RIP Lucie

The main purpose of this post is not to talk about what I did or did not eat but to reflect, yet again on the drastic measure that is weight loss surgery.

A bit of context.

Yesterday morning, Lucie, mom to Brianna and Maxim, wife to Stephane passed away. She had the DS surgery with Dr L in October. The surgery itself went well. She died as a result of infection of the surgical wound. Lucie had her surgery in Michigan but was treated for her infection in Ottawa. There is obviously a lot more to the story than I write here but the details right now are not important.

Yesterday two children lost their mom and it has profoundly affected me. For many of us who make the decision to take the life altering step of surgery to treat our obesity, one of the driving forces behind that decision is/was our children. We want to be around to see our children grow. We want to be the role models we know we should be. We want to be able to be there for our children in a very real way... to get down on the floor to play with them, to run after them, to be able to sit in the seats at the hockey arena and cheer them on, to have them never experience the taunting of others because their parent is so super fat. We make the decision to "live" for our children, all the while knowing that the very surgery we need could take that life away from our children. Each of us, before surgery, experienced the fear of what that could look like. I blogged about it when I first started this blog. I know I am not alone in this.

All those emotions I felt before my surgery have come back now as I think of those two children. I did not know Lucie well. We were members of the same board at obesityhelp.com. We knew that there was an infection but her posts were upbeat. Dr L was involved. They sent her home with home nursing care. All this indicated to getting better. We did not expect this. I'm sure her husband and children did not expect this.

I know my post is circuitous at best. I'm not sure if there is any one single point that I'm trying to make. So many thoughts.

To the newbies please know - what happened to Lucie is extremely rare. It was not the DS surgery that killed her. It was an infection. An infection that you could get when you go for dental work. For any surgery. You need to be aware of the risks of the DS. You need to be aware of the risks of general surgery. You need to listen to your body and self advocate when things are not as they should be

To Lucie's family - you are in my thoughts constantly. I am shedding tears for your loss - she was a wonderful, warm person.That came through clearly in her posts. I cannot begin to comprehend your pain right now.

To Dr L - I am sorry for your loss. I know that you feel a great sense of responsibility for all your patients and I know that this has also profoundly affected you. You have provided so many of us here in Ontario with a new lease on life and even though you are physically in another country you have always been accessible to us when we needed it.