My old time eighties stomach staple

I had this in 1982. I was around 22. What I remember most is how abusive my surgeon was. They served me a soft diet, bland meal and I nibbled on it. When he came to see me, he threw a tantrum. he left me in tears.

In nursing school, I was working the OR and the same asshole threw a piece of bloody, cancerous colon at a nurse for not being fast enough with the bowl. He needed his butt whipped in a big way.

I was young, I tolerated the surgery well and healed quickly.

I'd battled weight my entire life, since childhood. It was the one thing out of my control. I had weight loss surgery because it seemed to be the only answer for me. But it was a fail.

The stomach staple simply never worked. When my surgeon went in for a VBG in the mid nineties, they say they saw little evidence that staple lines were ever there.

New Medical Diagnosis

Apparently, I have rheumatoid arthritis.  I had terrible pain, joint swelling, fever of 101 back in April/May.  I could barely walk and had to be assisted to the bathroom.  My surgeon was jumpy because of all  my prior problems post-op and promptly admitted me when my mother called him.

I was referred to a rhematologist by my surgeon and the rheumy gave me medrol (a steroid) IV.  It was like magic.  The swelling went down and boom, I was fixed.  It took this long to see him at his office.  He said I had RA (verified by bloodwork too) and said if I didn't take RA meds for treatment, there was an 85% chance for joint damage with severe disability in the future.

Well, dang.  Then I looked over at the RA meds and checked my insurance.  The ones on TV, the biologics (Humira, Orencia, Embrel) are incredibly expensive...as in around $1500 a month.  They don't come in pill format and must be injected.  My insurance would only pay 70% of these types of drugs.  Remicade you get IV in the hospital every couple of months and it costs $1200-$1800 a pop.  I can't afford several hundred dollars a month for one med.  The biologics zap your immune system, leaving you open for infections and at higher risk for lymphoma.  Just dandy.

Then there's the DMARDS such as methotrexate and arava, nasty drugs too, but my insurance pays for most of these.  Lots of side effects.

In the meantime there are NSAIDS and corticosteroids.  I was on prednisone a month or so ago and it dampened my looming flareup right down.


The rheumy told me to take 1600 mg of ibuprofen a day without fail.  Prednisone is hell on the tummy too.  Even with 20mg of Prilosec twice a day, what is that going to do to my poor stomach?

Ah, hell.  I think the RA was triggered either by the trauma of surgery or some med I had during my extensive hospitalization.

Menopause was also triggered.  My last period was the month before my surgery in January and it's July now.  With everything else going on, I'm not noticing any menopausal grief such as hot flashes or mood swings.  I guess being period-free is good for my tendency to low iron.

And sob!  My hair is coming out by the handfuls for the past couple of months.  I have male pattern baldness like all the men in my family!   It's too hot outside to contemplate a wig, a weave or even a headwrap.  At least my receding hairline is cool.

I suppose this is enough moaning for now.  On the bright side, I lost another pound, 71 pounds total.  Just got labs drawn, I'll call Monday for the results.  My tube has been pulled too and that's much better.  My diabetes is resolved, my sleep apnea gone and my high blood pressure much better.

What happened after my DS

Here it is...I replied to a lady who's going in for a DS with the same surgeon.  Last February Dunshee and Stewart (who has since moved) said they've done around fifty DS.  I'm sure it's more now.

Dr. Dunshee is very good.  Dr. Anthone trained him.  I have faith in him...but I had two WLS before and was a very complicated revision.  He said I was the most difficult surgery he ever did, period, and he's done lots.  Dr. Stewart (he just relocated and is no longer with the practice) assisted him with the surgery and also follow up procedures (EGDS, stent placement).  Also an excellent doctor.

I had complications...they basically had to reconstruct my stomach, which was a mass of scar tissue... I was on the table six hours, the longest time they've ever taken doing a DS.  My blood pressure dropped dangerously after surgery and I had to have blood transfusions...was admitted to ICU.  Dr. Dunshee came and inserted a central line and I was put on Dopamine to stabilize.

I was in the hospital in and out over three months, ICU twice.  Dr. Dunshee pulled me through.  I know I would have died with a lesser surgeon.  He was attentive, caring and pro-active along with being technically adept, but most importantly, did not try to rush in with multiple dangerous surgeries as some would have done and killed me.  (I'm a RN, I know the drill).

At the time it was hellacious though.  I couldn't eat or drink for months.  Did tube feedings.  I still have my tube in.  Revisions are the toughest surgeries.

But now I'm back on track and eating!  Doing good.  Lost 70 pounds so far!  Struggling to get protein in...drinking shakes.  I can eat all the soft stuff with small amounts of soft meats and recently salads.  I missed salad terribly.  Will probably get the tube out soon, but i use it to take big pills (I crush them) and anything nasty.

It's a big surgery, not a light and breezy thing like some make it out to be...but for me it was worth it.  I think I made the right decision with sticking with Dunshee and going through with the surgery.  My sleep apnea and diabetes are gone and my high BP is lower.

P.S.  My common channel is 100 cm.  

My decision to have the DS

I decided to have weight loss surgery in the middle of October 2008.  I've tried to lose weight every other way a person can and failed over and over.  My body wars with me.  


Living in this culture of plenty, my body demands to be fat.  My mind cannot overcome it, I've tried.  It's like going without water when you're thirsty and surrounded by drink.  There's no comparison with quitting smoking.  I did that 22 years ago with no sweat in comparison with dieting.     


Both my parents are obese, both have diabetes and hypertension and so do I, in addition to the other maladies my parents suffer, arthritis and sleep apnea.  I had my daughter at 37 years.  If I want to see and enjoy my grandchildren, I need to do something now.    


 That something is weight loss surgery.  It is the only thing that works.  Even if I accomplished the monumental feat of losing weight, I doubt if I could battle with my body for the rest of my life to keep it off.  It would be miserable.  There's a reason there is only a 2% long term success rate losing any significant amount of weight.     


It will not be my first time to dance with the knife.  I'd had a stomach staple in the early 80s that completely failed.  Then I had a vertical banded gastroplasty.    This was the only time in my life I was a normal weight outside of my teenage years.  


Being a normal weight is the only reason I was able to marry and have a child.  Six years after my bypass, I went to the doctor to see about the constant vomiting and heartburn.  He put down a scope and dilated my stoma.  After that I could eat anything and I rapidly regained the weight.   


It's 14 years later and I'm again morbidly obese with co-morbidities, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and now sleep apnea with a CPAP.  I have disability and a Medicare Advantage program.  Medicare will pay for most weight loss surgeries.   


So here I go again.