Published: July 15, 2008 11:05 am         

Bariatric surgery patient had side-effects, but no regrets

“I lost 90 pounds right here,” he said, pointing to one of seven one-half-inch incision lines on either side of his navel. Dave Davidsen, our across-the-road 5-foot-7-inch neighbor, not only lost those pounds, but a total of 110 pounds since his decision to undergo bariatric surgery on Jan. 11, 2008.

Dave and his wife Mary shared their experience five months after Dave’s laproscopic surgery at the University of Chicago Center for the Surgical Treatment of Obesit.

Dave said he had always been a hearty eater, and by his present age of 53, had eaten his way through “mildly obese” to “superobese” andinto “morbid obesity.”

Mary said that Dave weighed 170 pounds 20 years ago, but had weighed 350 pounds before that.

“In 2007,” Dave said, “I was up to 298 pounds and knew I had to do something about it after I started having serious problems with diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension and apnea. After Mary told me of a lady from Ohio, who had successfully undergone this type of surgery, I did a lot of research to be sure it was what I wanted. When Mary told me she would support whatever I decided, I talked to my local doctor about it.”

Specialists

Dave also talked to doctors at the Chicago hospital who specialize in obesity surgery. After undergoing a lot of testing, it was determined that Dave was a good candidate for this type of radical surgery. With this, Dave contacted his insurance company to see if they would cover what could possibly be a $100,000 bill.

“They would cover me if I worked with my local doctor on a weight loss program for three months. I lost my first 10 pounds, mostly by walking.”

Together, Dave and his doctor elected to do a procedure called biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (BPD). This procedure leaves the stomach from three to five ounces in size, or about the size of a small juice glass.

After all the trips to Chicago for paperwork, blood work, X-rays and other tests, Dave was finally down to the last 10 days. Now it was time to start the required pre-op high protein, carbohydrate reduced diet which would reduce the size of the liver to make surgery safer and easier to perform.

“When I left the hospital three days after the surgery, I left behind 90 percent of my stomach, and the diabetes that had threatened my life!” Dave said. But that is where the euphoria ended.

The complications

Dave explained, “Soon after I came home, I got hiccups that lasted for two weeks. A week after they stopped, I was so nauseous I couldn’t eat pureed food or even drink water. After two weeks, I was getting so weak and dehydrated Mary had to rush me to the Chicago hospital at midnight for emergency treatment. The doctor discovered an abscess where they had removed the drain tube.”

Dave said that even without the nausea he still couldn’t eat right, and was so weak he laid around for a couple of weeks.

“By then,” he said, “I was in so much pain, Mary had to rush me to the hospital again, where it was discovered I had a blockage where the intestines and stomach grow together. My stomach opening is no bigger than a dime, so they had to open it.”

About eight weeks into his recovery, Dave had an X-ray swallowing study at the hospital.

“Before I left on my second day, they gave me lunch. I didn’t know until after I got home that some food had stuck in my stomach and caused a bowel blockage. That was the worst pain I have ever had!”

Mary explains this sequence of events because Dave remembers very little of it.

“I didn’t know anything was wrong until one of the ambulance crew called my office and told me Dave was on his way to the hospital. I rushed over to the Elkhart hospital where I found Dave in intense pain. After a CAT scan they put in a stomach tube. They couldn’t understand his insides, because surgery had changed it so much they didn’t know what to do, but they probably saved his life. Dave was so heavily medicated he mostly remembers waking up in the ambulance in Chicago around midnight.”

Although Dave lost two months of work, he said he has no regrets about having had the surgery.

“I prayed a lot about it and felt it was what God wanted me to do to save my life. It actually strengthened my faith in God and my relationship with Mary, because I saw how much she loved and cared for me.”

Because this surgery improved the quality of Dave’s life, he wanted to share his experience with others who are also suffering from obesity and related health problems.