elle341
I guess my story begins like a lot of others; I have been over weight for as long as I can remember. There have been a few times in my life where I've lost a substantial amount of weight through actively playing tennis for a few summers, but it always comes back, and alot of times twice as much as I lose. One day I weighed 173 lbs, and before I knew it I was 291. I really don't remember how I got here. Maybe, I don't want to remember... What I do remember (like it was yesterday) is the day I injured my lower back at work. That was 8/15/05, and I have been in pain ever since. I weighed about 233 lbs before the injury, and I weighed in at 291lbs the day of my lower back surgery (5/3/06). I gained 58 lbs. in 9 months! I thought that the surgery would be a magical fix, and the back pain would disappear. NOT... My surgeon told me that the only way to aleviate the pain is to lose weight. Since I've always been a physically active person, I thought that I could jump back in to exercising again. But, NOT again. It's like a double edged sword. My back hurts if I exercise and my back hurts if I don't exercise
I have heard about the success stories of people who have had the WLS for awhile now, but never considered it for myself until a yr. ago. I so want to get my life back. Now I understand what "the quality of life" really means. I am tired of back pain... I am tired of knee pain... I am just tired of being tired! January 13, 2008 (my birthday) is when I decided to put all the research that I've done in the past yr. into action, and scheduled an appointment to see a surgeon. Yes, that date is my birthday, but I also consider it to be the first day of the rest of my life.
