Chris's Journey: #38 Miracles Can Happen OR How my Gastric Sleeve Surgery Saved My Life Twice

This week Chris talks about a scare he had, and how the gastric sleeve save him. Check it out!

About two weeks before my bariatric surgery (gastric sleeve) I had a crisis of faith. I was beginning to wonder if this was the best decision for me. Did I really try dieting hard enough? Was I willing to do what it took once the surgery was done? I asked myself question after question trying to figure out whether I should doing this surgery. I was not really scared…but I did doubt myself that this was the best decision possible. Thankful I had several good friends that really took good care of me and helped me settle down and focus on what needed to get done. As all of you who have read my blog now know, the surgery went super well and over 70 pounds down I am on my way to a healthier way of life. Believe it or not there is one last chapter about the surgery that I need to share with everyone. Two weeks after the surgery I received a call from Dr. Rao’s office asking me to come in and see them again. I had my first post-surgery visit the week before, and was not supposed to go back for another two weeks. I asked if it was important and they said yes. I set the appointment for the afternoon of the next day. Going in to see Dr. Rao a day later, my head was flooded with all sorts of thoughts. Was I going to the principal’s office? Was I not losing weight fast enough? Was I eating something wrong and someone told on me? I went in to her office and immediately was sent back to see her. When Dr. Rao and her assistant came in, she was cracking jokes and made me smile. I appreciate Dr. Rao very much and am so grateful to her as my doctor. But as soon as she got settled she got a chair and sat real close to me. She looked me in the eyes and began to talk. After my stomach was removed it was sent over to pathology for testing and to be reviewed. During that testing, a small tumor known as a GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor) was found in my stomach. When she told me about the GIST, I just had to sit back. I was blown away. I was never expecting to receive that kind of information. I will say this; I was not scared or afraid. I just was blown away by hearing the news. Dr. Rao continued to talk. She told me that GIST tumors are very rare and she only knew of one other case. She said I was in good shape because the tumor was very small, 0.7 CM. She said that she was going to take very good care of me and send me to the best Gastro specialist and the best Oncologist she knew. Dr. Rao told me she was not concerned at all, but we had to take these precautions just to be on the safe side. She told me to call her anytime I had a question or a concern. She was there for me. She hugged me and I left her office. As I was driving home I called one of my best friend Lauren and told her. I was not sure at this time I was going to tell anyone. But Lauren and I had been through so much “stuff” together that she was the one person I knew I was definitely going to tell. I decided to not tell my family until after I got some answers. Right now I had more questions than answers and I did not want to put my family through the stress of this. Two of my uncles have had major cancer battles the past few years and both were and are wars. I did not want my family having more cancer stress. Plus as I said Dr. Rao was not worried. Waiting a few weeks to tell the family would not hurt. I did tell a few friends just to help me deal with the stress and allowed me to talk about it. Plus a prayer chain was started for me and I could feel those prayers in the coming weeks because I stayed calm throughout the whole process. I saw both the gastro specialist and the oncologist and they both said the same thing. The tumor was found early and they both felt like the surgery got the tumor out of me and that there was no more left. Testing would need to be done (CAT scan) and I would see the doctors after the CAT scan was over with. Again, prayers from so many kept me calm. God’s hand was on me throughout this process. So the day of the CAT scan I got a call from the facility I was getting the scan done and was told that I could not get the scan done at their facility and I had to go to Orange Park Hospital. I was confused and was asking why this was. I was told that I would be able to fit in the machine when I originally set my appointment. They told me that the bench into the CAT scan machine only held 400 pounds and I was too heavy. I told them to hold up! At that point in time I was 399 pounds and losing weight every day. I could fit on that bench! I defended myself for the first time in a while. I was not going to be told to go somewhere else when I did fit! I asked to talk to a supervisor and an agreement was made. I would have the procedure in 2 more weeks. I told them no problem and I would be even lighter then! I was 386 pounds when I had the CAT scan done. Boom! I fit in the CAT scan with room to spare and they were able to see everything that they needed to. A week later I went in to see the gastro specialist and to see what the results were of the scan. I sat in the office as the doctor came in and began to review my chart. He looked up and down for a while. I am not the most patient person, so after a little bit I asked him what the verdict was. He asked me a few questions about if I had any pain anywhere. I told him no. He told me that everything looked good. The scan showed no additional tumors and it looked like the surgery did get it all. In his words, I am cured. As I mentioned earlier I was not worried throughout the whole month I had to wait between the first time I was told of this tumor and then told I was healthy. God did not give me a spirit of fear He gave me strength. He gave me the strength to keep focusing on the weight and not the tumor. So even though I walked out happy, I did not feel like the weight of the world was off my shoulders and that is simply because the weight of the world was never on my shoulders to begin with. God had my back from the beginning all the way to the end. I am not sure I am a miracle or not. I do not feel like a miracle. I am not sure if this whole story constitutes a miracle like a few friends have said to me. I just know that God gave me a peace and serenity that I never would have had without Him. I am a nervous person by nature. I am a natural worrier about my friends, my family, or at times just about anything. But during a time that I should have been stressed and scared out of my mind and it would have been justified, I was calm, cool, and collected almost the whole time. I am a blessed man because that stress was taken away from me. All I can say to you is that peace was a great gift God gave to me. And it was a gift ONLY God could give to me. So the gastric sleeve surgery saved my life a first time by helping me begin to succeed at losing weight. Something I had never been able to do before. But looking back on all this, the surgery has now saved my life a second time. If that tumor had been allowed to grow like it could have without the surgery, I could potentially have been in bad shape. No one will know for sure how bad of shape I would have been in, but the doctor’s did say that a GIST tumor is very difficult to find by normal testing methods. As skeptical as I was two weeks before the surgery, I am so blessed and grateful I made the decision to have had it! Thank you Lord for my peace. Sincerely, Chris If you want to know more about GIST’s please go to this website: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/gastrointestinalstromaltumorgist/detailedguide/gastrointestinal-stromal-tumor-what-is-gist