Carol I.
I've been heavy and top-heavy all my life. I'd finally gotten pretty serene at about 230 lbs. Then I started my Post-Traumatic Stress period. Ten years after the ESL shootings in Sunnyvale, California, I started having flash-backs and panic attacks. I didn't know what was happening, but I did end up with the head-doctors immediately. Unfortunately, one of the drugs they prescribed made me gain another 70 pounds in 2-3 months. If I wasn't depressed before, I certainly was now. I battled with the PTSD while my entire life fell apart. The good news was that I knew a man who was extremely supportive, who I ended up marrying, who helped while I found balance again.
It's taken me ten years since the onslaught of the PTSD, but I'm finally starting to think about working full-time again. I'm thinking of going back to school to get a single-subject teaching credential and becoming a high school math teacher. Now that I'm trying to retake control over my life, I feel like it is time to retake control over my weight, too. While trying to cope with the PTSD, I took up quilting. I knew some ladies in my quilting group who had WLS, and they all swore by it. I watched the one woman get skinnier and skinnier, and she seemed so happy by how her life was changing. I thought I'd check into it.
My friends had the DS procedure, and were very convinced I should go that way. However, my HMO only did the RNY, as the doctor didn't approve of the DS as the best method. I finally decided to trust my doctor and do the RNY, partially because I didn't want to have to fight the insurance. The folks at the Camino Medical Group (now part of Palo Alto Medical Foundation) seemed really pleased with Dr. Prithvi Legha. The people at the support group had nothing but praise for him. I felt pretty confident when my husband and I talked to him, and about his honesty in his reactions to DS vs. RNY.
We now have a surgery date of May 12th, and already I feel both nervous and anxious and ready to be through surgery and on the other side.
