortable With, If you do not feel this way about the Dr., get a Second Opinion. after all it's your Body, spend the Extra Money before you make the final Decision. you are Worth it.
