Tami F.
My struggle with weight has been going on for the majority of my life. "Chubby" at puberty, lost the weight as a teen. Go off to college, gain the freshman 15 PLUS, lose that but gain it back plus some while going thru nursing school. Tried many differ types of diets and would have success but would put it right back on plus some.
I put on the majority of my weight after getting married and having my two wonderful sons especially after my second son. I was dealing with losing my brother and mother right before I became pregnant with him in 1998 and I know I ate to work thru my grief and stress. I've been an emotional eater probably all of my life.
I had thought about WLS around 2005 and even had approval from Tricare to go see a bariatric surgeon. I began reading online about the RNY and let some of the things that I know now are not factual I read scare me out of the even going to the surgeon.
When I turned 40 in 2007, I finally got help for depression. This lead to see a wonderful psychologist and being involved in a woman's group that dealt with emotional eating. I learned alto about my "triggers" that lead to emotional eating. I was really hoping that would be what lead me to the weight loss I had been wanting for years. But it didn't.....
Last fall was really my breaking point when I had a couple of days where I had to do alot of walking. I had been having knee pain with walking prior to this but after those two long days I was in so much pain that I could barely walk, couldn't sleep from the pain and just wanted to really give up on life. It took me about a week to were I felt I could get around just in my house. That was a real wake up call for me. I started thinking about how much my health was declining and I was heading down a path that I know I HAD to stop before more serious issues came up. I've already been dealing with high b/p as well as the knee pain.
So I decided I wanted to look into getting a lap band. Fast forward and I had approval to go see a bariatric surgeon in Miami BUT I had to go to one of his seminars about the differ WLS he performs before I could get an appt at his office. I went to Dr de la Cruz- Munoz seminar and during it my mind began to change my opinion about RNY. Up to this very point I had swore up and down that I would never have a RNY! But hearing the facts and thinking about the amount of weight I want to lose to have a healthier life, I decided RNY would be the best option for me.
So here I am, waiting for Tricare to approve the final submission we had to do, I have a preop class date Feb 21 and I start a 2 week optifast "diet" on that date. Surgery scheduled for March 6th. Of course this is if all goes as planned... and I'm so excited!
