The Reborn Losers

July 12, 2006

Amy Weber wanted to wear a t-shirt with a picture of herself for the 5K race Saturday. She lost 134 pounds in less than a year and loved the thought of wearing a “before” picture on her “after” body.
Weber is running the 5K race at the National Cherry Festival with 13 others who have gone through gastric bypass surgery. They call themselves “The Reborn Losers”
Weber is the instigator of the run on Saturday, July 8. She talked about doing the race on an Internet message board group for those who have undergone gastric bypass surgery. Her idea spread like a liquid protein drink. But as it turned out, the other runners nixed Weber’s t-shirt idea because they wanted to put their girth behind them.
The runners are part of a surprising number of people—440 in the last three years—who underwent gastric bypass surgery through Grand Traverse Surgery, the only practice in town that performs the procedure.
“People have to know it’s not a quick fix,” said Mary Kay Williams, GT Surgery’s nurse practitioner. “This is the hardest thing they’ll do in their entire lives. And still a lot of the public thinks it’s the easy way out.”
GT Surgery prepares a person mentally for what’s ahead, and provides each patient with lots of back-up—a monthly support group, physical check-ups, nutritional counseling, weigh-ins, and the Internet support group.
No question this is major surgery and requires a new lifestyle that would challenge normal weight people. That’s why Williams spends a lot of time on “brainwashing” patients to ensure they stay on track.
“It’s not the surgery that fails, it’s the patient that fails, usually because they get into their old habits,” Williams said. “They don’t exercise. They start grazing and snacking all day long. They eat sweets again, and that’s when they put the weight on.”

What you lose to lose
Immediately after surgery, if a person eats sugar he gets what’s called a dumping syndrome, which feels like a bad flu. Eventually the body can tolerate a small amount of sugar and alcohol, but not much. Smoking is never an option.
The operation involves more than reducing the stomach size to the size of an egg. The surgeon also bypasses the first part of the intestine, which results in fewer calories absorbed and faster weight loss. But it also means the intestine absorbs fewer nutrients; a patient has to supplement with protein drinks, vitamins, calcium, and iron.
Williams said potential candidates are thoroughly screened. Those who can’t quit smoking, or are prone to alcohol abuse or a severe eating disorder must opt out.
A person must also sign a10-page consent form that outlines the risks, including infections, a blood clot in the lung, iron deficiency, hernias (much reduced with a new laparoscopic approach), ulcers, and even death.
The success rate at GT Surgery is 85%, and no one has died as a result of surgery. Successful patients are defined as losing at least 60% of their excess weight.
Here are two of them.

Two goals – finish the race, and don’t come in last
Doug Shaffer’s story started 2 1/2 years ago with the following life stats: he was 57, 5’9, weighed 321 pounds, and his body mass index was 44 percent (it must be 40 or over to qualify for surgery). He was GT Surgery’s patient No. 36. His surgeon was Roche Featherstone and he believes that he was his savior.
“Roche (pronounced Rocky) has an eccentric personality. He’s 41years old, has an earring, a moustache and beard; he builds motorcycles in his spare time. And he’s a very skilled surgeon. He not only saved my life as a surgeon, he’s also my friend and my running partner.
At the time, Shaffer was GT Surgery’s oldest patient, and he wanted a fresh start for his near-retirement years.
“I could lose weight with the best of them, but keeping it off, maintaining it and staying motivated, I couldn’t do it.”
Willams explained that Shafer’s experience is typical—studies show that weight loss with diet and exercise is nearly impossible, in part, because metabolism slows significantly as the weight climbs higher.
Shaffer had already made up his mind to get the surgery before ever attending GT Surgery’s seminar. But he was impressed by the straight talk of Mary Kay Williams and made an appointment the next day.
The big day was February 25, 2004 and the five-week recovery was smooth. Amazingly, Shaffer lost 100 pounds in 19 weeks, and stabilized at a trim 185 pounds.
A complication cropped up last October with two hernias requiring surgical repair. As a side note, Shaffer also had a tummy tuck.
“And then two weeks ago—throughout this experience they very closely monitor your blood work—I developed a problem with low iron and they pumped 1,000 milligrams of iron in me. A few of us just cannot retain iron.”
Shaffer lifts weights, runs, religiously takes his supplements, and drinks a jazzed up protein concoction for strength. “It tastes like a shake from Don’s Drive-In. Eighty grams of protein a day, minimum. I think that’s the key to energy.”
He also enrolled in a 10-week running course with Lisa Taylor at Running Fit. “The goal is to get people who have never run before to run at least 30 minutes nonstop. Running this race will be a great accomplishment – my first goal is to complete it, and my second goal is not to be last.”
Does he ever feel his hunger is more than what he can satisfy with his downsized stomach?
“I think it’s a head game. I can feel hunger, but for the most part I eat because I have to eat and it’s healthy to eat. I can’t say I’m really hungry. … For me, it’s the best decision I’ve made in my adult life. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
Shaffer feels the emotional challenge—learning to cope with stress without food—is bigger than the physical challenge.
“My suspicion is that you have to look at life in a different way. Maybe you’ve had tragedies in your life, a divorce, family issues that caused you to overeat. You need to determine why you became obese. And until you deal with these issues, you haven’t solved anything.”

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat”
The first thing that strikes you about Amy Weber is how beautiful she is, reminding you of the movie, Shallow Hal, who is a cad avenged with a “curse” to see only a person’s interior beauty.
Weber still can’t quite believe it when she sees herself in the mirror. Before her surgery, she carried 274 pounds on her 5’4 frame. Now she weighs in at 140.
Her inspiration for the surgery came from a friend, an ambulance driver, whose body “transformed” after surgery.
Her first challenge was to convince her husband it was a good idea. Then she had to line up care for her three children. Finally, they had to save up money for three weeks of missed work from her Subway job.
Recovery from her surgery in August of 2005 at first went well. Three weeks after the operation, she was back at work. But in early September, severe stomach pain sent her to the emergency room. Her diagnosis: a perforated ulcer that required a second surgery.
“I was the second of all the bariatric patients to have this happen. They think it’s because I generate too much stomach acid.”
Her wound became infected and it took six months for the hole in her stomach to close. She couldn’t lift her toddler or work in food service with the open wound.
“It wasn’t just the pain. Financially it was hard too. We had planned for me to be off work for a couple of weeks—not
three months. But it took that long to get my energy back.
“I had a period with the wound comp-lications and all that nasty stuff where I wondered, why did I do this. I really had a down period. Mary Kay helped me get through that, she’s an angel, she’s such a sweetheart. I trudged through and finally got my energy back. It took me 3 1/2 months before I felt okay. It was very tough, very difficult, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Weber suffered another bout of stomach pain since then, but not nearly as severe.
“They did a scope, put a camera down my throat, and discovered I had an ulcer in the same spot again. But the good news is that it wasn’t perforated this time,” she said.
The fix was easy—just a daily dose of antacid medicine. Weber said that the online support group has made all the difference.
“It’s so relieving to know there are other people who know what you’re going through and help you through it. You’re thin and you feel great, you feel like a normal person, but you’re not. You still have to follow the program, get the protein, avoid the sugar. Otherwise you can regain your weight and have serious complications.
“There’s a patient who wasn’t getting her protein and she was admitted to the hospital for something going on with her legs. Somebody started smoking again and ended up getting an ulcer in their stomach.
“You can’t drink because of the sugar and the liver is very sensitive. So you’re around parties, burgers and beer, and always having to pass. But it’s worth it. For what I gained in my life, it’s so worth it to say no.”