Prtyblkbtrfly D.
It has been a little bit over two months since I had my surgery...........I figured I had better get this in writing somewhere just in case I become one of those people who forgot where they came from.
Well.........I have ALWAYS been obese, even after I lose the expected weight I will still be on the borderline of overweight. But weight is not the issue. At twenty-six years old I found myself afraid of stroke, diabetes, and heart attack. As a nurse, every time a twenty or thirty something year old patient crossed my path that suffered from one of these conditions, I could see myself in that hospital bed. Whenever one of the techs would complain about having to take care of that BIG person down the hall, I would think.....................that could easily be me. I found myself continuosly paranoid about my health status. I had been recently diagnosed with hypertension, insulin resistance, and had been experiencing major hormonal issues related to my weight. I had consistently gained about twenty pounds per year since I was born and at age 26 I had maxed out at 425lbs.
I started seriously dieting when I was 21 years old. I had a newborn son and knew that if I wanted to see him grow up that I was going to have to control my eating habits. For every diet that I would go on and lose, I would gain it all back over a period of time + a few to go with it.
I first heard of GBS while working in the NICU, there was a girl there who claimed to have once weighed 550lbs and to have been bed bound she had the duodenal switch and had lost over 200lbs. At first I thought what an extreme measure to lose weight. Havin your intestines rearranged, but the idea always stayed in the back of my mind.
Then at 22 years old and 387 lbs , a surgeon at the hospital where I was working started to do the procedures. I was a brand new nurse and I really didn't like this dude because he wasn't all that friendly to the nurses. And I thought, I wouldn't let that guy touch me even if my life depended on it.
A few more years went by and I continued to grow, but it wasn't my growth that started me to become afraid. My husband got diagnosed with Type II diabetes, sleep apnea, and hypertension. And my five year old son weighed over 100lbs and was proud of it. But how can I control what he is eating when I had no control over myself?
So bariatric surgery then started to become a very realistic possibility for me. These are just some of the more major reasons that led me down this road, I could probably write a book on all of my reasons.
By the way, that surgeon that I said I wouldn't let perform surgery on me did my RNY. It's funny how life changes you.
