My Story
On April 30th 1960 I was born in Lebanon PA, a small town near Hershey PA the place where they make the candy bars. I was born normal size and weight and was a skinny kid, I have pictures of me so skinny that in some pictures you can even see my ribs. Then about the age of 10 or 11 things started to change. Some doctors think that when I started going through puberty thing in my metabolism started changing also. I do know however I started picking up some very bad eating habits that would stick with me for the rest of my life. Coming from PA Dutch country and having a background of Amish and Mennonite, we ate a lot of red meat and potatoes, we had them at almost every meal. Along with lots of butter bread, and whole milk, and of course you had to finish all the food on your plate so you could have desert even if you were full, and man did we ever have the deserts. My mom was a good cook and a even better baker. We always had a large assortment of cakes cookies and pies to eat any time we wanted, and oh yeah there was always that big dish of candy sitting on the table to help your self to day or night.
As I got older my weight steadily increased and in school because of my weight I had hardly any friend. Girls would have nothing to do with me and even some of my teachers made fun of me. Even with my size I did manage to play sports I was on the football team and wrestling team. I even was in the marching band mostly because I was big enough to lug around the tuba. I was very active even at my weight at the age of 17 I joined the volunteer fire department and at 18 became an EMT, and was an CPR and first aid instructor for the American red cross and the American heart association. By me senior year in high school I was well over the 300 pound mark and that is when I made my firs attempt at weight loss. The way I tried was very foolish. I started taking speed or at the time what they called black betty’s. I would take a hand full in the morning when I woke up and more during the day , and then at night I would have to drink a bottle of Nyquil to go to sleep. Then one day I was teaching a first aid class and we were practicing taking blood pressures and my was 220/150 and I knew it was a result of taking the speed and it scared the crap out of me and I stopped taking them cold turkey.
After I graduated from high school I found a job working for the Federal Government in a public housing complex doing building maintenance. As the years went by my weight kept slowly increasing. Then in the mid 80s there were 3 woman who lived in the complex where I worked that had WLS. All 3 were well over the 300 pound mark and they all had what was called Vertical banded gastroplasty or more commonly known as stomach stapling. The firs woman lost a lot of weight real fast and kept it off. She moved away and I never got to know if she kept it off long term. The second one lost weight fast but in a years time she regained it all back. The third woman had major complication and was hospitalized for several months after the surgery and never lost any weight. So I decided to check into the operation for my self. I contacted the hospital that was doing the operation and they told me they would send me a pamphlet on the possible complication of the WLS. When it arrived it was in a large envelope and was more than 50 pages long on all the possible complications. Not only that but since I wasn’t on welfare and my insurance wouldn’t pay for it I would have had to pay it on my own so it was out of the question. I am so glad I didn’t have the WLS at that time. After the government found it necessary to cut the budget I lost my job with the government.
My weight kept increasing and I bounced around from job to job for awhile until I got a job working in an amusement park in Hershey PA. I started as a ride operator which was a blast getting to operate the big rollercoaster’s and other rides. I was then promoted to being the monorail foreman for several years, and finally promoted to being the office manager of the entire rides department. However me working at the park took it’s toll on my legs, I would be on my feet for 8 to 10 hours a day standing on hard hot black top concrete. I developed venostasis cellulitis in my legs and then I would get blood clots in my legs that would break off and go to my lungs. This happened several times and it almost killed me. Because of it I had to quit working and had to go on disability. Now that I stopped working my weight really started increasing.
By the mid to late 90s I was in about the 450 to500 pound range and the people of PA were very unkind to overweight people. Everywhere I went people would stare, point and make fun of me. It got so bad I just couldn’t take it anymore. I live in a one room shack and for the next 15 months, and I never stepped outside my door. I paid people to bring me food and run my errands. Then a friend of mine I met working at the park who was into computers made me a small computer just enough for me to get online. That’s when a miracle happened. One day I was in a chartroom and I got a instant message from a woman who lived in Missouri. She was kind and caring and understood what I was going through, she was my angel. We talked online and on the phone for several months. It didn’t take long for us to realize we were meant to be together. So in July of 1999 she got on a greyhound bus and came to PA, rented a U-Haul truck loaded all my stuff and me and we headed back to Missouri and on December 24,1999 we were married. We are still happily married today.
After moving here I made another attempt at weight loss I went to a local Doctor who specialized in weight loss, and she put me on several different medications. It worked for awhile and I lost some weight but the effect of the pills wore off, and the fact I was having to pay for the pills that were very expensive. I got discouraged and stop going to her and gained all my weight back and then some. My weight started going up faster than I even realized. Then on October 20th 2000 I woke to difficulty breathing and I knew it was blood clots in my lungs again. My wife called the ambulance when they got there they had to call in the fire department to get me out the house. The fire department had to remove the windows in the bedroom and take me out through the side of the house on a tarp. I tell people I was a potential Jerry Springer show. When they got me to the hospital they worked on me in the back of the ambulance because they had no bed big enough for me to fit in right away. They took all the equipment, x-ray machines ect to the back of the ambulance to work on me. Finally they found a bed big enough for me to fit in and it was equipped with a scale and my weight was 878 pounds. I had filled with fluid and was droning in my own tissues. They told my wife that there was no way I was going to live and if I did I would be on a respirator the rest of my life. This is when another miracle happened. Just by the will of God a pulmonologist named Dr. James Coulter stopped in the ER to see what all the commotion was about, and he took over my care. He told my wife he would do everything he could to save my life. I was in a coma for 5 days and woke to tubes and wires hooked up all over my body. I spent the next 84 days in the hospital. They were pumping me full of drugs to get off the excess fluid and lose weight. In those 84 days I lost 234 pounds. I had to learn to walk all over again. The first day of my therapy it took 18 people just to stand me up for a few seconds. After I got home I worked with Dr. Coulter to try to lose more weight, we tried weight loss drugs again and just like before it worked for awhile but the effects wore off and my weight loss stopped.
That’s the time I decided to look into WLS again but the only places that were doing the surgery were St. Louis and KC. I didn’t want to travel that far. Then I found out that Cox hospital was going to start doing the WLS. I called and talked to the nurse in charge and she told me they were only doing the surgery on people under 300 pounds. She told me if I could get down to 300 pounds they could do the surgery. I told her if I could lose that much weight I wouldn’t need the surgery. That’s when I had my next miracle happen. I found out about St John’s and Dr. Hodges and Dr. Edwards and the weight loss team. I met with Dr. Hodges and he told me he could help me. He said he could do my WLS even at my present weight of 613 pounds. Now came the hard part getting my wife’s insurance (Aetna) to pay for it. I had to provide 5 years of weight loss records, go on a 6 months medially supervised weight loss program including consultations from a dietitian. I also needed a physiological evaluation, and establish a personal care physician. Also I had to meet with Dr. Hodges for 3 consecutive months. The baratric coordinator Mary Trampler was wonderful in getting all my paperwork in order. I was to have gastric bypass RNY lap if possible Dr. Hodges did say he may have to switch to open RNY if there was any problems. I was also to have my gallbladder removed and repair a belly button hernia. After doing all that I needed to I got a call from Mary Trampler telling me I was approved and my surgery date was November 14th 2006. Well as you can imagine I was overjoyed. This was to be my rebirth day.
Because of my past medical history of blood clots Dr. Hodges decided it would be safer if I had a IVC (inferior vena cava ) filter put in. They were going to put in a filter called a Green field filter, this filter could be removed at a later date. The day of the surgery to install the filter thing didn’t go as planed. First problem was I was to big to fit on the operating table, so they decided to let me stay on the hospital bed they brought me down to surgery in. They decided not to put me to sleep instead they were just going to use a local. As they started the operation they ran into the next problem, my veins were so large that the green filter was too small. The doctor decided to switch to another kind of filter called a bird’s nest filter.
The problem with this filter is once installed it can never be removed. They had a very difficult time placing the filter, but they got it installed finally
My rebirth day I arrived at the hospital at 6 am to fill out all the paperwork and get ready for my surgery. They took me to a room where I had to sign more papers and change into that sexy gown, slippers and hat, and off to the pre-op room I go. Up to this point I was cool and collected but once I was in the room I was starting to think what in the heck did I get myself into and where is the nearest exit. I get to meet the nurse’s and the anesthesiologist who will be in the OR with me. About that time in strolls Dr. Hodges dressed in a sweatshirt, and sweatpants. He comes over to me and gives me that look of his that says everything is going to be ok. We talk for a few minutes about what is to happen and he puts his hand on my knee and said he would see me in the OR. Now they start my IV’s and take me into the operating room, they move me over to the operating table and get me all hooked up. Dr. Hodges asks me if I am ready, I say yes an before I know it, it’s boom boom out go my lights. When I wake up in the recovery room I am still feel like I am floating on cloud 9 and in no pain. The nurse see’s that I am awake and she asks if I am in any pain, I tell her I am ok and how long was I in the operating room, she tells me just over 2 hours. She said all went well and they would be moving me to my room shortly. My wife told me later that right after my surgery Dr. Hodges came to the OR waiting room to talk to her. He told her all went better than he expected, My liver wasn’t as large as he thought it would be and that I have strong stomach tissues and should make a fast recovery. They put in a drain and the spot they put it in was in a muscle area and may cause some pain. Once they got me into my room they hooked me up to a machine that would administer pain medicine if I needed it. If I was in pain just push the button. The pain wasn’t to bad at first but as it got worse I decided not to play tough guy and I hit the button. The nurses on the floor were great they made sure I had everything I needed and was as comfortable as I could be. They also made sure that my wife had everything she needed to be comfortable too like extra blankets and pillows and would bring her in food for her to eat. The nest day Dr. Hodges came in and told be about the operation. The RNY went better than he expected he removed my gallbladder, I asked him how bad my gallbladder was, he said they stopped counting stones after 20. He also told me he decided not to repair my hernia at this time, it would be better to do it later after I lose a good amount of weight. Unfortunately that was the last time I would ever get to see Dr. Hodges because that was his last day at St. Johns and I was his last patient, and I would have to do my follow up care with Dr. Edwards who assisted Dr. Hodges with my surgery. I didn’t get to walk until the next day because they had to find a walker big enough for me to use. I had little problem getting up and walking , pain was minimal. So the next few days ,I walked and sipped and walked and sipped, and passed my leak teat by drinking that nasty blue stuff over ice I got to go home on November16th 2006.
On November 28th 2006 My right knee started swelling it got as big as the size of a basketball and then a hole opened up bigger than the size of a half dollar and all this nasty looking stuff that looked like rotten liver fell out and about a gallon of puss like drainage oozed out. I went to the ER and they found out I had a very bad staff infection. So I was admitted to the hospital for the next 3 days. They gave me IV antibiotics and cleaned out the wound 3 times a day. They sent me home with some oral antibiotics that cost $1400.00 for a 14 day supply, thank goodness for insurance. I also had to go to out patient hydro therapy 3 days a week for whirlpool treatments to help clean out the wound on my knee.
On December 9 2006 I got up late on a Saturday morning to having chest pains on my left side. At first I thought it was heartburn or something so I took some antacid pills but they were no help, so I had my wife drive me to the ER. In the ER they gave me some nitro pills and nitro spray and baby aspirin, and the pain went away. They did some tests to find out what caused the pain to see if it was a true heart attack or what it was but the one test they needed to do I am still to big to have. They wanted to do a Coronary angiography but they can’t do that test until I am well under 400 pounds. So as a precaution they put me on several different meds including blood thinners and aspirin to try and prevent it from happening again. Not thinking I did just what the doctor told me to do. I never thought about the fact that taking aspirin was a big no no for my new pouch, and that’s what led up to my next big problem.
On January 20 2007 just after the big ice storm here in Missouri it was another Saturday morning and I had gone to the bathroom and I knew I had a big problem. I saw a large amount of blood in my stool and I knew something was wrong. As the day went on I kept getting more and more light headed and dizzy. So back to the ER I go again. When I got there I tried to walk from the front door to the ER desk and almost passed out. Luckily there was a bench just inside the door and I just made it to sit down before passing out.
They came and got me in a wheel chair and took me back in to the room. When they tried to take my blood pressure it was 0/0. At this point I don’t remember much, the next thing I remember was wakening in the ICU with bags of IV’s and bags of blood being pumped into my arms, and oxygen mask on. Over the next 6 days they had to replace 10 pints of blood and 15 pints of plasma and I don’t even know how much IV fluid. What happened was from taking the aspirin when I had my chest pains the aspirin ate a hole in my pouch. They put a scope down my throat and they found a hole in my pouch with a big blood clot half the size of my pouch. The other problem was my blood was way to thin, my protime level should be 2.2 and it was 17.9. That is why I almost bled to death. So now they took me off all my meds. The doctors told me it would take a few weeks for me to get back to normal from all the blood loss, and I would need to start taking a Iron supplement.
On February, 19. 2007 I finally got clearance from my doctor to start working out at the gym. So on that Monday I went to the gym to walk some laps on the track. The next day when I woke up I had a pain behind my left knee. I thought that maybe I pulled a muscle from walking on Monday . So the next few days I decided just to take it easy and see if this would go away. The pain kept getting worse and spreading down to the bottom of my foot. This went on for about 2 weeks without getting any better, so on February 7 my wife had to go to her doctor for a check up so she said while she was at the doctor I should stop in the urgent care to have them look at my leg. Well as it should be no surprise it wasn’t just a simple pulled muscle, it was a blood clot in my left leg. It was blocked from my groin to my knee, so back into the hospital I go again. I think by now for all the times I have been in and out of that place I should have a room with my name on it. Well the solution to blood clots is of course blood thinners, like what almost killed me the time before. Now before they were to put me back on the blood thinners they had to run that scope back down my throat again to see if my ulcer in my pouch had healed. The test revealed that the ulcer had completely healed, and they could start the blood thinners. Here is what my pouch looks like.
After 2 days they sent me home with 28 pre-filled syringes with a type of blood thinning medicine in them that I had to inject into my belly for 14 days. This time the cost of the 28 syringes was $3.643.28, like I said before I am so thankful I have good insurance. Now I am also back on oral blood thinners but this time we are keeping a close watch on my blood levels to make sure it doesn’t get to thin again.
After all I have gone through people ask was all this worth the weight loss surgery. Well let me put it to you this way. Since my RNY surgery to date April. 12. 2007 I have lost 132 pounds, since I first meeting with Dr, Hodges in December 2005 I have lost 201 pounds, and from my highest weight in 2000 I have lost 466 pounds, and slowly getting my stamina and health back again, my answer is.
I WOULD DO IT OVER EVERY MONTH AGAIN IF I HAD TO !!!!!!