The New & Still Impr Robin
My name is Robin. I am 39 years old and have been a member of OH since October 2004.
I have not always been heavy like alot of people on this site. My years growing up were pretty normal. In 1986, I had surgery on my left knee to correct a hereditary condition where my knee cap (patella) would slip out of socket. As I was unable to exercise for six weeks after that and I continued to eat the same portions of food that I had in the past, I began to slowly gain weight. When the six weeks were up and I could start exercising again, I didn't. The weight continued to pile on, unnoticed for a while until I was up to 250 lbs.
Well, I soon started becoming self-conscious and depressed with myself. I tried going on diets like Weight Watchers, and lost 10 lbs in the first week. Then 2 or 3 weeks later, I quit going. I tried diet pills from the store. You name it, I probably tried it. My weight continued to go up, as opposed to my self-esteem. I got more depressed, and in turn, ate more. I attempted join the gym quite a few times, but never went because I was self-conscious and didn't like the way I looked and felt, and I sure as heck didn't want anyone else to see me like that.
In 2001, weighing in at 427 lbs, I started looking into having the Vertical Banded Gastroplasty (VBG) and knew a friend at work who's partner had had the procedure with success. So I found a doctor near my house who did this procedure and scheduled a consultation. Dr. Kasper, in my opinion, was a good doctor who had a no nonsense approach with his patients. He wanted to make sure that the prospective patients were ready for the surgery and prepared to do what was necessary to take care of themselves afterwards. I felt that I was ready for this and wanted to move forward. But other things were in store for me. My mom got sick in July 2001 and almost died. She was diagnosed with end stage renal disease and was immediately put on dialysis. After she recovered from her hospital stay, she decided that she wanted to try a different kind of dialysis called peritoneal dialysis, which could be done at home at night 7 days a week as opposed to 2-3 days going to a clinic to have the other dialysis done. I agreed to help her and felt the need to put my surgery on hold because I didn't know what I would do if I had the surgery and was unable to help her if something went wrong. My decision turned out to be a good one, because as the time went by, my mom got sicker and the dialysis was not working. My mom died on March 19, 2002. I was so glad that I had put the surgery on hold. In January 2002, I had decided to join Weight Watchers to see if I could lose some of the weight. When my mom died, I had lost 25 lbs. After that I continued to lose until I had lost 72 lbs and then started gaining again. I gained back all but 5 lbs.
In October 2004, I took up the idea again of having the vbg surgery. My dad wasn't very thrilled about it and kept trying to talk me out of it. Well, I felt I needed to do what I had to do. So I found another doctor, Dr. Beryl Harberg, and called to make an appointment for the consultation. Well, at this time, I found out that my insurance had and exclusion for weight loss surgery of any kind for any reason. I still went to the consultation and was floored when Dr. Harburg told me that he was not going to write a pre-determination letter because it would do no good and the insurance company would still deny. I was crushed.
After that, I pretty much gave up on having the surgery for a while unless I could find a way to self-pay. This gave me some time to start doing research on other types of surgery. I came upon the Duodenal Switch. I started going to the message boards and "lurking". I read so many posts of the success of this surgery and that people could eat more normally. This seemed to be the perfect surgery for me. But, how was I going to do it? I kept trying other methods of losing weight including another stint with Weight Watchers. I lost 50 lbs just before my dad passed away in March 2006. I am currently struggling every day to keep as much of this weight off and not regain it all back again. I currently hover around 380 lbs to 390 lbs.
When my dad passed away, I found myself with enough cash to be able to go through with the surgery. But where did I want to go? I knew that in the states, it would be really expensive, and I didn't know if I could afford that much. So I decided to look outside the US to Brazil and Dr. Joao Marchesini. I have heard so many good things about this man from others who have been under his care. He seems to be a genuine and awesome doctor.
In September, I sent off my introduction to Dr. M. I waited a week before he emailed me back with a date. October 24th! I am going to have surgery in Brazil. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited. I called my friend Sue, who is one of my best friends from church and told her about it. I then hinted that "I could bring someone with me". She jumped at this chance, because "Heck, this is Brazil we're talkin' about."
Anyway. So now I am leaving for Brazil on Saturday October 21st (only 1 week). It's probably going to hit me full force when I board the plane next Saturday. But right now it still doesn't seem real.
