It started about 3 years ago, My sister, then, a 21 year old young woman was
living her life normally when she was overtaken by a horrible pain in her
abdomen, followed by throwing up and not even being able to keep water down for
days we decided it's time to take her to the emergency room, the doctors wrote
it off as a stomach virus and said it would pass.
Months go by without a trace of another "attack" when again same scenario, back
to the E.R- again told it was a stomach virus, not one doctor did a test, MRI,
CAT anything.. this happened more times than I can really count in the years to
follow, when finally she had the worse "attack" ever which lasted for weeks, no
one had a clue what was going on "could this really be a virus?" It got to the
point where, her face had sunken in at her cheek bones, she looked sick, I
thought I was going to lose my sister and I was terrified.
After the last episode we met with our family doctor yet once again, he sat and
brainstormed with us for what seemed like forever, then finally he thought "it's
a long shot but let's check your pancreas" – A long shot because not only was
she a 22 year old otherwise healthy young woman, but she wasn't an alcoholic.
He performed the necessary testing and made the astounding discoveries, not only
were her triglycerides at alarming numbers, (normal triglycerides levels should
be 130 or under) hers were at 5000, but my sister, my best friend, was suffering
from pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) causing the "attacks "of
dehydration, excruciatingly painful episodes and constant vomiting. Now you can
imagine how angry we were with the hospitals and previous doctors that not one
of them thought to check her levels, not one of them cared enough to get to the
bottom of why my sister was withering away slowly and in such pain.
Once we knew this info we thought "ok, give her some medication and let her get
back to her life" They experimented on her as if she was the poster child for
narcotic exploration, she tried it all from high doses of Niacin, Omega 3 fats
(which spiked her triglycerides even more) to Trilipix, Nothing helped, Now it
was starting to become an issue of just when her body was going to give up the
fight because she was tired, fed up and sick and tired of feeling sick and
tired.
I had been researching the Lap-Band®®® procedure for myself and brought it to her
attention, "Well it's known for helping with diabetes.. maybe it will help with
this too". She searched for a surgeon right away, we didn't need any surgeon,
what we needed was someone experienced and had a "clue" about this monster
inside her.
She came across Dr. George Fielding at NYU Langone Medical Center, when reading
his bio we thought maybe this is the guy to help, we hoped that finally our
prayers would be answered and within the month had an appointment to meet with
him.
Now let me get into why I wrote this, This isn't one of those writings of mumbo
jumbo or blah blah hear my story blah.. No, this is for you, the reader to
understand the extent of the situation before any action was taken, and for you
all to know that without Dr. Fielding, my best friend would not be here with me
today.
During the consult he was what some would call brutally honest, but coming from
all the flakey sugar coating doctors we came from, this brutality was utterly
refreshing. He told her that while the band would help lower her triglycerides,
at her severity, it wouldn't have made much of a difference and she was a
ticking time bomb. So here we thought "back to square one" When Dr. Fielding mentioned there was another option called the Biliopancreatic Diversion where he would by-pass the pancreas so that she would only be using a small percentage of it, It was a dangerous procedure but considering that by the time she'd be 30 we were looking
at heart attacks, strokes or even worse, this was our best bet.
I must mention that both my sister and I have medical backgrounds, both went to
medical institutes and both have an above "average" knowledge of medical
terminology and physiology but this, was foreign to us. We had no idea what it
would entail, was it going to work? So the researching data started. This was
it! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Why didn't any of the doctors we
saw in the past even mention the option? The answer, we shall never know but one
did, and for that, and I speak for my entire family, are eternally grateful.
Dr. Fielding performed the procedure within 2 months of her initial consult, The
procedure itself took less than 2 hours and here I am writing this over 2 months
later and she is doing fantastic. Her triglycerides are down to numbers I am
even to scared to mention because they are so good and she is finally able to
eat normally, just live.
Without him, I don't know what Id be writing about today, but chances are,
nothing good. I'd like to express my gratitude, my appreciation to him and his
staff for letting me keep my sister, We could never express it accurately or
enough but, know, that he saved my sister's life and I can never repay him for
the gift of a normal life he gave her. Thank You so much for everything, we are
forever grateful from the bottom of our hearts.
-Jasmine (scheduled for the band with Dr. Fielding 6/14)
