fimikate
I am a 63 yr old retired RN. I started gaining weight as a young women in my late 20's and early 30's . I had 3 children within 4 years. Never had time inbetween to lose the weight I gained during the pregnancy, before I was pregnant again. Then at the age of 32 had a total hysterectomy, which in turn, caused me to again start gaining weight. I was still able to do things with my children, and work. I was at this time between 160 and 180, which doesn't seem like much, but I am only 5 feet tall. I have always been very active, with my children, and socially. I worked 12 hour shifts in the hospitals, which helped me to maintain and not get overly exhausted. Then in 1993, I got injured at work, hurting my knee> I was on workman's comp. for 3 years, in which i could not really do anything physical due to the injured knee and severe pain. I immediately gain about 60 lbs which put me up in the 240 range. Since that time I continued to gain weight and has put me up to the 305 range. I have tried all kinds of diets, the adkins was the better one for me in which i lost 40 lbs in a year. But somehow I developed asthma at the age of 53 and has gotten worse. Everytime I try to lose some weight, my asthma would activate, I would have to go on steroids, and would regain the weight. So the past 10 years have been rough on me physically. I would lose some weight, and gain more back. My health has been going downhill. I can't hardly walk anymore, as my knees are completely gone as far as the cartilage goes. I am walking bone on bone. I am borderline diabetic, I developed rheumatoid arthritis, I get short of breath with very little exertion. My daughter was obese, and decided to get the gastric bypass surgery. She did extremely well, and has lost 110 lbs in a year. I was so excited for her. I started thinking that maybe the surgery would help me. My other children wanted me to look into this also. They told me that they wanted me to be around a lot longer. I started investigating and reading up on the surgery types, discussed it with my doctors, especially my orthopedic dr. He told me that I need total knees done, but he would not do them with the weight I had on me. So I asked my daughter to make me an appointment with her bariatric surgeon in May, when I was going to her town for my grandaughter's first communion. I went to see the dr. and he said I was a perfect candidate for the RNY surgery. He told me that he would do it , but he would not do it after I reached 65. So that left me with some fast thinking to do. I decided to go ahead with the surgery, he told me I had to lose 30 lbs before I could do the surgery. I was moreor less devistated, as it took me a year to lose 40 lbs. My daughter told me to go on a modified adkins diet. That I needed to stay away from anything white, and all fried and greasy foods. So I did, and I cut down on the amounts I ate also. I was shocked because I lost the 30 lbs in 2 months. I called the dr. and scheduled my surgery. I had all my preliminary testing done at home with my own doctors, and they faxed all the reports to my bariactric dr. in Virginia. I am hoping to lose enough weight so I can get my knees fixed, and go back to doing the social things I was doing before. I would love to be able to dance again, as I love to dance. I am very active in Mardi Gras at home, but I could no longer dance or join in on much of anything anymore except behind the scenes. Now I am hoping to get back out in the mainstream again. I want to be able to do things with my husband, he especially wants me to go fishing with him, as i could not get in and out of a boat, due to the excess weight and my bad knees. So I have some good things to look forward to.
