Losing a label — and a bunch of weight, too
Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008
Admitting he's a little nervous about his gastric-bypass surgery scheduled for Monday, Don Sinquefield looks forward to losing the label "morbidly obese. "The 60-year old Sinquefield, a staff assistant at Benton County Central Communications, is delighted about one aspect of the operation - it will be done at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale on Monday. "Until Dr. Josh Roller started doing bariatric surgery in northwest Arkansas, patients from around here had to travel to Little Rock, Tulsa or Oklahoma City," Sinquefield said. "I weigh 370 right now, and Dr. Roller told me that by the end of the year, I should have lost between 100 and 160 pounds. "Originally from Mississippi, Sinquefield played football at Harding in the mid-1960 s and signed with a semipro football team after graduation.
Sinquefield related his feelings about the surgery to how he used to feel before a football game.
"I have some butterflies for sure," he said with a smile. "Just like when a game starts and until the first hit, it's hard to settle down. Once the game gets going, everything calms down. That's how I feel about the surgery Monday. I think I'll calm down when I get to Northwest early that morning and they get me all prepared for the surgery. It's cost me a little sleep, but I'm concentrating on how much better I'll feel after the gastric bypass."
Roller is originally from Tulsa. After graduation from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, his internship and residency in surgery were at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Following completion of his residency, Roller studied minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N. C.
When he was at Duke, Roller began hearing from medical staffs interested in his specialized skills. Northwest Medical Center in Springdale contacted him.
"I wasn't familiar with Springdale," Roller said. "It surprised me, when I mapped it out, that it's so close to Tulsa. My wife and I visited northwest Arkansas. While I was talking with them at Northwest, my wife was with a real-estate agent. We both really liked the area and moved here last summer.
"The hospital allowed me to set up the program at the Northwest Arkansas Surgical Clinic. A few years ago, a couple of surgeons performed bariatric surgery at Northwest with disastrous results. They stopped performing the surgeries until I came on board. They allowed me to set up the program, and I based it on Duke's setup with a few positive changes. So far, we've performed 40 surgeries with no serious complications. Like many other hospitals, Northwest learned the hard way that patients who are candidates for a bariatric procedure require a surgeon who has devoted plenty of time to studying the different types of surgeries. I am the only doctor in northwest Arkansas who performs bariatric surgery. I use a laproscope, which is a small tube with a tiny camera."
On staff with Roller are qualified nurses, a dietitian and a clinical psychologist. The post-op visits, Roller said, are crucial. He said that at first, his staff was amazed at the results patients were experiencing, especially how well they felt and the amount of weight they lost. The results now are no surprise to the staff.
"Changing diet and exercising does not work for some obese people," Roller said. "It just doesn't. And you can't tell someone to lose 200 pounds. You might as well tell them to go pick up their car. It's impossible. Those are the people who can be helped by surgery.
"More people die from the effects of being obese than die from colon and breast cancer combined. Bariatric surgery is truly lifesaving. "
Primarily, Roller performs three types of bariatric surgery - gastric bypass, lap band and laproscopic sleeve gastrectomy.
"I love Dr. Roller to death, and I'm really glad he's my surgeon," Sinquefield said. "Oh, I guess everyone thinks about things before they have an operation. I know the good Lord will take care of me. He has for 60 years, and he's not going to stop now. I hurt my knee playing football years ago and I haven't been able to exercise. I think that's the biggest reason I've gotten so big."
Last September, Sinquefield's heart began racing. He had to be defibrillated to shock his heart back into its proper rhythm. He was told then to make an appointment with Roller. He did. After thorough testing, he was determined to be a candidate for gastric-bypass surgery.
From his kitchen cabinet, Sinquefield retrieved a 1-ounce shot glass. Smiling broadly, he held up the tiny container.
"Just think," Sinquefield said," in a few days, it will only take two of these full of food to fill me up. After the surgery, my stomach will only be able to hold 2 ounces. Man, that's going to be something. I can't wait to be through with the surgery and start losing weight."
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