Gastric Sleeve Keeps Weight Specter at Bay

Bariatric Surgery Helps Patients Regain Health, Life

Most people consider Halloween the scary holiday. Creepy critters. Ghoulish ghosts. But for Debbie Stephens, one day of the season stands out even more: Thanksgiving. Mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pies. Those are the real spooks that threaten to greet the young grandmother of two on her most daunting holiday.
In March, Stephens, 56, finally made the leap: She had gastric-sleeve bariatric surgery, after being overweight her entire life.          “I’m so happy with how I look and how much better I feel,” says Stephens, whose life, stifled by embarrassment or immobility, just opened up. “I’m enjoying the heck out of my grandkids now,” says the registered nurse and Kiowa resident.
“This summer, my granddaughter did not want to play in the sprinkler … she didn’t really understand what I was talking about. So I showed her.” The moment was so special – Grandma laughing and bouncing through the sprinkler, when months before she could barely walk a flight of stairs – that her daughter videotaped it.

Gastric Sleeve Delivers Results

A few months after her gastric-sleeve procedure, Stephens has dropped more than 75 pounds from her 5’ 5” frame, and plans on shedding 35 more pounds. At her heaviest point in life, she was 260 with a body-mass index more than 41 (BMI more than 40 is considered morbidly obese). Just the high BMI – along with the fact that she worked failingly for years with her doctor on weight loss, trying diets and medications – made her a prime candidate for bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgeons will perform these surgical weight-loss procedures on people with BMIs of 35 or higher if they have tried exercise and diet and suffer from weight-related diseases, such as diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension (high blood pressure) and severe arthritis, according to Dr. Frank Chae of Sky Ridge Medical Center. These life-threatening illnesses are called co-morbidities, and Stephens had them all. A dire family history also prodded Stephens through Dr. Chae’s doors at the Sky Ridge Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence.
“My father died at 66. His sister, whom I apparently look just like, dropped dead at 50. So I’m considering everything I have right now as bonus time,” Stephens says. “When my older brother died at 59, that was my wake-up call.” Losing weight can reverse all of these diseases.
“It’s the only cure for Type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Chae says. “Bariatric surgery is about longevity; it’s about saving lives.” Stephens was taken completely off of her diabetic medication and requires only half the dose of her hypertension drugs. She also cancelled plans for knee-replacement surgery (another benefit she weighed when opting to go forward with bariatric surgery).

Patients Find Fewer Drawbacks with Gastric Sleeve

Stephens initially planned on gastric band surgery, during which the upper stomach is banded off to create a smaller pouch, and nothing is cut out or redirected (as the intestines are with gastric bypass surgery). But she researched and found Dr. Chae, who described yet another option: gastric sleeve. “It’s less surgery than the traditional bypass, and long-term outcomes do consistently reveal more weight loss than the lap band,” Dr. Chae says.
With this relatively new procedure, the normally football-shaped stomached is trimmed to look more like a banana, and the body and person adjust by learning to eat less. Some patients report that they simply never feel cravings again. The chief benefit over gastric band: No foreign object is left inside the body, and routine adjustments (thus repeated surgeries) are not required.
Dr. Chae goes over all options carefully with patients, so they can make the best choice for their situation. “He answers all of your questions,” Stephens says. “He’s really good about that.” Dr. Chae has performed more than 3,000 total bariatric procedures, including about 1,000 gastric-sleeve surgeries since beginning to offer the latter procedure three years ago. All can be performed laparoscopically, using tiny incisions and instruments to reduce scarring and speed recovery.
“I was impressed with Dr. Chae and all of the surgeries he’d done,” Stephens says. And she was attracted by the Sky Ridge Center of Excellence, which had everything she needed right there: nutritionists, psychologists, all key requirements for preparing for bariatric surgery. “The nutritionist teaches you things, like how to get away from caffeine and carbonated beverages and how to eat slower. You start ahead of time, so adjustment after surgery is easier.”

Minimally Invasive Procedure Changes Lives

Stephens stayed in the hospital one night, and the discomfort was minimal. “I had more pain with my C-section.” She was on a liquid diet for a while, but says, overall, the experience was easy and smooth. She’s amazed by the progress, going from a size 26 to a 16 already. “I never thought I’d see a pant size that had a 1 in front of it again. I can actually feel good about the way I look,” Stephens say.
Her best advice to others considering bariatric surgery:  “Don’t be afraid, and don’t feel like you’re a failure. It’s not a failure to have to do this. It’s just another tool to get there. And getting there and losing the weight is so magnificent. There were a lot of things that I’d kind of written off because of my weight that I’m now penciling back into my bucket list,” Stephens says, including climbing Longs Peak and floating the Grand Canyon.
She attends monthly support groups at Sky Ridge to meet her goals. At the top of the support-group subject list right now? Holidays. “This will be my first holiday. But I’m going to do it. I’m still going to cook exactly the same as I’ve always cooked. I’ll just use a smaller plate, choose only what I really want to eat, and forget about the clean-plate club.” And, yes, she says, most of all: “I’ll remember what the holidays are really all about.”
           

By Debra Melani, sponsored health writer