chefpamc49

My name is Pamela C. I am from North Carolina. I am a Certified Personal Chef and Certified Person Pastry Chef. My journey with gastric bypass started last year in September. My husband is a photographer and had a client come in to take pictures because they had had the surgery. After speaking with them, I quickly made up my mind that this was something I needed to look into. I had looked into having gastric bypass before but always thought that I could not afford it even with having insurance because of the upfront out of pocket money that I would have to pay. I had already gone to several information sessions. After speaking with my husbands client and getting her story I contacted the same surgeon that she had used. My journey began! At my initial consultation with Dr. Enoch of Bariatric Surgeons of NC I weighed in at 412lbs. OMG I did not realize that I had let myself get that out of hand but I knew I was in the right place. The next 2 months were full of appointments to prepare me for surgery. December rolled round and I started to get nervous thinking that my insurance company was not going to approve my surgery before the end of the year as I had already met my deductible and I needed this surgery to go before the end of the year so I wouldn't have to start all over again with a new deductible. And lo and behold 2 weeks before Christmas 2012 I got the call that my surgery had been approved and I got my surgery date ... Dec. 28, 2012. This was the best decision I had made in my life. I was tired of being fat, tired of always hurting; my back hurt, my knees hurt, my ankles hurt .... seemed like everything hurt all the time and I was tired of it. My only co-morbidities were sleep apnea and high blood pressure thank the Lord! The morning of my surgery date as I was driving to Raleigh for my surgery, I got a call from my surgeons nurse stating that because I had sleep apnea and I did not have my own machine, that I would have to be in intensive care for 1 day after my surgery. I didn't care this was fine with me as long as the surgery was still going to take place. My surgery went without a hitch and my stay in intensive care was short (about 8 hours) before they transferred me to a regular room. My surgery was on Friday at 430p and I was leaving the hospital and heading home on Sunday at 11a. I will say the following week was pretty easy, I didn't have any problems. Week 2 and Week 3 were a little more challenging with trying to get used to only having soup broth or yogurt and not getting to really eat (drink) very much of that. Once I got past the 4th week, I felt I was used to my new lifestyle and my weight loss journey had begun. Two weeks after surgery, I was taken off my blood pressure pills and I had no signs of sleep apnea. I will say getting used to the new eating habits can be somewhat challenging. Knowing when to stop eating or drinking is challenging at times because your brain is saying keep eating but your stomach is saying I'm way more that full. I think that has been my biggest challenge with the whole process of having the Sleeve is knowing really when to stop eating. It has been 10 months since my surgery, and I am down 144 lbs. I feel AMAZING ...who knew that losing so much weight that everything changes in how you feel, no aches and pains, no more high blood pressure, no more sleep apnea, and a whole new outlook on life. I wish I had done this years ago. I have 83 more pounds to go to reach my goal. I turn 50 in March, it is my goal to be at my goal. I look forward to my future!!

Hello Melody, My name is Pam Cager. I had my surgery Dec. 28, 2012. I too have problems with dairy. I cannot eat eggs and milk is not really my friend either; but believe it or not, I can have Ice Cream; it does not bother me. But if I eat a bowl of cereal with milk, well lets just say its not the best thing for me. Eggs truly are not my friend anymore and I hate that because I loved eggs. I've been told that if your stomach doesn't tolerate certain things, just wait and while and then try it again. So the best advise I can give you, is to just wait a while and try again and see if you'll be able to tolerate dairy later. Good Luck!!