2by4
Hello fellow OHers,
Here's a little bit about me:
In 2004, at 42 years of age, I had a VBG (Vertical Banded Gastroplasty) with Dr. Abawi in Bowmanville. Within the first year I lost 70+ pounds and despite having a very active lifestyle, I never lost anymore!
In 2006, age 44, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer and fought a valiant battle for 3 years. I had both breasts removed, 6 months of chemotherapy, 6 weeks of radiation and then another year of (hormonal-based) chemotherapy, which had to end when I suffered heart failure.
In 2008, age 46, I "gave birth" to 2 beautiful new breasts through the magic of plastic surgery and the DIEP method (basically where they transplant the abdominal fat to the chest area). Everything was very successful and I have the 132" of scars to prove it. Soon thereafter I also had nipples made and aerolas permanently tattooed.
In 2009 I had to have an open abdominal total hysterectomy. And in late 2009, after being off work for 3 years, I was forced to return to work (because of insurance reasons). I love my job but I was so fatigued and stressed-out that I could barely make it everyday. All I did was sleep and work.
By 2010, not quite 6 years post-VBG, I had gained back about 50 pounds. Even my perfectly flat tummy from the DiEP was huge and my new chest mounds grew another 2 cups larger!
..... fast forward to 2011 and I was consistently gaining 2-3 pounds every month!
In August 2011 my family doctor filled out a referral to the Ontario Bariatric Network asking for a consultation to see if I would even be a good candidate for a conversion to Roux-En-Y Gastric By-Pass Surgery.
I called and emailed the OBN after 6 weeks and they said it was far too early to have received my application. I followed-up with them again at 3 months and they confirmed they had received it and had referred my application to Guelph - they said I should hear from Guelph within 6 months. At 6 months I called Guelph and they confirmed they had me in their queue and asked me to be patient. After 9 months when I impatiently called them again, they did not have my application!
I called back to the Ontario Bariatric Network and told them of the fiasco and they arranged to transfer my file to Humber River (HRRH). I called them a week later to confirm they received my file and they invited me to the Information Session the next day! Once under their wing, everything has been very organized and streamlined.
There have been a couple of hiccups along the way.... seems Dr. Hagen prefers to do the conversions, so getting an appointment with him took a month or so... then he wanted to personally do a Gastroscopy before making a decision...and that process takes a couple of months. Getting in to see Dr. Glazer was a real circus and then he wanted a heart-scan... blah blah blah.... Trying to find vacancies and juggle appointments is a nightmare!
When I finally did complete all interviews and appointments (November 2012) I was booked for surgery at the end of February - almost 4 months away! I couldn't believe it. His secretary called me in early January to explain to me that because Dr. Hagen's Operating Room time was always going over the 2-hour mark, the hospital insisted he cut-back from doing 4 surgeries per day, to only 3 and allow 2.5 hours per surgery. Not only that... but then the hospital gave him another surgery scheduled day in the Operating Room! So... instead of doing 4 surgeries in one day, he's doing 6 surgeries in 2 days.
The good news for me was that they had all this new and extra operating times available - so I was moved up from February 19th to January 28th.
The bad news for the newbies will be... that it will be more difficult to get to see an appointment with him because now he's only in the office one day per week. Not sure if this schedule is permanent or if they are trying to clear up a backlog of patients...
It's all good with me! When I had my VGB done in 2004 - it took two years to get an appointment to see the Surgeon and he only did one surgery per week! If I remember correctly, from start to finish, THAT process was about a 3-year adventure....almost as long as the weight remained off.
And that was the QUICK route! There were 3 or 4 other surgeons in the GTA area with wait times of 5 years! Eventually, OHIP started allowing Bariatric patients to go to the U.S. for surgery.
But, I digress.
And so... my surgery on January 28th went very well. He kept me in the hospital for 4 days because I kept getting a fever and "dumping". Which he thought was very odd. I am in little-to-no pain and by all accounts, I'm doing very well. I'm not happy about my lack of energy and my taste buds are all whacky.
Even though I cautioned the doctors and nurses about my highly-sensitive skin and pleaded with them to not use the sticky tape on me... they still did. Ugh. I am soooo itchy and scarred from all the wound dressings. I know, I know.... it seems trivial, but it's very uncomfortable. I am also bruised from knees to boobs from needles. Iye yie yie.
And through it all... I'm a happy girl.
The only thing incurable is my optimism!
