How did a former athlete who was 9% body fat in college get to this point? Well I was born with a bad heart valve that wore out faster than my body did. In my early 40s suddenly I was gasping for breath, by my late 40s I was type 2 diabetic, at 50 I had surgery for diverticulitus and lost 4" of my colon which slowed me down more. At 52 I had open heart surgery where they replaced the valve and found a aneurysm which would have killed me.
However, I came out of this unable to lift weights, play softball or baseball, with a right arm and shoulder with nerve damage in it and a bad knee and hip. Then the meds quit controlling my diabetes, the new meds added weight and now it is out of control, I have nerve damage in my feet and my wife has to look at them every night to make sure I don't wind up with an infection. I was approved as a metabolic Weight Loss Patient on the first go around.
I am now on my second doctor because the staff of the first one frankly was incompetent. I was lied to when they told me that they had filed FMLA, and I was pre-approved by insurance, they hadnt submitted either one of them. So being the analyst that I am I checked and found out everything. Added to that the hospital that they wanted to have the surgery in didnt have the best reputation. I should have had the surgery two months ago to keep nerve damage to a minimum.
I am very nervous, from my major surgeries I live with pain every day. I was told that while they can do the sleeve that the results are better with bypass. However, the horror stories with malabsorption worry me. I am doing this to be able to have a life again not just to trade one set of issues for a whole other set. So any feedback is appreciated.
