Tag: Weight


The Likely Cause

12
June

Since shortly after the endoscopy and colonoscopy, I’ve known that there were no significant results from the test. I was a bit disheartened by that fact until yesterday, when I saw my gastroenterologist. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good thing that there wasn’t anything wrong, but I wanted to know what was causing the anemia. Because of yesterday’s visit, I may now have my official answer. It was the gastric bypass surgery, but not in the way you might think.

When you have gastric bypass surgery, the surgeon tells you to expect to take vitamins for the rest of your life due to the whole malabsorption thing. This means that you’re not absorbing enough, but that you still can absorb them. What they don’t tell you is that if they mess up, by just a tiny bit, they can make it impossible for you to absorb certain nutrients forever. Iron gets absorbed in the very beginning of the small intestine. If the surgeon bypasses it at the wrong spot, then the body no longer can absorb oral iron…in any form. This would explain why the pills didn’t work and why the liquid iron didn’t work. This would explain why it didn’t matter when I tried to increase my vitamin C (which helps iron absorption) and when I increased my overall iron-in-food consumption, it didn’t do a damn thing. The gastroenterologist told me that my iron and blood count would definitely need to be monitored 3-4 times a year to see when I would need my next iron infusion. These will definitely be a part of my life…for the rest of my life.

The doctor also said that it is possible that there is still something wrong in the bypassed part of my stomach, but (because of the surgery) it cannot be reached by his instruments. He basically said that to get the answers about if there’s an ulcer or something else in that part of my stomach that I would need to get an appointment with a surgeon to let me know. I think my mom sort of wants me to do that. And it would probably be smart to find out for sure, but I’m not certain that I feel entirely comfortable with the idea of going to a surgeon. Yeah, now I’ve finally gotten a little bit more squeamish than I had been. I’m afraid that seeing a surgeon will lead to some kind of surgery, which, to be quite honest, freaks me the fuck out.

So I guess I need to make the decision whether to be “smart” or to let my squeamish side win.

Oh, and my mom and I had sort of a blowout argument while waiting for the doctor. I made a comment about how I wished I could have individual therapy with Debbie again. She said that I might be able to find a therapist in this area that took both of my insurances, which is very, very unlikely. I tried to explain that it took years for me to trust Debbie enough to work up the courage to want to talk to her about what I want to talk to her about. (I’ve known Debbie since I right after I turned 15, even though she’s only been my therapist for a few years now.) She said that I only wanted to talk to Debbie about it because I “want to take all my toys to Debbie so that she can play with me because” I “know that she can’t play” with me anymore. And, yes, she phrased it exactly like that. She thinks that I want to talk about symptoms and shit related to my diagnoses and, while that might come up, that isn’t true. What I want is to talk about something that has been causing me issues for years. And I want to talk to Debbie because I trust her, because I feel comfortable with her. I want to talk to her because I feel like after over 20 years of therapy, I finally have a therapist that I can actually tell things like this to. And, what my mom doesn’t realize, is that I was planning on discussing this issue with Debbie before the Mental Health Center started requiring group sessions, instead of individual ones. This is an issue that, if I could finally deal with it, might help me with my anxiety, trust, eating, anger, and various other issues. So it’s kind of a big deal to me, and I don’t feel like it’s something I could just blurt out to some random stranger who happens to take my insurance.

2 comments » | Personal

Doctors Who Suck and The Patients Who See Them

5
April

Yesterday, I had my gastroenterologist appointment. I wasn’t expecting much from the appointment, especially with the doctor being so dismissive in previous appointments and with my tendency to be cowed by some most doctors. I didn’t really do that this time, but the results were the same. The doctor was dismissive and pretty much laughed in my face when I told him what was wrong. He said that my bed needed to be raised up so that I wouldn’t have heartburn, after I told him that the issue was a squeezing/cramping/clamp-feeling-type of pain in my throat and the center of my chest. And when I mentioned that the hematologist had requested that I have a colonoscopy, he said that was ridiculous. He looked it up in my chart and said he had the letter from the hematologist saying the same thing, so he knew I wasn’t asking for a colonoscopy just to have one–because I guess people may do that. He said there was absolutely no reason to think that I could be losing vitamins, minerals, or blood via my digestive tract. (You know, because actually seeing blood coming out doesn’t really mean it is coming out.) When I tried to push the issue, he just continued to dismiss it. He did offer to write me a prescription for a hospital bed, which I politely declined.

He did say that the pain that I have could be caused by a hernia of some sort from the gastric bypass surgery, but he didn’t seem concerned by that thought. It seems odd that I would have developed said hernia almost 10 years post-op and that it would hurt worse when I eat certain foods. He suggested that I go see the former partner of the surgeon who did the surgery if I’m concerned about it. I don’t particularly want to go back to that clinic, even if my old surgeon has moved out of town. The last time that I tried to see my surgeon, I was told I had to see a nutritionist there and that it wouldn’t be covered by my insurance, so I’d need to fork over a lot of cash that day. The nutritionist’s office was more like an office where they sold their own mixtures of vitamins and powders and stuff. (Basically, it was retail operation and not a medical office.) Even if my suck-tastic surgeon isn’t there anymore, I have a feeling that they are still doing the same style of business.

My dad went with me into the appointment because I knew without someone there that I would back down easier. I also thought maybe his presence might make the doctor be a little less dismissive. It didn’t. Apparently the only family member that he (the doctor) is afraid of is my mother. (I definitely do not blame him for fearing her. She can be a force to be reckoned with.)

Anyway, after relaying all of the information back to my mom, and having my dad vouch for my actually standing up for myself with the doctor, my mom decided that I needed to find a different GI doctor. (I had already figured this out.) So we called UAB and found out that I have an appointment there next Wednesday and that I can get a new referral then. So I get to wait another week to find out which doctor I might get to see, and then I’ll wait however long it takes to see the new doctor.

In non-abdominal related news, Nana called this morning. She said she’d had a dream that we had gotten a dachshund, at which point my mom told her that we’d gotten Amy. (We hadn’t told her because she isn’t exactly pro-dog or any non-cat type of animal.) Anyway, she was actually excited and wants us to bring Amy down there so she can meet her. She even said that she wouldn’t get upset if Amy has an accident (potty-type) on her floors, which was shocking. (When we first got Xander, she wouldn’t let him in her house for long because she was afraid he would pee on her floors.)

She then said that my cousin and his wife had gotten three cats. Nana, who (as I’ve mentioned) is a cat fan, pointed out to my mom’s sister that three cats could mess up a house to the same extent as five dogs. (My mom’s sister is a bit anti-dog/pro-cat, but so is Nana, so it’s strange that Nana is challenging her on the cat/dog front.) We had three cats for a long time, so I know that they can get a bit messy. (My mom used to have to clean our hall’s carpet everyday because there was an ongoing pissing contest between two of our three cats. They were spayed, had 3 litter boxes, lots of toys, lots of attention, and each had their own places to hang out. These two just hated one another.) I think Nana was just trying to prove that we weren’t necessarily as bad as my mom’s sister seems to think we are. Anyway, I hope that they have fun with their new kitties and that they aren’t too much trouble. I miss having cats sometimes–okay, I miss our old cats a lot of the time, even though they’ve been dead for almost 10 years now.

I was going to mention something else, but I totally forgot what it was.

1 comment » | Personal

Something New-ish to Work On

20
March

Well, I went to my hematologist today. The good news is that I was wrong about the iron-deficiency anemia being back. The doctor said that today’s (well, last week’s) levels were the best that he had seen for me. (The only part of the CBC results that worried me was my hematocrit was pretty high.) He said that, for now, we don’t have to worry about that issue.

There is bad news, though.

My B12 (as well as my Folate) had dropped quite a bit since the last time I’d had my labs done there. It had been in the 300′s a few months ago, but this time it was at 188 pg/ml this time. He said that that was way too low. The gastric bypass surgery plus my family’s history (almost every member of my dad’s dad’s family, including my father–none of whom have had weight loss surgery) of having pernicious anemia is probably to blame. (The doc said that hereditary B12 deficiencies are rare. I wonder what he’d think of our D and other nutrient deficiencies.)  Well, that and I had quit taking the tablets my family doctor prescribed last summer, when she noticed that it was near the low end of normal. (She was having me do 100 mcg/day tablets, which didn’t help at all. I couldn’t convince her to give me the injections, which is my preferred way to do B12.)

So I get to go back to giving myself injections every month. Well, first I have to give them to myself every day for a week, then every week for 7 weeks. After that I’ll be able to go to once a month. I have to go back in July to see what’s going on. I won’t see the doctor then–I’ll get to see the nurse practitioner that time.  He seemed to think I’d be on injections for the foreseeable future. He said I’d need supplements forever, which is something I kind of already knew.

Other than that, he wants me to go on The Dukan Diet, so I picked up the book at the library on the way home. From how he described it, it sounds like I’ll have to give up most carbs, which is not something I’m looking forward to. He said that it was mainly a meat and vegetable diet, which is fine, except that vegetables have been making me sick a lot lately. I guess I have to get used to that. He also wants me to exercise 45 minutes every day, even if I just walk at a very slow pace. I guess that that will be okay.

Comment » | Personal

Failing Miserably

29
January

Ten years ago, I had gastric bypass surgery. My weight was 341.3 pounds back then. After the surgery, I got down to about 200 pounds before I started gaining everything back. The same thing happened with my mom’s weight. We figured that it had to do with the medicines we were put back on after the surgery, and that may have factored into it. I’m starting to wonder if there might be something else going on.

When we were at the grocery store last week, we ran into another person who had the surgery at the same time as us. She had been losing at the same rate as we had. And, lo and behold, this woman has also gained back the weight. When I pointed it out to my mom later, she said that everyone she’s run into that had the surgery done by the same doctor that we had has regained the weight.

I know that the long-term failure rate is around 30%, but it seems odd that so many people from the same doctor failed. It seems like we were either ill-prepared for the surgery and its outcome or that he didn’t do something right. I’ve had endoscopy after endoscopy that has said that that I didn’t stretch my pouch out (except the part where it connects to the bowel) and that it looked “normal” for a post Roux-en-Y, so I’m guessing that it’s that we weren’t prepared for the surgery properly.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just getting annoyed to get annoyed, but it just feels off somehow.

5 comments » | Personal

Let’s Make Some Lemonade, Yo!

3
April

I’m having to have my laptop repaired again.  Guess what the repair is for?  If you guessed motherboard, then you obviously know my laptop better than the guy at tech support.  He told me that it had the motherboard replaced once and the only other repairs that were done were the palm rest and the LCD.  Um, no.  It has only been repaired onsite (meaning at my home or at Nana’s house) for those issues, but when it has gone to the depot, it has had all kinds of stuff replaced.  Honestly, it’s got more new parts than all of the plastic surgery addicts of Beverly Hills combined.  The constant repairing led to me submitting a question to WHNT about my state’s lemon law.  I’m hoping it gets picked/answered.  This is what I submitted:

I purchased a computer about 3 years ago from Dell and almost a year after I purchased it, it had a motherboard failure. Since then, there have been about 4 more motherboard failures plus many other repairs. The laptop is being repaired about every 3-4 months. It’s become really frustrating and I feel like my laptop is a lemon. Would it be covered under the lemon law? Or does that only apply to certain products? If it is covered, what would I need to do? I would really like to be able to get my geek on without contacting tech support so much.

So, maybe they’ll pick it.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In other lemon-related news, I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon.  Before I can get my GI referral, I have to jump through just a few more hoops.  Namely, I have to have my Amylase, CMP (which was done at the ER), Lipase, and Lipid levels checked, as well as an abdominal ultrasound, 2 urine tests, and 4 (this is gross) stool tests.  I have a feeling that insurance will kick the CMP when I go for it, because it was just checked less than a week ago.  The other stuff, they will probably allow.  The family doctor apologized to me yesterday when he was doing the exam.  I made sure to yelp, scream, and holler when he would hit certain spots–something I have finally learned to do.  I was surprised when he said he was sorry for hurting me.  His attending came in and repeated the exam.  She also was somewhat apologetic.  (Maybe because I had been mentioning the pain and the issues somewhat persistently since I started to go to that clinic.)

When the nurse did my vitals, my blood pressure was doing its fun bottoming out thing.  The top number was either 122 or 127 (one was for BP and one was for pulse), but the lower number was 53.  It was kind of funny that it was so low because the nurse checking me in had just asked me if I was on blood pressure medicine about a second before the number popped up.  I think that, because of my weight, she was expecting it to be super-high.  She does not know how my body likes to operate.  She and the doctors also didn’t seem to realize that the constant up and down, including laying back and raising back up was making me nearly pass out.  I wanted to tell them, but when I would get so dizzy and light-headed, I couldn’t exactly think straight enough to get my point across.

When the nurse checked my weight, it almost looked like she was going to go with 298, but she decided to go up to the 300 range and settled on 312.  The scale seemed like it “thought” I was closer to the 298, but she went with 312.  Don’t know why.   After she went with 312, she made sure to announce it vocally, which is something I hate.  I understand if she thinks that I need to know the number, but believe it or not, I can read a scale well enough to tell what my weight is.  I don’t like having the whole world hear it, though.  Anyway, if it is at 298, then it has hit a new low.  If it is at 312, it may be one of the lower numbers for their scales.

I had to describe what was wrong to her, and, wouldn’t you know, she tried to convince me that I could be pregnant.  When I told her that it wasn’t possible, she gave me a look of disbelief.  Yeah, I know, I’m going in complaining of nausea and pain, among other things, and I’m 28 and on Medicaid, but I’m not an effing stereotype.  It is, as far as I know, impossible to get pregnant without having Miss Egg introduced to Mr. Sperm.  I’m pretty sure that I would know if I had had sex with someone.  I guess she thought I would be too ashamed to mention it, or something.  God, I hope that if I had sex and got pregnant or thought I was pregnant that I wouldn’t be too ashamed to tell a nurse about it.  I may be shy and hesitant about talking about certain things, but I hope that wouldn’t be one of them.

Comment » | Personal

Next time you call somebody fat, know that you, and people like you are probably the reason.

18
March

Comment » | Miscellany

Tara Lynn in Elle France (February 2012)

13
February

sinnamonscouture:

Plus Size Model Tara Lynn Elle France February 2012

Comment » | Miscellany

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