So my friend Anna suggested her surgeon, the amazing David Schroeder. David is considered by many in the NZ WLS community to be a star and I must admit on meeting him at my appointment I believe in time I will come to appreciate why.
David Schroeder runs the Surgical Obesity Service in Wellington and Hamilton and performed over 1500 obesity surgeries according to his website. For patients in Wellington wishing to have lapband surgery this can be done in Wellington, however for Gastric Bypass Patients he operates from his Hamilton clinic and surgery is performed at Southern Cross Hospital.
I decided on the Gastric Bypass Surgery mostly because from researching the various options I believed it to be the best for my circumstances. With more than half my current body weight to lose the bypass gives me a double tool. Not only does it restrict the amount of food able to be ingested, but also the need to avoid dumping syndrome by sticking to a low fat and low sugar diet would be a far better option for me personally than a lapband which only limits food volume. I wanted a permanent tool that would enable me to finally get rid of the excess weight that has overshadowed my whole adult life and Bypass surgery was the answer. I also wasn't overly keen on the idea of a foreign body inside me.
The process so far
I'm going to quickly fill this in now (with the creation of the blog) and will update later
I attended an information evening in November 2010 at which David spoke. These meetings are required for all patients intending on having WLS before appointments can be made with the surgeon.
Because of some funding dramas I was unable to make appointments until late December, by which time everyone was on holiday. So..... with appointments made for January with Ruth the dietician, and early February with David and his nurse Victoria, off I trundled into the xmas period.
My meeting with Ruth was exciting. I had already started the preop diet a week before my visit with her, I wanted to get a head start on the process. We went through the preop diet info, chatted a bit about my current eating habits and what life would be like post surgery. I came away with no illusions that this was not an easy fix, it was something I would have to work on for the rest of my life. But I was doing that anyway with the countless diets! After that meeting I was able to pencil in a surgery date - 28th March. Something exciting to look forward to.
My meeting with David was in early February. At that stage I had already been on the preop diet a few weeks and managed to drop around 5 or 6kg. After a chat about what the surgical procedure was, and some of my medical history he told me that I was definitely a good candidate for surgery and asked if I had a date. When I told him March 28th he said "we can operate sooner than that". I was blown away!!! So off we trundled out to the front desk to have a look at a new date. 1st March - just on 3 weeks from my appointment with him. Wow. It meant delaying my start back at university which started on 28th February but I jumped at the chance. I also met with his nurse Victoria that day, a wonderful woman who showed me an educational video and went through some of the basic form filling!
I left David's rooms on a high, with surgery only a few weeks away........
My appointment with Sue the counsellor was just a week prior to my surgery date. By that time I was was well into the pre op opti fast diet and really just itching to have the surgery over and done with. It was a good meeting, Sue is a great listener and offered some really good suggestions. I look forward to working more with her as my journey progresses.
