Well, where do I start? My name is Dawn Bernady and I will be 24 years old on December 18,
2000. I attend college full-time and I work a full-time job. I have never remembered a time in my
life that I haven't been heavy or struggled with my weight. My entire family is overweight and it
virtually seemed like there was no way for me to avoid it. All the women in my family are short, big
in the belly, and big busted. I, of course, got it all. I�m 5�2� and my heaviest weight was 407lbs,
which was the day of my surgery. There is so much I want to do in life and I really feel that my
weight puts HUGE limitations on what I can and cannot do. I've thought about surgery several times
in my life. I have even gone and talked to doctors about it only to walk away disappointed.
I've never worried that my insurance wouldn't approve the procedure because I am that heavy and
me being at the size I am is more of a risk to them then actually paying for the surgery. I want to get
married and have a family. I want to be a wife and mother. At this point in life, I don't feel like that
will ever happen. And even if I do get married and have children, at the size I am now, I won't be
able to run, play, and keep up with them. I have a godchild now and after a day of watching him I
feel like I'm going to keel over from exhaustion.
I have never let my weight stop me from doing anything. I had a wonderful childhood and many
friends. If someone didn�t like me, I would make them like me. I loved high school and it seemed
like I was involved in everything. Of course, I didn�t have many boyfriends. The majority of my
friends were boys, but the ones I was interested in always just wanted to be my �friend� or looked
at me like a �sister.� I am such a romantic and not having someone made me just eat more. It�s
amazing because you�d think it would make you do the opposite. The end of my freshman year, my
mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I had to grow up extremely fast that year. My grades
took a major plunge and I was responsible for so much more. Food became my best friend and my
worst enemy. Well when it came time for me to start looking into college my senior year, things had
somewhat �mellowed out� and my grades were back to what they were before my mother�s
diagnosis. I then had to face three more major blows; my parents couldn�t afford to help me with
tuition and my grades from my freshman and sophomore year prevented me from any scholarships,
and my mother decided that I could make it through college without any loans. Now I completely
understood my parents not being able to help me out financially, but I was not legal at the time to
sign for tuition loans myself, which meant I would have to pay out-of-pocket for the first two years
or so. I ended up staying home and going to the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Don�t
get me wrong, UNO is a good school, but I wanted out of Nebraska and away from my parents. I
had to become an adult very quickly at a young age and I wanted to be a kid again, plus experience
the �true� college life. Not getting to leave made my depression even worse and of course the
eating didn�t get any better.
Well since I was working full-time to pay for tuition since I didn�t have any loans, my grades
suffered immensely. When I was finally able to apply for a loan myself, my grades prevented me
from getting any loans. It�s crazy how it all works. I had planned on getting through college in 4
years and to date, I�m not anywhere near completing my degree. I would take 2 or 3 classes here
and there, but would end up dropping them because I was too tired or it hurt too bad to sit that long
in those stupid tiny little desks. I�m the first one in my family to go a university and everyone was so
proud that I was actually �making� it. I hid the fact that I was dropping almost all the classes I
started with. I felt like a HUGE failure and so I would turn to food. The scale, of course, would
continue to rise. It seemed like if anything would happen, it would happen to me.
A month or so after my 21st birthday, I started having problems with my kidneys (not related to my
weight.) I would develop stones and frequent urinary tract infections. My grandmother (my dad�s
mom) started having kidney problems when she was about my age. The last 10 to 12 years of her
life she went to dialysis 3 to 4 times a week. Her kidneys are what ended up killing her. In March
1999, my doctor had me do an ultrasound on my kidneys just to make sure there were no stones he
couldn�t see. It was then he found a small tumor on my left kidney. At the time he said that it was
nothing to worry about and he�d check it again in 6 months. At the end of September 1999, I had
another ultrasound. The doctor said he would call me if he saw anything wrong. I figured
everything was clear because 6 weeks past and I hadn�t heard anything.
The last week in November I get a call from my doctor. He said that the tumor has almost tripled in
size and looked a little abnormal. He wanted to go in through my back and draw some fluid just to
make sure everything was ok. On Friday, December 17, 1999, the day before my 23rd birthday, I
went into the hospital for the outpatient procedure to draw the fluid from the tumor. On Tuesday,
December 21, 1999, I got a call from my doctor�s nurse asking me to come in so he could go over
the results with me. Needless to say I knew it wasn�t good news. The doctor said that when they
tried to draw fluid from the tumor, there was no fluid, which meant it was solid. They ended up
taking some tissue instead. The cells came back abnormal and he believed I had renal cell cancer
(cancer of the kidneys). My doctor�s suggestion was to take the whole kidney. He also said that he
could take the whole kidney and it possible might not be cancer. Now I know one can function
with only one kidney, but considering my family history, I don�t want to risk him taking the whole
thing and have it not be anything but an complex cyst.
Anyway, I got a second opinion and it�s the good thing I did. Dr. Taylor said that he didn�t think it
was cancer, but since the cells kept coming back abnormal the only way to know for sure was to
take the tumor, not the whole kidney. On February 18, 2000 I had surgery to remove the tumor in
my left kidney. The tumor, as Dr. Taylor predicted, ended up being non-malignant, which was a-ok
by me. I didn�t go to school that semester and I was off work for about 7 weeks. And what do you
think I mostly did those 7 weeks? You guessed it, ate. I don�t even think I know how much I gain
during that whole fiasco�..30 or 40 lbs? I don�t know for sure.
Well during that time period, I ran across an article of Carnie Wilson in People magazine. I had
been kinda following her since her surgery, but that was the first time I had actually seen any
follow-up. I went to ADoctorInYourHouse.com (now SpotLightHealth.com) which in turn lead me
to ObesityHelp.com. This is when all my research on WLS began. I couldn�t stay away from it. I
wanted to read and get my hands on to anything and everything, good and bad, I could regarding
WLS. It was like it became an obsession. It was the answer to all my prayers!!!!!!!! I ended up
talking to some people from Nebraska. I met a WONDERFUL lady named Dottie who introduced
me to my surgeon, Dr. Ranjan Sudan. When I went to first go see Dr. Sudan, I went in with the idea
that I wanted the roux-en-y with divided stomach. I didn�t even consider the DS because I didn�t
think my insurance would cover it, so I didn�t want to get my hopes up. Plus I really didn�t do a lot
of research on the DS procedure. Since the DS procedure is what Dr. Sudan specializes in, I knew
he would try to talk me into it. Of course he did talk about and the more he talked about it, the
more intrigued I got. He also said that the DS was even better for those a little more heavy side.
Statistically, if I were to have the RNY, if I would just lose the weight statistics say (even though a
lot of people have been known to lose more), my body mass index (BMI) would still be above 40
(morbidly obese). I guess my real worry of even considering the DS procedure was that we would
send in for insurance approval and I get denied. Then we�d have to send in for the RNY approval,
delaying my surgery even longer. Anyway, I figured what the hell; send in for the DS insurance
approval and in the meantime, I�d research into it more.
All I have to say is that I�m really glad I went with the DS procedure!!!!!!! The more research I
did, the more and more I liked it. I had my biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch with
Sudan in Omaha, Nebraska on September 22, 2000. As of December 4, 2000, I have lost 67lbs.
My weight is officially at 340lbs. The last time I weighed under 350lbs was when I was in high
school. I can finally weigh on the scale at home, which was a HUGE turning point for me!!!!!!!!
Although, sometimes I wonder if it is really a good thing because I want to weigh everyday. Now
don�t get me wrong, recovery has been very hard. The emotional factor is the worst. Even if the
weightloss stopped today (and I hope to God it doesn�t), I would do it all over again.