Spatters3

In 2009 my husband and I seriously investigated weightloss surgery. I was convinced (again) that there was no way I wanted the Lap Band or the Gastric Bypass - they both scared the heck out of me. Shortly after I had my right knee replaced and it was a botched implant. I searched high and low for a surgeon to do a revision and all of them said, "No, Come back after you lose 100 pounds," My darling PCP worked with me and even prescribed weight loss pills (speed) but all that did was turn me into a screaming witch of a miserable human being.

After a few months of agonizing pain I eventually had to get a power chair and almost ended up on long term disability (was actually, for one day). And still, I couldn't lose the weight. God took mercy on me and thanks to a friend of my brother I found a surgeon who replaced my broken knee. Hooray! Then I could move and I could walk and I was SURE that now I would be able to lose weight. Even with all of that very scary weight-caused disability, I could NOT lose weight. I checked out the Georgetown KY Bariatric Center's web page yet again and found *gasp* a NEW procedure called Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. I read everything I could about it and joined the verticalsleevetalk.com website and decided, "Yes. This I can do!"

The Bariatric Center has a stringent pre-op program because they work very hard so you will succeed. I had to go through 100's of tests, or so it seemed: blood work, ekg, x-rays, stress test, nuclear heart scan, egd, psych eval, education classes... it went on for months! Finally, I got my surgery date: February 27, 2012. Then a week later I got a call, "Would you like to be moved up to February 13?" Oh yeah!

The day of surgery was pleasant, no problems with the surgery at all. Alas, when I woke up in the ICU I was sooooo sick. I couldn't keep water down. I was so weak and sick and miserable the poor doctor kept me an extra night and ordered an upper GI , I got to see for myself what my new sleeve looked like and that there was no blockage and no leak. From that time forward I have not thrown up anything and every day I get stronger and smaller. By the way, the nursing staff at Georgetown Hospital are top notch.