Tracistrying
7/5/09: My 1 year surgiversary is 7/8/09. In preparation for the celebration, I am updating my story. So much has happened this last year. Most important is that I am healthy (for the most part, more on that later) and I have reached goal and been maintaining for the last several months. My husband also had VSG with Dr. A in December of 2008. He has done very well also. There was a time in the last year, that my husband had to deal with the fact that he was going to have a "skinny wife" that other men may be interested in. It took some time, his weight loss, and a concerted effort on my part to show him that he had no reason to be concerned. I mention this simply to say that there are some emotional issues that occur with weight loss other than our food issues, that people need to be aware of and be ready to deal with. I still love my sleeve but maybe not as ecstatically as 6 months ago. My reservation comes from the fact that I can still eat very little and become full on most meals at between 4-6 bites. I have to work very hard to get all my nutrition in and stay at my current weight. I basically still end up losing 1-2 pounds a month still and that is with me trying very hard to gain a pound or two, so that has me a bit concerned for the future and I'm hoping that my body levels out where it wants to be and that it's not too small. After 7 months I had lost all but 9 pounds of my goal. Because I was losing so rapidly still, I was making a conscious effort to slow or stop my weight loss. Many people were telling me I was too skinny and that I wasn't looking healthy, that I looked tired. Currently I am 5" 7", weigh 149 and am in a size 4-6 pants and S-M tops. People have a hard time believing that I still weigh as much as I do. I guess I just have calcium rich bones :) Here comes the somewhat unhealthy part. I have body dysmorphia pretty bad. When I was 264 pounds, I could not see how fat I was and now that I'm obviously much smaller, I see myself as fat as I saw myself when I was 264. Haven't figured out how to deal with that yet, as intellectuallly I know that I'm much thinner, maybe even too thin for my frame.?! The other issue that concerns me is that my blood pressure drops drastically if I get up too fast and I have passed out once due to this. As long as I'm careful this is not an issue. The positives far outweigh (pun intended) the less positives though, by miles. I feel "normal" for the first time in my life, pre-diabetes is no longer a concern and my husband and I save tons of money on food :) With every post I read, I'm just more cemented in my belief that this was the only surgery for me. I take my biotin and multi vitamin every morning and I attempt calcium and a second hair, skin and nails vitamin, in the lunch time/ afternoon time. I don't always get the 2nd pills in so I know that I would have failed with my health with a malabsorptive procedure. I just feel so blessed to have had this opportunity and that all has gone so well and I've lost 100% + EWL! It's much nicer trying to eat enough to maintain rather than pigging out endlessly and gaining a pound a day! Please feel free to PM me with any questions. Best wishes, Traci
7/18/08: DISCLAIMER: This is about my experience with Dr. Alvarez and going to Mexico for WLS. I did have an awesome experience but there are other great surgeons in Mexico. Please contact all people that you are considering before making a final decisions and do your own research.
July 18, 2008: My surgery experience:
What a ride! First off I need to say that this was the gentlest surgery I have ever experienced and my recovery has been very quick and uneventful. Some would call it a textbook recovery or even better than textbook so far. I believe that my recovery is a testament to Dr. Alvarez and his skill and care for his patients!
For people looking into WLS with Dr. Alvarez, I'm posting the experience as concisely as I can. Here goes: 2 days before surgery I flew to San Antonio. I flew Frontier for the first time in my life and found the experience much better than the airlines I normally use. The seats were that tiny bit more roomy, but made a huge difference in my comfort level. Spent the night at La Quinta Inn where I found the hotel to be totally acceptable and much like all other La Quinta airport hotels I have stayed in in the past. The next morning I had a conversation with Susan about what time to expect Rosie. We got picked up at the hotel around 12 noon. I met Anita who had just had surgery and was being dropped off at the hotel. My sleeve sister and I loaded up in the "fat van" and travelled the 2.5-3 hours to the Holiday Inn in Eagle Pass. The Holiday Inn was very nice and the staff bent over backwards to make us comfortable. That night we travelled over the border to eat at Moderno's. Because I did so well pre-op, I called Susan and asked if I could eat something at the restaurant and was given the OK as long as I didn't overdo it. Had a very yummy top sirloin. The next morning we were picked up around 8:15 AM and taken to Dr. Alvarez's office. Dr. A was already in surgery so we didn't get to meet with him first. We walked into the building where his office is and it was a very neat,clean, and more modern office, a bit set off from the hospital. We leave that building and walk across an alleyway that looks to be used for deliveries into the main hospital. We walk into a hospital that is structurally older. I notice several areas where people are cleaning and the hospital is freshly painted. Go up an elevator to our rooms. Dr. A has refurbished a few rooms, but all were full so my sleeve sister and I are placed in rooms that are more in theme with the rest of the hospital. I expected to have one of the refurbished rooms so was a bit disappointed. (This is my only disappointment in my whole experience as the hospital was exactly what I expected). My Mom and I settle in the room until Dr. A comes and talks with us. The window in the room was open so it felt a bit stuffy, so we closed the window and promptly felt the air conditioning and were quite comfortable the rest of my stay. In fact the air conditioning was working so well I actually got cold at times. I had heard that the water smelled but that was not my experience. The bathroom was small and it was close with the IV pole in there with me after surgery. But I get ahead of myself. While waiting for Dr. A, we have our labs and chest X-rays done. This is done on the lower floor of the hospital and was in keeping with the "classic" way things are accomplished in the hospital. Once back in the room, Dr. A comes and discusses my health history and explains the procedure and what I can expect. We then laugh and joke about who goes first so I told him as long as I get the happy juice, my sleeve sister can go first! So off he goes to make arrangements and a nurse comes in the room to start my IV. The IV is placed the first time and works perfectly so no double and triple pokes, YAY! I hate needles! From there it gets a bit blurry as I have my "happy juice" and promptly fall asleep. The next thing I remember is that I'm being wheeled down to surgery and then the next thing I remember is waking up in my room. When I first wake up, I notice a lump in my esophageal area and gas in my upper chest area. Very uncomfortable but not painful. I don't even notice my incision sites, so still on pain meds through the IV. I quickly learn that swallowing my saliva hurts the lump in my throat and makes me feel nauseous. I start spitting out some of my saliva and it helped the nausea alot! Dr. A comes in and checks on me several times along with the nurses. Pain meds continue until the next day. I was up and moving right after waking up and it did help the gas but not as much as I expected or hoped for. I didn't get a lot of sleep that first night as Mom was sleeping in the room and she snores very badly! The 2nd day was more walking and spitting out my saliva. I had no complications and already felt tons better. The lump feeling in my throat is starting to go away. Dr. A takes us to his office for the leak test. I sip a tiny amount of whatever stuff he uses, it's chalky and watch it go through my swollen banana tummy. I do that twice and am given the AOK. I expected that part to be much worse than it was, you hardly swallow any and it didn't taste near as bad as I had been led to believe it would. My IV stops working on the 2nd day so they take it out and don't replace it as long as I keep eating my ice chips. So I'm off pain meds and don't have a problem at all, in fact I did not need to take pain meds again as I didn't feel any pain, it was AMAZING! Then of course I have another night of no sleep.The 3rd day is the day we drive back to San Antonio. The nurses bring us jello and juice for breakfast. I can only get about 4 bites of jello in over a half hour, and I definitely feel it going down. Dr. Gabriel comes in along with my sleeve sister and we go over discharge instructions. My sleeve sister is having about the same recovery as I am and she is also amazed at the lack of serious pain. Rosie comes in with her brother as she is unwell and he is driving us to SA, and we load up into the van to head back to San Antonio. I sleep the majority of the way there. We stay at the La Quinta again and I continue sipping, walking and resting. Each day I feel exponentially better. On the fourth day we fly out. Also by the end of this day I am getting over 64 oz of fluid in. I have had no infections, no incision problems, no healing problems, and I feel great! I've been able to get my protein in each day and started my full liquids yesterday. My meds are going down well and I just can't express enough how good I feel. I already love my sleeve! For me it's a huge difference as I had 2 abdominal surgeries last year and it took me at least 2 months to feel this good afterwards. I know that those surgeons were not near as gentle as Dr. A simply by the bruises. My body only bruised around the incision sites with Dr. A and very little. The surgeons last year left me with huge bruises all over my abdomen that took over 2 months to go away. This should be a huge consideration when considering a surgeon.
One of the big reasons about why I can truly recommend Dr. Alvarez was my Mom's observations while there. First off, my Mom is not near as adventurous as I am and can be quite a bit on the judgmental side when it comes to things she really doesn't know anything about. She really DID NOT want me having surgery in Mexico. She was also with me during the 2 surgeries last year and saw my recoveries then. She is absolutely amazed at my recovery now and said she would recommend Dr. Alvarez to her friends if someone is considering WLS. Truly the issue with the older hospital is so very minor compared to the great care and skill I received by Dr. A. And Dr. A's surgery suite is very much newer and modern. This sleeve is doing exactly what it is supposed to do and like I said, I already love it, probably because it's not giving me any trouble and I feel good. As always do your research. My recovery after the surgery is just as important as the surgery and both rely upon a surgeons skill and care with his patients. I'm very thankful I chose Dr. Alvarez!
May 2008:So here's my story: Ever since puberty I have been overweight. I had always been an athlete, working out year round and still I was 25-50 pounds overweight. Never felt very good about who I was, not a lot of self-confidence, no matter how great I did in sports. It never felt like I was accomplishing anything for me, but always someone else.
Fast forward 20 years and I found myself with an absolute angel for a son and a great husband who appreciates me for myself, warts and all. My son always said that I was NOT FAT, just nicely plump.
Along with the great family came another 50 pounds. I have lost up to 60 pounds at least 4 times. Always gaining it back plus some and settling into being about 100-120 pounds overweight.
In 2007, my husbands health (diabetes. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc) had taken it's toll on his kidneys and he was in kidney failure at age 44. I was able to donate one of my kidneys and able to get below 40 for a BMI. After that surgery it took me a long time to recover and then I had an abdominal hysterectomy 6 months later, which was partially attributed to my excess weight. I still have not fully recovered from these 2 surgeries and have found myself steadily gaining weight and hurting all over. In addition my stomach started to hang lower and I was unable to feel any tone in my belly area. I am unable to sleep and feel rested and my DH can't sleep with me due to my snoring.
I made the decision that losing and gaining weight was a very tiresome grind that needed to end. I started looking at WLS, researching it endlessly. I initially thought the band was the answer. I even had my surgeon picked out and was planning on sending the deposit in. Then very fortuitously, after signing on to OH, I received a call from one of the surgeon's offices that advertise on OH. I explained that I had made my decision with the band and surgeon and she asked me if I considered the sleeve. I replied "no" and that I appreciated her time but I had made up my mind. I was a bit turned off by the sales call. However that call stuck with me. In all my hours of research, I had never heard of the sleeve. I was considering the mini gastric bypass or band. So that night I got back on the computer, and behold the sleeve became to me, the best WLS. Not having had surgery yet I can't say yet if that will hold true with time, however I do know that it is what fit me best and I am extremely comfortable with my decision. I'm also very thankful for that irritating sales call because it gave me the answer that appears to work the best for me.
The Dr. I chose is in Mexico and so far I am confident I have made the right decision. I'll write more after surgery. Because my husband and I don't like to travel together without our son, my Mom is going with me to Mexico. She is very nervous about "the Mexico" part of surgery but said the greatest thing to me, "I trust you to do your homework". Yay Mom. My surgery is July 8, 2008 with Dr. Alvarez. I am self pay and had decided that the band had way too much drama for me, I would not be able to tolerate the fills and the PBing and other lovely concerns I was hearing about, and bypass at this point seemed too extreme for me. I am very comfortable with my decision and at the risk of repeating myself it seems to "fit" for me.
I have appreciated all the forums at OH and others for the invaluable information that helped me come to this decision.
