DianeToBeMe

I have been overweight since sometime after my second child at the age of 25. I grew up with a normal bmi, but with really unhealthy eating habits. I have touched on the idea of bariatric surgery over the years, but I didn't meet the criteria. In the past 4 or 5 years, my health has rapidly declined. I am pre-diabetic, I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, fibromyalgia (was originally diagnosed with lupus in 1986), osteoarthritis, etc. But, the problem that brought me all the way to the surgeon's office is laryngopharyngeal reflux. Worse the run of the mill gerd, my reflux is reaching my airways which has caused chronic inflammation and scarring of my trachea (windpipe) and narrowed it making breathing extremely difficult. At least that is the working theory as to why this is happening. I've already had 1 laser surgery/balloon dilation of my trachea, but within 5 weeks, the narrowing was already happening again. So, in hopes of obliterating the reflux and thereby protecting my airway, I am going to be having a (modified) roux en y wherein the surgeon will take extra steps to tighten the area around my upper esophageal sphincter to prevent backflow of acid. Plus the reduced intra-abdominal pressure after losing weight will help as well. All of the specialists I've seen believe this is the best chance at a completely positive outcome for me. I also have a congenital hernia that showed up incidentally on a CT that will hopefully be repaired, as well. This hernia may be the root cause of terrible pain below my ribcage that I've been living with for as long as I can remember. The idea of being free of that pain brings tears of joy to my eyes. 
 
I was extremely fortunate to have my insurance submission approved on the first try. We submitted it as an anti-refux surgery/general surgery and this way I was able to bypass the 6 month diet. It was kind of a long shot, but they approved it within 24 hours of submission. So, all in all, it's been about 4 months from my first meeting with the surgeon to my surgery date, August 8, 2016.