Sixteen months out from bariatric surgery, Castle Rock, Colorado, resident Pam Lundeen is feeling much lighter–100 pounds to be exact–and healthier.
Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery surgeon Dr. Matthew Metz performed gastric sleeve surgery on Pam in November 2018 at Rose Medical Center. At the time of surgery, Pam, now age 54, was in poor health; she’d recently undergone a total knee replacement and she had terrible joint pain due to systemic lupus. While Pam struggled with her weight most of her life, the steroids she had to take led to her gaining 20 pounds a year, and as a result of her obesity, she was on oxygen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“I had five wonderful grandkids (now she has seven) who wanted to spend time with me but I couldn’t function. I couldn’t play with them,” said Pam, who tried “every diet out there.” She scheduled an appointment with Dr. Metz, a former work colleague she trusted. At one of their first appointments, he shared a statistic that really resonated.
“The data is clear: if someone is struggling with their weight and has a body mass index over 40, they really only have a 30 percent chance of living to age 65,” Dr. Metz said.
Prior to surgery, Pam underwent a psychological evaluation and met with dieticians for six months. It was a year from when she started to think about having bariatric surgery to getting having the gastric sleeve performed. After surgery, Pam lost 20 pounds in two weeks and continued to lose weight. Aside from struggling with kidney stones (a common side effect for people who lose weight rapidly) she calls her recovery “phenomenal.”
“The nurses at Rose were amazing. The support of the bariatric team has been tremendous. Dr. Metz is so upbeat; he wants so badly for your success, not for him but for you,” she said.
To date, Pam has lost nearly 100 pounds in total. She’s no longer on oxygen and feels like a new happier, more confident person. And she’s much more active: camping, hiking and spending time with her family.
“I have no regrets; I have my life back.”
Hear Pam discuss her journey with Dr. Metz at the one-year anniversary of her life-changing procedure.
Read Pam’s story
[Paraphrased]
Pam:
I’m Pam. I had surgery on November 19th of last year, just before Thanksgiving. I had the gastric sleeve. I did really well. I did not have to take a lot of pain medication. I think I lost 20 pounds in the first two weeks. It was amazing for me. I have lost 93 pounds total, the last time I checked, which was last week. 93 pounds down.
One of my biggest things is my grandkids. My granddaughter came up and she hugged me, just before they were leaving and she goes, grandma, I can put my arms all the way around you! And she just kept hangin’ on. I think that was like, one of my greatest moments. Another one of my greatest moments was letting go of my oxygen because I had COPD and I was starting to get pretty bad before the surgery. What made me take the leap was, physically, I was getting worse and worse. I was gaining, like, 20 pounds a year. My highest weight was 280, maybe a little over. Wasn’t healthy at all. Unable to do things that I wanted to do. And then coming in and seeing Dr. Metz, was one of my big moments. Yeah. Dr. Metz looked at me and said, “you’re gonna be lucky if you make it 10 years”.
Dr. Metz:
Well, the data are very clear. If somebody’s struggling with their weight, if somebody’s body mass index is over 40, really they only have a 30% chance, of living to age 65, and that’s terrible. That’s way too young. Too young for you. You were suffering with so many medical problems, not just the lungs but your joints.
Pam:
I found out a lot, during the whole process, of actually going into the surgery, I found out a lot more of what actually contributed, to me gaining the weight. Some of it was, I was a stress eater. I was also a bored-eater. And working at the hospitals, I wouldn’t eat all day, and then go home and eat all night. And that didn’t help. And it was the wrong things. All that’s kinda changed now.
Dr. Metz:
So what’s different? What’s different about your life now, aside from the weight loss?
Pam:
Oh. So, different. We actually go camping, take our kids, our grandkids. We went to like, seven different places this year. The sand dunes, hiking, we went, Lake McConaughy. I mean, there are so many things, that we’ve done this year alone, that I’ve never even done, and I’ve been here since I was seven years old, so. (laughs), It’s like, amazing. Spending time with my family is, I’m happier. I’m happier.
Dr. Metz:
Did your insurance cover bariatric surgery, Pam?
Pam:
It did. The majority of it, I had the deductible that I had to cover, but yes.
Dr. Metz:
What did you have to do? Like, what kinda hoops did you have to jump through, in order to have surgery?
Pam:
Actually, your office jumped through the hoops. They were phenomenal. I have never worked with a group of ladies that were so concerned about making sure everything was taken care of. Every one of ’em.
Dr. Metz:
Did you have to do the medically supervised weight loss, with a dietician? Mhm, I did. And how many visits? Just a couple of visits, or did they make you do the six months?
Pam:
I did six months.
Dr. Metz:
And then you had to do the mental health screen, which is standard for all bariatric surgery.
Pam:
Which was phenomenal, by the way. I think that’s kinda where I got started realizing, that I was actually eating for the wrong reasons. Had a lot of things that I went through younger, a lot of things that I just kept piling on. And she was able to help me realize, that those were the things that I had to work through, in order to start eating right, and thinking about food differently.
Dr. Metz:
Are you still working with any providers, or do you still work with like, a support group? Is there anything available to you?
Pam:
Yes. Rose Medical Center, their group I can always call. They don’t even know that I’m calling in half the time. I’m just there. Listening to other stories, listening to other ideas, and figuring out things that are gonna work for me. It’s a journey that I never thought, I would have to cross at my age, but I’m glad I did. It gave me the best re-lease on life, today. I’m kinda realizing, my confidence level has increased. I’m better equipped. Better, I feel good about me. And that’s not somethin’ I did. I work in the medical field, as you know. And was managing practices. I used to be the girl that sat in the corner, hopin’ no one would see. And today, I’m the girl that’s standing up, making those meetings.
Dr. Metz:
So what, in terms of sort of long-term goals, what’s your long term goal?
Pam:
Oh. I wanna help people more, understand that they can make this journey. I had gotten so many different comments, from providers, from friends, why didn’t you do it the regular way? Why didn’t you just diet and try to lose it? And we tried everything. I mean, I was on the medications, I was trying to do the Jenny Craig, do the Weight Watchers, do those things, and I would lose 10, 15 pounds, and then I would gain double it back. I think I wanna be a support for someone else who, I mean, if it just helps one person.
Dr. Metz:
I think you’re helping a lot of people right now. We’ve known each other, I think I met you around 2010, something like that? So it’s been a while that we’ve known each other, and have sort of been dancing around this issue. And so many people think that this is the easy way out, and here you’re a perfect example of somebody, that’s tried everything. And you got these medications, and the lupus, and the steroids, and everything was sort conspiring against you, despite the fact that you were doing everything right. So I’m so proud of you. So proud of you.
Pam:
Well, I couldn’t be more grateful to you, to your team. To Rose. They have been, every one of you have been amazing. Of course, you’ll always have kind of that special place, just because we’ve worked in other places.
Dr. Metz:
A lot of people ask me about excess skin. And I hope I’m not asking too much here… But any issues with excess skin that you’ve noticed, with all the weight loss?
Pam:
I do have excess skin. And I think that’s my next journey. I actually am going to try to have some skin removal. Because there are problems that come up with that. You don’t feel right in your clothes, you don’t feel comfortable. I can’t tell you, I feel more comfortable, in front of my husband today than I did a year ago. Not that he ever made me feel any different, but you know, he’s always said that I was just gorgeous anyway, to him. So for me it’s more about making me feel good. Making me fit that outfit a little better. So yeah, I’m definitely going to look into having that. And we talked about that when I was in a couple weeks ago, three weeks ago.
Dr. Metz:
One of the great things that you just touched on, is the fact that Jim has been so supportive. We see, I mean, Jim’s been at pretty much every single, office visit, all the time in the hospital. He has always been super supportive. Not trying to blow smoke in Jim’s direction, but we see a lot of couples, where they’re not as supportive of each other, or one person is just really not behind the other as much, on this decision. And the outcomes are different. And when people have great support from their families, and their loved ones, they tend to do much, much better. So just, I’m really happy that Jim’s, been a part of this whole process.
Pam:
He literally told me “no” in the beginning. He said “absolutely not, you are not having this done, you are out of your mind.” And I said, at least talk to Dr. Metz, please. And he went and we talked, and he asked questions. We’ve been, you know, for him and my children, they’ve never had to worry about their weight, ever. He’s a retired firefighter, works in construction. My kids are all thin. Their metabolisms are high. And I don’t – I’m trying to say this without saying anything, without crying – I don’t know if anyone knows, I know my daughters feel like they’re too thin. But I always felt like I was never thin enough. And, and my husband always told me that I was just perfect, and I never believed him. And today I believe him. ‘Cause I feel like I am better. It’s hard. It’s hard when you go through those things, ’cause you don’t know if you’re gonna, my fear of not being with my grandkids, not being with my kids, not being with my husband, and not feeling good enough to be around ’em. And those were things that I was trying to tackle. And today I don’t feel that way. And I am so grateful. I’ve had so many blessings over the past year that, I just really couldn’t ask for too much more.
Dr. Metz:
I am so proud of you. I’m so honored that you let me be a part of this journey, with you, both with you and Jim. And I’m just really, just ecstatic that you agreed to be here today, and just tell us your story and tell everyone your story, because you’re truly an inspiration. You’ve inspired me. You’ve really, you made my day, when I saw ya a few weeks ago in the office. I mean, I was just, I know I saw you six months ago, but it’s just, each time you come in and I see you, how much more confident you are, and your eyes are open more. You look fantastic. And your labs reflected, how well things are going internally. And I’m just so proud of you. Amazing, it has been an amazing journey.