Cait C.
I have been married for 20 years and have a 14 year old daughter (yikes!), 2 cats and a Golden Retriever. I met my DH when we were both graduate students at Columbia University, he in journalism, I in a PhD program in Genetics. I have had weight issues my whole life, and my weight has just steadily crawled up despite various diets. Sounds pretty typical, huh?
I do have a somewhat unusual perspective on WLS, as I am a gastroenterologist. I am in private practice in Broward County in south Florida. I have numerous patients who have had WLS, mostly RNY. Having endoscoped many of them and heard their problems, I knew RNY was not for me. (I fully agree with you if you are thinking, "Yeah, well if they end up in her office of COURSE they're having problems!" I know the majority do not, and I'm only seeing the small fraction who do.)
I have been thinking about WLS surgery for a long time, but as I said, RNY was not for me. I was aware of sleeve gastrectomy as part of a 2-stage proceedure with the DS done second, but it was only in the past year that I started to see it as a stand-alone proceedure. This got my attention. I feel it is much less risky and much more physiologic as it does not bypass anything. Additionally, I suspect that satiety is highly hormonal, (this is why things like intragastric balloons failed) and when I read recent reports showing that sleeve gastrectomy suppresses ghrelin, a hormone which make us REALLY HUNGRY, that did it.
Things have moved very fast since then. They had to, since my insurance is about to change for the worse, of course. I knew my current insurance would cover it (United PPO) but my future one would not (Aetna). I was approved in about 2 weeks without any real problem and am now scheduled for March 6 with Dr. Rosenthal at Cleveland Clinic Florida, who has moved into doing sleeves in a big way.
I'm having some pre-op jitters, and am also worried about how long I will need before I can get back to work. Right now I have a week off completely, and another week where I am only in the office.
Addendum 3/9/2006
Surgery 3/6 went smoothly. I came home yesterday evening. No pain really, just a little discomfort moving aroung and ALOT of gas! Right now I'm concentrating on drinking water as instructed.
Addendum 4/30/06
I'm not too good at updating this thing. I'm almost 8 weeks out. I've lost 32 lbs. Everything is good. I'm rarely hungry, and if I get hungry it takes very little to fill me up. I can eat anything, just not very much. We went on a cruise April 9 for 1 week in the Caribbean which was great. I ate regular food plus protein shakes and vitamins. I really indulged on the vacation with a daily drink (Pina Colada, Mai Tai etc, HEY, it's vacation!) and while I didn't lose weight on that week, I didn't gain either (I've come home from previous cruises up 8 lbs). The following week I got right back on the "straight and narrow" and lost 5 lbs, so my weight loss was postponed, not terminated. I've had a couple of plateaus where my loss slowed to maybe 1 lb in the week but overall I feel great. I took 10 days off work after surgery, which was total overkill. I could have easily gone back at 1 week. My energy level never sagged, and it generally has been better that ever. I'm now wearing size 14, so I'm out of the dreaded "women's sizes" with a "W" and can shop at regular stores!
Addendum 5/31/06- I am now down 37 lbs and fit into a size 12 bathing suit last weekend!
Addendum 9/4/06- I'm nearly 6 months out and am very happy I had this surgery. From reading messages on the board, I know my experience is a bit different than some others. My weight loss continues slowly. I do not feel highly restricted in my diet, and in fact have never "dieted" with this after the first 5 or 6 weeks. I eat anything, just not very much. My surgeon uses a somewhat larger bougie than others (a 60F) and this may account for my ability to eat more than others. I still can eat nowhere near what I ate pre-op though. I lost about 20 lbs the first month, 10 the second, 8 the third, 5 the fourth, and am now still dropping at the rate of about 4 lbs per month. The drop is very choppy however. What I mean by that is that I will hold steady for 3 weeks and then drop 4-5 lbs all at once on the 4th week. This has held true for the past 3 months or so.
My biggest fear pre-op was that my social life would be killed by this surgery. My entire social life revolved around eating. We ate out 5 or 6 times per week. All socializing was done in restaurants. We went on "wine and food" holidays. Vacations were planned around where to eat in foreign cities, etc. None of this has proved to be a problem, though we don't eat out as much as before (maybe twice a week now.) I still enjoy eating, I still eat out in nice restaurants. I can eat enough that I don't feel "freakish" in a restaurant. These are all things that are very important to me, so I'm willing to compromise my rate of weight loss for this. I will get there in time, and have fun doing it.
My only regret would be not having done this sooner, though I recognize that the sleeve gastrectomy really didn't exist sooner, so I couldn't have done it sooner anyway! To anyone who might have read this far and be considering this surgery, I say GO FOR IT! You will be pleased!
