My Verticle Sleeve Experience
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I am almost five months post op from having my Verticle Gastric Sleeve. I had my surgery at the INT hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. Right off the bat, I have to say, it is the best thing I have ever done for myself. I feel SO much better, having lost 90 pounds so far. And I know that I look better! My family has had mixed reactions. But I am thrilled!
I have always been heavy, fat, fluffy, large, obese, what ever you want to call it. Once, when I was pregnant with our second child, I was so nauseated, I lost about 30 pounds at the beginning of the pregnancy. My doctor told me to eat more. I told him how nauseated I was, how I just couldn't eat. He said "You have to force yourself to eat!" And I thought "Just my luck! THE ONLY TIME IN MY LIFE I AM SUPPOSED TO FORCE MYSELF TO EAT, AND I AM NAUSEATED!!!" Never before or since has anyone ever told me to force myself to eat!!
I had my surgery the middle of June this year, and have lost a total of 90 pounds so far. I now wear a size 12, and am coming up fast on a size 10. (I tried on a pair of size ten slacks this morning, and they fit, but are tight. Didn't buy them. Just wanted to see if I could get them on!) But what a thrill. I know that as a child, I went straight from children's sizes to a women's size 16! Never, ever wore a size smaller than a 16. And gradually since my marriage (40 years ago!) I have gained a few pounds each year, taking me to an all time high of 260 lbs.
I am a travel nurse. My specialty is Labor and Delivery. I love to work with laboring women! Don't so much care for delivered women or babies, but I love the laboring women! I have been working as a travel nurse for about 5 years now. A travel nurse contracts out, through an agency, to work for a hospital for a set number of weeks, usually 13 weeks at a time. At first I only worked contracts around Iowa, my home state. Then about three years ago, I took a contract in California, and have been working off and on in California ever since. I have been at my current contract for over a year. At the end of each contract here, they have just kept offering me extensions. So I have stayed here. I love it here in Merced, CA, but my current contract is over in a few weeks, and I have decided to go home,. My husband is lonely living alone, and it is of the highest importance to me is to keep him happy!
When I initially started working in California, I thought I would use my time here to get thinner. I had an image of everyone in California being tan and thin and good looking. (The Hollywood Image I guess.) But it didn't work that way. I was lonely, living all by myself with no family or close friends, and I cooked and baked, and ATE! (Did I mention that I LOVE to cook and bake? Wish I had discovered this talent 40 years ago, I would have been a chef instead of a nurse!) I gained almost 40 pounds living in California by myself. So about a year ago, I started considering having bariatric surgery. My first cousin IS a bariatric surgeon, and I even went for a consultation with him. However, our insurance wouldn't cover it at all, and even though he offered to do the surgery free of charge, I would still have to pay the hospital and anesthesia charges out of my pocket. So I opted for going to Mexico and having the surgery there.
I have previously expressed on this board my mixed feelings about my surgery in Mexico, so won't repeat it here. But the end result has me thrilled to death! I love the results I have gotten, and am so happy with my outcome. I couldn't ask for better results. No complications other than a persistant fatigue that hounded me for the first 4-6 weeks post op. But now am over that, and loving the way my life is now. I get so many compliments on how I look, and how much I have lost. Everyone has been so nice about it. I can't say enough about how my friends have supported me. It is going to be interesting to go home in a few weeks and see how my friends there react to me.
When I first told my four children I was going to have the surgery, they all expressed displeasure and negativity about it. My son's mother-in-law had a Roux-N-Y surgery (another bariatric surgery) about 8 years ago, and she lost a huge amount of weight. But has gained it all back. She drinks quit a bit, and I think her alcohol consumption has contributed to her weight regain significantly. A good friend of mine who also has always been heavy had a Roux-N-Y procedure 9 or 10 years ago, and she too has gained most of her weight back. I look at them, and it re-doubles my determination not to gain my weight back. I want so strongly to maintain the loss I have achieved and continue on till I get to goal. (Also, I have given away ALL my fat clothes, so I HAVE to stay this thin, or go naked which would NOT be a pretty sight!)
I told my husband at the outset, when he expressed his concerns about my having surgery, I am not doing this to look better, I am doing this to FEEL better. And I can say without a doubt, I feel SO good now. My joint aches and pains are gone. My chronic fatigue is gone, I have Loads of energy. I have been able to quit my arthritis medicine, my cholesterol medicine, my allergy medicine (who knows about that one!), my blood sugar medicine (I was a Pre-diabetic) and my blood pressure medicine. So I KNOW that my health has improved! What more could I ask for? My only regret is that this procedure wasn't available 30+ years ago!!!