my weight loss surgery story again

The class was a practicuum, doing counseling while the teachers watched
through one-way mirrors, and they told me they could never pass me while I
was fat, people don't trust fat therapists, they'd know I had more serious
problems than they did. I was crushed.

And then I heard about the first weight loss surgeries being done then,
intestinal bypasses, which involved cutting the small intestine 14 inches
below the stomach and rejoining it up just four inches above the colon,
leaving 20+ feet of small intestine just flopping around loose inside.

Couldn't wait to get it done, especially when I met two women who had lost
100 pounds or so on it and seemed to be fine. Of course I met another woman
who almost died during the surgery, but it can't happen to me, I was
desperate. My husband was also eager for me to have it. (Of course he had
an affair while I was in the hospital, but whatever.)

I got pneumonia after the surgery while still in the hospital and did almost
die (first time) but recovered and proceed to lose 160 pounds in one year.
Also lost my health and my liver went ballistic.

A year later I developed this horrible odor, body-wide, nothing cured it.
Infection in backed-up loose intestine. Flagyl cured it temporarily, but
Flagyl is implicated in breast cancer so I couldn't keep taking it. Was on
super-large doses of tetracycline until it stopped working in 1981 and I had
to have the operation reversed. By now there was a new weight loss surgery,
stomach stapling. I signed up.

Three days after the surgery in the hospital, my stomach ruptured and again
I almost died--17-hour emergency surgery and 6 weeks in ICU at UCLA. But I
lived. Regained 100 pounds immediately.

Developed huge watermelon-sized hernia and had to have it corrected in 1983,
and by now there was yet another approach to stomach stapling, something
called gastric wrap, where they keep the stomach from expanding again by
wrapping it tightly around the tiny channel they leave, and holding
everything in place with mylar mesh.

Lots of scarring and adhesions, began to develop intestinal blockages,
severe pain and can lead to death. I lost my job at Harbor-UCLA--Blue Cross
told my boss either fire me or self-insure me or they would raise the rates
for the entire hospital medical insurance policies 50%. First they
self-insured me but I had to have another hernia repair and at the same time
a total hysterectomy, another $64,000 the UCLA medical research institute
had to pay.

So my boss started to document every single thing I did wrong (five minutes
late, etc.) and I could tell that the only way I could get my severance
package was to quit. And I was in pain much of the time anyway. No good
job, no health insurance, from 1984 on. I never even thought about going on
disability because I could still do temp typing work (after having been
Director of PUblic relations at $36,000 a year at Harbor-UCLA). With temp
jobs, when I had horrid pain and had to leave suddenly, I could get away
with it.

The pain was so bad that I used to lie down on the floor and bounce my
stomach up and down to get the blockage to dislodge. I could have ruptured
myself, but I didn't know quite what was happening, I thought it was just
gas. After any big operation, you develop scars and adhesions that can
cause food to block in the intestinal tract, and if it doesn't clear you
have to be operated on right away or you die of gangrene.

We could not afford to live in LA anymore on my temp occasional jobs, and we
had been robbed five times in the last four years anyway and had a murder in
our back yard. So we moved back to Michigan. Again I did odd jobs--clerk in
a computer store, and then I taught adult ed at night once a week.

In 1989, one night in front of the class the pain started again, I had to go
to the bathroom and lie down on the dirty floor adn try to bounce it out,
but it wouldn't go. So I had to leave my class and go home.

For three days I sunk deeper into depression, the pain gone to a dull ache,
until the skin on my abdomen turned black and we realized this was serious.
Rushed by ambulance to U-Michigan medical center, 12 hours from death, huge
overnight surgery that removed two feet of gangrenous small intestine and
surrounding tissue.

I was left with a surgical hole 2 feet across, 10 inches up and down, and
6-8 inches deep, for five months. Entire medical school kept coming to see
me, I was so bad. Because I didn't have medical insurance, and now
technically I was no longer in danger of dying, no one would operate, no one
would pay. I couldn't get Medicaid or disability, I was supposed to walk
around with this gaping hole with my guts falling out the rest of my life.

The visiting nurse who was supposed to come out to change the bandages twice
a day gagged when she saw the wound and wouldn't come back. Small town, she
was the only visiting nurse in the county (rural Michigan). So my partner
learned to do it.

Finally I sent photos of the wound, which looked like someone had cut out a
pot roast with a chain saw, to my state senator, and he got me Medicaid
immediately. U-Mich repaired the wound. Lots more mesh, lots more adhesions
and scars, lots more blockages coming, but I didn't know that yet. In six
weeks I was taken off disability, supposedly cured now.

But a year later the blockages started again. This time we were on the road
in our RV, house sold, travelling cross-country for three years. I wrote
and published three lesbian mystery novels while on the road.

Suddenly one day my abdomen ruptured open and my lunch fell out. Corn
chowder on my shoes. I was in a tiny town someplace, and that ER tried to
figure out what was wrong, but as soon as I stabilized they sent me off.
The abdomen kept rupturing, and I turned to ostomy bags to hold the fluid.

Nobody knew what to do, I had no insurance, they basically got rid of me as
fast as they could. I learned to love my ostomy bags. When a new track
would pop open on my abdomen I'd shift to a new ostomy site, sometimes two
at a time. I was on antibiotics that cost $500+ a month; we drove down to
Mexico and to Canada to get them for $50 a month.

In 1996 I went back to Michigan, basically sat myself down in U-Mich ER and
said I'm not leaving until you do something, and finally they diagnosed that
my intestine had ruptured, a fistula, and there was a deep pocket of
infection that tracked to the surface and burst open every so often, and
whatever I ate just poured out.

They went in and repaired it. More mesh, more adhesions, more scars, more
blockages coming. Finally someone recognized that I was not likely to ever
be able to hold down a job again, I should be getting continuous medical
care so I didn't have to wait until a life-threatening emergency that cost
more to fix than ongoing care, and I got onto disability. Medicare followed
9 months later.

We're both pretty broke by now, living in an RV (nice new big one, but an RV
nonetheless). We found out about this RV park with 400 other older lesbians
(and a few other people) and moved here, near Phoenix.

So now I eat basically a soft diet--no salads or raw fruits and veggies, all
the no-point stuff. No nuts, no beans or corn with shells even if well
cooked. Meats digest just fine, as do pastas, all carbs, dairy, fats, all
the fattening stuff. No exercise involving the abdomen--no muscles left,
just ever-tightening and thickening scar tissue. The old mylar mesh melds
right into the flesh and my insides are one solid block.

Along the way I was back to over 350 for most of those years (except when I
was hospitalized and in ICUs on IV feedings, of course).

The rest of life went on, I had to move my Dad out here, I did elder-care
and put him into a retirement community. He died in 1999 at age 89 and
suddenly I felt much better. My own heart meds were changed, which made me
feel even better. Suddenly it was possible to try to lose weight again. I
felt like a new person and wanted my body to come along for the ride.

I already knew just about everything positive about weight loss programs
from 17 rejoins of WW and decided to basically follow the same program,
though I never did adjust to points, I count calories because I prefer the
precision and I'm an old dog (almost 60 now). The WW emphasis on long-range
goals, minigoals along the way, adding exercise (walking and swimming), peer
support, slow losses, healthy foods, no "No Nos" but smaller portions, and
sharing great recipes and tips was wonderful and sound, I knew.

I also found www.dietpower.com, which has great software for food journaling
and keeping track of absolutely everything you ever wanted to track. (I know
how much potassium I took in every day for the past two years, and the
monthly and yearly averages, as one example. Potassium is something I have
to watch since I can't eat many of the foods rich in many nutrients.

And then I found this newsgroup and have been happily posting and reading
for almost two years now. And I've lost 92.6 pounds in that time--I
deliberately went slower because I already have tons of loose skin and I
can't eat all those free-point veggies and it is harder for me to cut back
to WW point levels.

Having that first weight loss surgery was the biggest mistake I ever made in
my life. It ruined my health, wasted years of my life, cost me my career,
and left me almost penniless. And I still weighed 366 in 2000, 25 years
after the first surgery. None of the other weight loss surgeries worked on
me at all. I've been over 300 most of my adult life.

I get so furious at Carnie Wilson, Roseanne Barr and others who make it
sound like weight loss surgeries are a piece of cake, THE answer, no risks
worth mentioning. The new techniques probably are better, but today they're
still doing variations on the ones done on me in 1981 and 1983, and people
are still dying from them.

I was so desperate to be thin that I remember saying aloud, I don't care if
I die 20 years sooner, just let me be thin for the near future. Didn't know
that the death could come almost right away, not conveniently off the end.

And that's my story. Bet you're sorry you asked!
--
Carol Schmidt, Phoenix, AZ, USA
http://carolschmidt.homestead.com
366 start, 4-18-00
273.4 current, 92.6 pounds lost
266 for the May Day Challenge
166 goal for the year 2007, age 65

Alan.
--
"I made the best gains of my life when I dumped
the "oh me so tired" crap and started getting on
with it for real." -Bryce Lane
"carol schmidt" <ajc...@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:R09o8.135546$uA5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...

O my God!!
I have never heard such a story.
I cannot imagine the pain and suffering you have been through
Carol.
You are such a dear soul, always so helpful to all of the newbies
and folks with questions! I had no idea you come from such dark
experiences. I just cannot imagine how you are still alive...
I have to leave to go and think about this... there are so many
lessons to learn.
Thanks for sharing.
Raleighgirl

A good friend of mine almost died twice last year from complications
following gastric bypass surgery. It's such a risky way to lose weight, and
I hate to see it glamorized.

Connie
282/197/140 lbs.
"No more ugly duckling ... I give myself permission to become a swan."

Anne Rudolph
Growing older is mandatory; growing up is optional.
162/131.6/132
http://home.covad.net/~arudolph/annes.htm

> Okay, here goes... Bet you're sorry you asked!

Carol Schmidt

I was amazed reading your story, seems like way too much to have
happened to one person. I'm glad you are now loosing weight sensibly.
It is a lifetime thing, I have to remember that when I get to my goal
again, hopefully for the last time.

Bee
240/220/140
MDC 222 reached 3/9 new MDC 215
exercise goal: walk 5 times a week - 10 miles

On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 18:26:12 GMT, "carol schmidt" <ajc...@mchsi.com>
wrote:

: "Raleighgirl" wrote (snip): > Carol, I'm new here so haven't heard your

:
:

Joyce

--
Hugs,
Angela
============================
176.5/159/145
17.5 lbs in 12 weeks
Minigoal: 155 lbs by April 25th (My 34th)
============================
RoadRunner <NoSpamMa'a...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Ht9o8.91059$Ci6.22...@typhoon.nyc.rr.com...

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