.....::::: LORI'S REBIRTH :::::.....

A Rebirth

I have a new birthday. It is May 10th, 2005. That is the day my life changed forever.

After four years of struggle - fighting with doctors, insurance companies and my own body, I was approved for Gastric Bypass surgery in January '05. I weighed in at a whopping 470 lbs. the day Dr. Tersigni agreed to do the laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and splenectomy that would, hopefully, save my life. I believe that the only reason the procedure was approved for me was due the the fact that I'd been diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder two years before - idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP. My white blood cells were telling my spleen to kill off all of my blood platelets, making it so that a serious bruise could cause me to bleed to death. Fortunately, the spleen removal incisions would be in the same spot as the gastric bypass.

The potential complications were many. Dr. Tersigni had never performed this procedure on anyone as large as I was, and he'd never done a laproscopic splenectomy before. He was very confident that he could successfully do both procedures at the same time, and literally immersed himself in all of the information he could find in order to prepare for my surgery. Considering that another surgeon, and then a whole TEAM of surgeons had already turned me down as too risky, Dr. Tersigni's confidence was very reassuring! My BMI was over 38%, which is way above most surgeon's limits. Having a BMI that high doubles the possibility of complications. His team put me on a liquid protein diet - yogurt, fruit and protein powder - so that I could lose 47 lbs. This was 10% of my body weight, and that shrink the fat cells in my abdomen, reduce the size of my spleen and gall bladder, and get me ready for the limited diet that I would be living on for the next year. That was on January 30, 2005.

There was a lot of preparation and tests before I could have my surgery. I had an EKG, massive amounts of blood work, a sleep study (that determined I had sleep apnea), three ultra-sound exams (to determine the exact locations for my internal organs), a CT-scan and a psychiatric evaluation (to determine if I understood the severity of the surgical change and that I knew that this would not solve the underlying causes of my obescity). Technically, I didn't have many of the disorders that accompany morbid obecity, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, so it was hard to get the insurance company to understand that being nearly 500 pounds was a detriment to my health and well-being... duh!

On May 9th, I showed up for my pre-surgery prep work at Bay Medical Center in Coos Bay, Oregon. At weigh-in I had lost 38 lbs. on my "smoothy" diet. Not quite the fifty pounds I had set as my goal, but Robin, Dr. Tersigni's assistant was impressed. Eric and I stayed in a motel that night. I wasn't allowed to eat anything after 4 p.m. and I had to drink horrible medicines designed to cleanse my digestive system and bowels. I was so nervous that I could barely sleep, and Tersigni's assistant had given me a notebook to 'document my transformation' in. So, I wrote down how I felt at that moment. I talked about how sick I had been for the past 10 years, how disappointed my family was in me due to my weight gain, how I was having the surgery not just for myself, but because I wanted to live to see my children have children of their own, and how I thought my relationship with Eric would change. I cried.

I was terrified. Statistically, one in fifty people who have had the procedure die within the first month, due to complications during and post-surgically. Dr. Tersigni had performed nearly a thousand GB surgeries, and had only lost one patient, and that was due to her refusal to get up and move for the month immediately following her surgery, and she died of pulmonary adema (blood clot from the legs to the lungs), the principal cause of death in GB patients. I prayed. I promised God that, if he allowed me to survive the surgery, and it was successful, that I'd follow my 'program' to the letter - exercise, eat right, take my vitamins and have regular blood work-ups.

Well, God tested me. I was scheduled to be the second surgery of the day, but the person before me didn't show up, so they bumped me up to first spot. My pre-surgical prep was fast. Eric kissed me good-bye and I told him to take good care of our babies. I don't remember much after that. Next I knew I was being awakened in post-op. Dr. Tersigni was standing next to me. "Lori, I'm sorry," he said. "I knicked an artery, and had to open you up to finish the procedure." I was muddle-headed, of course. Confused, because I thought if he had a real reason to be sorry, I wouldn't be able to hear him, not from this side of the ether, anyway. "Am I dead?" I asked. He seemed puzzled. "No." "Did it work?" I croaked. "If you mean was the surgery successful, yes. But I knicked an artery about 90% of the way in, and we had to open you up to stop the bleeding. So, instead of five tiny incisions, you have those plus one ten-inch incision down the front of your abdomen. I'm sorry." He looked very upset.

"I'm alive. Thank You."

More next Chapter - see photos

Lori - April 2004 - Maximum weight of 470 lbs. Brookings Harbor, Oregon

:: Lori's Rebirth - Weight Loss Surgery - Chapter One :: Chapter Two :: Chapter Three ::