I've been "heavy" for most of my life. I've tried just about every diet that's come out, and while I've lost some weight on a few, I would never stay on a diet or change my habits enough to make the change permanent. Every one ended up a failure. No magic bullets.

After what became enough decades of this, I've gotten to the point where my excess weight has become a real health hazard for my future, and statistically, if I don't lose weight now, the chances of me dying from diabetes, heart attack or some other weight-related ailment goes up by a factor of three or more very soon. I don't want to take that risk.

So, I started to investigate a somewhat more drastic solution: bariatric surgery. It also helped that, in 2005, Claudia and I moved to Raleigh, NC, where there are a whole slew of excellent hospitals within less than an hour's drive. I did some research.

One of the hospitals that had a very good reputation is Duke Health. I started to read everything on their website. I watched all of the videos available.

I scheduled a checkup with my MD because my right knee had been hurting. I thought it was a tendon pull or something like that. X-Rays didn't turn up anything serious, so the recommendation was "give it a month or two to heal." While I was there, I asked him about Bariatric surgery. He checked my stats on weight and height and consulted a wall chart for "Body Mass Index, or BMI... "41," he said, "You're a candidate." ... No hesitation. "You're in." His authorization was instantaneous.

05.15.2008...

And with those words, I had his blessing and recommendation to go ahead. Claudia and I checked our schedules and put the next Introductory Talk at Duke on the calendar. A Friday night a week or two out. We found the place and joined about two dozen other people, many very obese, to hear one of the bariatric surgeons speak. The talk lasted over an hour and covered just about everything the website video introduction did, other than to update some statistics from the 1-2-year-old video. Nothing had changed, other than obesity rates in the US had gone up some more.

A few weeks [days?] later, I phoned Duke WLS and registered and payed the first initiation fee. They put me "into the system" and sent me a folder with lots of diaries and questionnaires to fill in, along with a list of physical and blood tests that had to be done. My "interview date" was set for July 15, 2008, an 8am-to-4pm "plan to spend the whole day here" event of interviews, testing and such. That's "only" two months away.

And I put off filling most of the forms in for a few weeks, too. [hey, no resistance here, right?]

Finally, I called my GP and scheduled my annual checkup, warning him that Duke WLS had a list of tests to add to the normal blood-letting festival of the checkup. Just a week or so later he was poking and probing and doing all of the routine stuff, plus logging in for the rest of the extra tests. Oh, and there's a shingles vaccine now, so I had that, too. My mom developed a very bad case in her 70s or 80s and another friend had it, too, so it was worth "any price" to get that shot, whether it was covered by my health care or not. Wasn't cheap, either, but the juice is in me now, hopefully creating a nice defense against that painful condition. Not a guarantee of 100% immunity, but I buy insurance for lots of other things, too.

That's done now, and outside of slightly high cholesterol [and vitamin D ?!], my blood is good. BP is a bit higher than last times, but I've been getting less exercise lately, due to the knee pain. Fortunately, that too has gotten a lot better, so I'm back to doing chores and projects around the house again. Not digging any more ditches for a while, but hiking up and downstairs to the PC and to my woodworking shop more often.

06.01.2008...

My knee is much better now, thanks... I sent an email to the Duke folks to ask if they had a list of folks who'd like to volunteer to take any "cancellation" spots. Haven't heard back from them yet. Something about "they only do email on Fridays...."

06.23.2008...

No news is no news... Nothing much to do but wait out the next three weeks or so until I go for the screening. Keep running into more and more people who've either had the operation or know someone who has... Very encouraging, but it's still the first major surgery I've EVER had, and I've got a scared little kid inside to deal with.

07.15.2008...

Well, today was The Day. Off to Duke in north Durham. Appointment time: 8:00 am. [bleah!] That means getting up at 6am to be able to hit the roads with unknown traffic by 7am to arrive comfortably before 8am. I ran into several foggy spots on the way, though they were not long or thick and didn't impede traffic at all. My Prius' NAV system wanted me to take I-540 to I-40, and that's a route I wasn't willing to risk, so I took 70 instead. Which is a bit shorter and probably faster. After some thick traffic turned off onto the Research Triangle Parkway, 70 thinned out [except for the patches of fog] and the only hazard was being run off the road by the daily commuters who used the big black-on-white "speed limit" signs only as a rough suggestion, rather than a limit.

Arriving at 7:35 and not sure I'm at the right place, still, because the parking lot is completely empty... oh, well, I can find a nice spot that should be in the shade for the "all-day" event. I was warned to allocate 8am to 4pm for the whole process. More on that shortly....

Hey, the doors are actually open before 8am... I start signing in and paying copayments and down-payments and registration payments and more payments a little before 8am. "Now, go over there and wait."

8:00... nothing. 8:15... nothing. 8:20, I get called for the first "test." Another form to fill and copayment to make.

9:00... Upstairs [downstairs was too crowded, so they've opened up and are now using upstairs rooms... Inventory of medicines [1] and supplements [11]. Consent form for another college that's doing a long-term follow-up study. Sure, why not?

Wait a while, then off to another room for a height/weight/BMI test. 41.5... still eligible. About 5'10", close to 290 on their scale, allowing 2# for clothes.

Next, a nice chat with the nutritionist, a tall, lanky, cheerful fellow who provided a very realistic view of future eating, drinking and post-op pain and discomfort. He asked if I had "any other questions," and I only had two at that point: First Question: where is fluoxetine hydrochloride absorbed [Prozac® for those not experienced in that kind of drug...], and the answer was, "no problem." Having a small percentage of my original stomach available would not affect things much at all.

Second Question.... what's the "flunk-out rate"? Of the people who come In The Door for bariatric surgery, what fraction don't pass the psych tests or whatever? Answer: virtuallyl none get kicked out. If you chicken out, that's one thing, but if you dragged your [large] butt this far into the program, your ticket is punched for the whole nine yards. [apologies for mixed metaphor. There'll probably be more...]

Next is the psych exam. This young woman is a BABE! Trailed by another young trainee kind of guy, this was going to be a test of concentration abilities, too.. :)

Lots of good questions and answers here, filling in gaps in some of the questionnaires' areas. Challenges to continue breathing when she leans over me to collect some form off her desk...

We cover all kinds of territory: no, she's not related to Milton Friedman; yes, she's read Ayn Rand; no her trailer [the other guy] never heard of Ayn Rand, so Atlas Shrugged is now on his reading list [poor guy]; no, she didn't know that the movie version of Atlas Shrugged may be out in a year or two.

No, she'd never heard of Primal Therapy or Werner Erhard [need to send url's to her].

And yes, I still have some homework to do to get some forms filled out, take some more tests and get the information back to them.

And no, I still have NO idea when the surgery may be scheduled for...

More to come.... [of course]