DVYW
My health was always fairly good yet I would always be on the high side of my weight category. When I got married in 2001 I was 70 lbs over weight I then had a string of miscarriages of non viable pregnancies (stated by my hematologist that diagnosed my blood test with the anemia Alpha Trait Thalassemia, this is why I slept a lot for years and had Hemoglobin test results of 8.5). It turns out with that Alpha Trait combination (and both me and my husband have it) there was a 25% chance that I couldn't hold on to a pregnancy. I would have the symptoms for a week but then lose the pregnancy, this happened every other month during our first year of marriage. Then as I kept getting pregnant my sugar levels kept going up and up I found out later it was also the diuretic that I was prescribed to help me lose water weight(I was only 40 lbs over weight at that point after losing 30 pounds with the diuretic I was now diabetic), the doctor later apologized because I had no history of high sugar levels when he first started treating me and he wouldn't have given me this medicine had he taken into consideration that both of my parents now have type 2 diabetes. Other doctors didn't want to do anything about my sugar levels (HgA1c of 10.87) for the longest I kept going from doctor to doctor to doctor trying to find someone to help me with my sugar levels. Really the doctors, I feel and they told me so, that they didn't want to help me because I wanted to get pregnant and every single one of them tried to urge me not to have children past the age of 34 years of age. I retorted that I know five people personally in my life who had children with abnormalities and each and every one of the were under the age of 30 so don't tell me about statistics. With that thought of Statistics I would ponder its validity in my life. For example, I thought of the OJ trial were they stated during the trial that a very small percentage of men wore a size 12 shoe therefore he had to have made the imprint left at the scene. I remember going around during that time thinking that either that statistic is bogus or every man that I know in my life (who I can look at in the eye or up into their eyes, had to have been a suspect in the murder because they were low occurring abnormalities in existence, every male friend I had was above six feet tall and all wore size 12 or above). So with that thought I didn't believe it. Besides my mother's mother was 38 when she was born and she is the smartest and strongest woman know. Then I finally got some help from a non profit Women's Center. Here they told me that I still had a 75% chance of getting pregnant but my sugar levels are so high that the insulin hormone is also keeping me from getting pregnant. So I was prescribed very mild diabetes maintenance medicine from group B (medication group that doesn't adversely affect pregnancies). After 3 months on this medicine I got pregnant and after a week I was still pregnant and then after two weeks I was still pregnant when I went to the doctor at this point the nurse still asked me, "do you really want to be pregnant? You are 3... years old?" I told her, "I graduated high school, college, worked my 20 years in the system, got married and now I am in the doctor's office beaming that I am pregnant! What do you think?"
While pregnant I went on insulin and my sugar levels were controlled up and I had a perfect pregnancy except that doctors wanted to abort my baby because my sugar levels were so high. Once I ignored the doctors again I got over that hump and sailed through the pregnancy but I was lethargic most of the time because of the insulin and I gained over 140 pounds by birth. While the Ultrasound Technician would tell me that my pregnancy was normal with an estimated birth weight of 7 lbs in 3 weeks. A doctor, who read the report still informed me because of your size you will have a baby of the weight of 14 lbs in three weeks. I again retorted that you are telling me that it has taken my baby 37 weeks to almost grow to 7 lbs today and that she will double her weight in 3 weeks? He was absolutely sure, no if ands or buts. Then he went on to try to schedule a Amniocentesis where I said no because you can't guarantee that nothing will happen to my pregnancy(this was a conversation I had with the whole team of doctors every other high risk pregnancy week, but I did do the non evasive genetic blood test that reported a analysis of me and 1000 other woman with my life style/age/habits/health record vs. my blood test did not have problems with their pregnancies). I had a beautiful little girl (6.9 lbs) with no problems and she is now going to be eight years old. Can you imagine if I had listened to the prejudice and statistics? However, going through breast feeding I gained more and more until I reached my Gastric bypass surgical weight. I begged my Primary care physician to take me off of insulin because I had never gained weight like this and I have been exercising 3 hours a day/5 days per week for a year and I haven't lost an ounce while eating 1000-1200 kcal/day, I didn't have this problem before pregnancy. I could always go back but nothing worked this time and my primary care physician looked at me as if I were lying and said try harder. I changed doctors and on my first visit he said to me, "have you ever thought of doing something about your weight?" I said yes and I told him how much I exercised/ gave up sugar in 1998 and followed the Dr. Perricone diet with no result accept getting my blood pressure down to 130/70 without medication. So he went on to send a letter to my insurance stating that I needed weight loss surgery. This is what I needed because I was on an HMO.
Towards the end of the story so far I found out that the Cyst in my brain made me retain water big time and through pregnancy and breast feeding the Cyst got bigger and I just kept of growing and growing and growing. So in March of 2005 I had an RNY and I have continually been getting better which had led me to the diagnosis of the cyst and a solution that has me feeling normal for the first time in my life.
My biggest worry from 2007 about falling and seeing lights is almost a distant memory. But Now I can enjoy my new body with dancing and singing and playing with my kids where I don't get tired and I don't loose my balance. Life is good!
DVYW
About Me
Before & After
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