My Patients

 

Personal Stories

Marcus - San Diego, CA

I've dealt with weight problems pretty much all of my life. I was never the stereotypical "fat kid", but I was always a carrying a few more pounds than my friends. At times my weight ballooned and I had to really work at it to get things back under control. It's been a lifelong struggle for me.

Finally, a back injury caused me to lose the battle for good, or so I thought. Unable to exercise without injuring myself further, my weight skyrocketed. As my weight increased so did my co-morbidities. Hypertension, sleep apnea, reflux, and joint pain were my biggest problems. As my sleep apnea got worse, for example, my energy level just sank lower and lower, leaving me able to do less and less. I was, in the words of one surgeon I had a consult with, "circling the drain".

For years I had been one of these people that had maintained that I didn't really care about living forever. I wanted to eat what I wanted to eat, and if it wound up taking a year or two off my life, then so be it. That was before I witnessed firsthand exactly how things might turn out for me.

My father had been morbidly obese for decades. He ate whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. The man lived for food. And I'd have to say it was food that finally killed him. A number of years before he passed away my dad had a major heart attack. If my parents hadn't lived so close to the hospital he probably wouldn't have survived this event. But he did survive. He never made a full recovery -- he lost a lot of heart function -- but he survived.

In the years that followed he tried to live healthier. He kept his weight down and tried to eat healthier foods, but it was too late. Eventually he developed diabetes, and things just went downhill from there. Between the heart attack, the diabetes, and the years of un-treated high blood pressure, his kidneys eventually shut down. This translated to dialysis three times per week for the rest of his life, along with an un-believable amount of hospitalization time to take care of dialysis related problems. In short, the last couple of years of my Dad's life were a nightmare, for him and for everyone around him.

At some point I managed to connect the dots, and I realized that my father's story was becoming my story. I was following in his footsteps, and if I didn't do something about it I would be following him right to the grave.

We don't get a lot of genuine second chances in life; there simply aren't that many do-overs out there. But for me, gastric bypass surgery represented a true second chance; an opportunity to wipe the slate clean (mostly) and give it another try. I consulted with several surgeons, did a seemingly endless amount of research, and went to support group meetings (for gastric bypass patients) for a year before I finally decided that this was what I wanted to do. Once I met Dr. Ellner I knew immediately that she would be
my surgeon and that I had made the right choice.

I had my surgery in August of 2001 with Dr Ellner. It has truly been one of the best things I've ever done for myself and a simply amazing experience. Seeing the pounds disappear made me wonder why I ever waited so long. Don't get me wrong, gastric bypass surgery is not a "get out of jail free" card and it's not the easy way out. But it can be "a" way out, for people like me that feel like they've simply run out of options. It's a major decision, and like anything worth having, it takes a lot of work and commitment. But if you're willing to do the work you will almost certainly get the results you desire.

For me, I wasn't going for a particular look; I was going for improved health. And I've achieved that. I'm healthier now than I was in my twenties. Every single co-morbidity that I had before surgery was resolved by getting my weight back down to a reasonable level.

Sometimes people talk about a single major accomplishment that gastric bypass surgery has allowed them to do. I don't have one. Instead, I've got a million things I'm thankful for every day. Every time I get on an airplane and fit in the seat, fit comfortably in a restaurant booth, or easily buy clothes "off the rack" I'm thankful. For me it's all of the little day-to-day things that constitute the miracle.

And for that I'd like to say "Thank you!” to Dr Ellner and everyone at Alvarado Hospital, for making this possible!

You may contact Marcus at marcus@ucsd.edu.

Cadeucus