Anjel
I am a 30 year old female who recently gained weight over the past 6 years. I grew up in a household where my mother cooked very hearty meals & made a lot of foods from scratch. The average dinnertime meal consisted of fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, potato salad and biscuits with a nice helping of dessert!
I would say in 2002 is when I started putting on the weight. I started working for Verizon in 2001 & in 2002 I became very depressed. So instead of seeking help I sought food. Food was my best friend. I ended up taking a leave from work for a few months and I remember during that time I would eat and sleep all day long. BAD BAD BAD MISTAKE! Unfortunately it was the only thing that made me feel better. Food to me was like a drug. Also I live smack dab in the city so it's very easy to get food delivered or run out and get something. I remember hiding food when people would come and visit me so they wouldn't see how much of a pig I was. My trash can would be filled with bags from McDonalds, KFC, Arby's, Burger King, Wendy's etc. I had pizza and chinese places on speed dial. Certain waitresses at restaurants knew me by name. When I was stressed I ate. When I was sad I ate. When I was happy...well I ate. NOTHING took away my appetite.
Around 2004 is when I 1st thought about having WLS. At the time I didn't know insurance covered it. Many people at my job were getting the surgery and had positive feedback. I ended up going to seminiar and had regular visitations with one of the dietitions. To say the journey was hard was an understatment! They scrutinized everything I ate yet did not tell me what kinds of modifications I should be making. They wanted me to lose so many pounds per month. I joined Curves but did not know what kind of foods I should be eating. They told me I should stick with a diet of 800-1000 calories. I tried doing that but I ended up feeling like I would faint! The straw that broke the camel's back was when the nutrionist told me that I would never get approved for my surgery because I was eating around 1200 calories. I said come on! Cut me a break! Not only was I starving but I had very low energy and they were not giving me very good idea of what kinds of foods I should eat that would help with the energy as well as weight loss! I was clueless! So I decided that maybe WLS was not in the cards for me so I will lose weight the natural way.
2005 I tried LA Weight loss, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nurti-system. All of these work somewhat however I do not care for spending money every month to utilize their products. My results were very minimal. I probably lost about 10-20 pounds within that year. The hardest part for me was working long hours and being too tired to exercise or to plan out a well balanced meal. As soon as I stopped the programs I put the weight back on and then some.
Finally 2006 rolled around and I changed PCP's. As she was administering my blood pressure medicine I was telling her about all the failed diet plans I've tried. She then asked me if I ever considered weight loss surgery. I told her my experience the 1st time. She then told me how she lost 150 pounds and had gastric bypass performed by a Dr. Robert Quinlan and gave me their number. I was skeptical at 1st but then called them so attend the seminar.
I must say Pittsburgh Bariatrics out of St Margarets Hospital was a godsend. They were VERY organized. They had you fill out forms and you sat in a seminar for about an hour and they gave you a packet of information of what your insurance company expected. Once they figured you were a candidate they called you and set up an appointment with a dietitian. Once I attended the appointment with the dietitian, she did not come out and say "you must lose X amount of weight or we will not do the surgery." No, she basically told me "we are going to teach you about nutrition and how to eat and how to supply yourself with vitamins and minerals for the rest of your life. We are going to schedule you for 6 consecutive months of nutrition classes and you will also have group meetings you can attend." And I must say it was a wrap from there. I attended my classes and got all the testing done they required. I attended support groups and made alot of friends along the way. One of the things I really liked was the fact that the classes, support groups and all the testing is done ALL in the hospital which I found very convenient. It did however take me a little over the 6 months to get everything in order mainly due to some of the testing that was needed. Once I got all my testing done and attended my final seminar I was called the VERY NEXT DAY and was given a surgery date!!! I couldn't believe it was finally here. Once Demember 18th rolled around and I came to the hospital the nurses and staff were very nice and accomidating. All I remember then was being wheeled into the OR and then awakened asking when they were going to get around to doing my surgery. "You've had the surgery already silly!" The doctors said. Silly me. So far I am 2 weeks post op. I've had a couple of ups and downs but nothing serious. I'm glad I decided to go through with this and I had NO regrets whatsoever!
