The Cure For Diabetes Type II Is Here!

….and I’ve gone and gotten it! It’s simply the Roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. I’m not talking total cure, because once diagnosed one will always have the damn disease, but cure as in remission is very, very doable as I’m seeing with my own eyes.

I underwent the Roux-en-y surgery Monday, November 6, 2006 and today, 9 days later my blood sugars have not been over 93. I’m not allowed to eat any fat or carbohydrate and one would say “well, sure, no wonder you’ll lose weight and your sugars are good! So why don’t you just stay on that diet until you lose all the weight?” ….. and I’d have to say WILLPOWER. My daughter calls the surgery “surgical willpower” and she’s nailed it. I’ve been overweight my entire life. I’ve been on every diet you can imagine. I’ve counted calories. I’ve NOT counted calories. I’ve watched my weight and I’ve BEEN a Weight Watcher. I’ve done the Atkins thing and I was very successful except that now my kidneys are failing. True I don’t know if the diet was the cause or the diabetes for 13 and ½ years, but it gives one pause nevertheless. I'd lose 30 or even 40 pounds and put it back plus 10 more! I lost the same weight so many times I could almost call it my occupation. I don't want to be a super model, I just want to be healthy and feel like I look as good as I feel.

I’ve been told that I can look forward to saying goodbye to my CPAP unit for sleep apnea and my blood pressure medicine as well as my lipids medicine. I’m already off all my shots for diabetes and that was SEVEN a day for the past year and a half! In the past 4 months I’ve lost 31 pounds….9 of them since the surgery. I had to lose weight before I could even have the surgery as a testament to my resolve. For sure, one does not even consider doing such a drastic step if one isn’t totally committed to the belief that total change is in order. I’ve been going to a support group for Losers and I feel like I should have to stand up and say “Hi, my name is Edie and I’m a foodaholic!” BTW they call themselves ‘losers’ with pride because they are losing the weight and taking control of their lives, some for the first time in their lives like me.

My surgeon was Dr. Voravit Wongsa and he’s damned good. I’ve heard that he is rated one of the top 12 in the USA and I wouldn’t doubt it. He told my family I’d be in surgery for 1 and ½ hours and by God he took me at 10:30 a.m. and plunked me down in recovery at 12:05 p.m.! I was his 1367^th patient to have some form of gastric bypass surgery. I wrote a lot about my surgery at ObesityHelp.com.

After I got home, as luck would have it, I developed a mild cold and pretty much kept saying ‘just shoot me’ to everyone within hearing range. I also had LOTS of bowel movements, each one more gross than the last. NOW I know why those that know me well have been known to say I’m full of shit! I’m not sure if it was the cold causing that grief or not, but as fast as it descended upon me it up and left. I discovered the joys of Tylenol with codeine about that time and that calmed my gut down and saw to it that I got some quality zzzz’s. I’ve had surprisingly little pain during this time. I’ve gotten some weird pain that I’d call “stitches” in my side, but absolutely no pain from the 6 little stapled holes that just sit there and grin back at me with their grills. They’ll lose their grills tomorrow when he takes them all out. I’m not looking forward to that, but I plan on doping up on the Tylenol with codeine before I go!

I told as few people as feasible that I was going “under the knife”. My mind was made up and I didn’t want to hear any horror stories. My job was to go in as calm as possible with a good positive outlook for my recovery. I did my job well and I’m still doing it. There are downsides to this surgery, but I truly believe that this was my last chance at a healthy and prolonged life. My mom died at 64 and my dad at 61. My husband died at 56. I want my kids to have to plunge a wooden stake in my heart to get rid of me! I want to sit on the porch at an old folk’s home and rock, fart and ogle the old men!

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this subject as time goes by, but this blog is not going to turn into my R-N-Y Saga. If it was I’d rename the whole thing Me and My Walnut or something. So now you all know why I’ve been so quiet and this blog has been so inactive lately. I’m baaaaack now! If you've read all this, bless your heart and thank you too!