julsfine
I am just now looking into WLS. I am thinking about going with the Mini Bypass Surgery but am not sure. I have been thinking about the surgery for a few years now and I have finally just decided to go ahead and research it well and decide which kind of surgery I will have. I have finally decided that I know I am going to do it I am just not sure when I will have it done. I have to get all of my ducks in a row first. Money is the biggest factor for me right now. I dont have insurance and am looking into seeing how to get some insurance and see how long from then I can have the operation. If not ins I will find another way.
I am 28yrs old and will be 29 in March. I have been overweight to varying degrees all my life since I can remember more so when I was in 2nd grade till present day. I am a dental hygiene student and this is my last semester at college. I hope to move to Colorado Springs as soon as I grad. My weight is about 260lbs and I am 5'3. I wear a size 22-24 in jeans and those are begining to get tight. I wear about a 3X or 2X in shirts depending. My shoe size is a 9 1/2. My bra size is 40DD from Lane Bryant. I note the last two b/c I have heard that with WLS those will also change..lol.
I dont have a lot of medical conditions like some. I havent been diagnosed with any that is except childhood asthma. I do have some pain in my knees which comes and goes. I also have pain in my feet which can be terrible at times when I have been on my feet for even a few hrs or more. I also have had plenty of menstrual cycle problems as well undiagnosed. I have been on my period since Thanksgiving and I get terrible cramps and I am sure that I have some hormone problems that are causing this. Anyway for the most part I am fairly healthy besides the huge problem with my weight.
I dont get around like I use to and I am always feeling tired. I feel so old beyond my years and all I want to do anymore is sleep. I am hoping that with weight loss surgery I will be able to feel my age or younger and that I will be able to participate in my own life. I love animals and have 2 cats and 1 dog. I would love to spend more time playing with my dog but I am usually just too tired or winded to spend a lot of time romping around with her. I also would like to do a lot more outside activities like I use to. I would like to go hiking, swimming, biking, skiing, walking, and fishing like I use to but I feel like I am caged, held hostage by my own body and lack of energy to make major changes.
This is my last stand. I have tried and tried to lose weight with Low Fat diets, Atkins, Cabbage soup diet, Low fat Low Carb diets, calorie counting and a myriad of other diets that usually helped me to lose weight but left me hungry or feeling poor and then once off of them I would gain it all back plus some. I like some exercise like biking, swimming, & walking. I am not able to keep up my routine long enough to lose much weight. I can always lose about 20 to 30lbs but then I would plateau and lose heart. I am sure my story isnt much different than most overweight people.
I have a history of Diabetes II in my family and of my family being overweight on both sides of my family. Cancer is also a part of my family history. I watched my Grandma struggle w/ her weight all her life and I watched her eventually lose her life to diabetes, but not before it robbed her of yrs of her life with constant pain, struggle, lack of mobility, and the eventual loss of one of her feet. I am right now about the weight that my Grandmother was as I remember her and I am carring my weight much like her. She died at 68 which I feel is too young. I also feel that though it took her life the worst thing it did to her was take up years of her life long before she ever succumbed to her disease. More than 20yrs she was herself caged by her weight and diabetes. I dont want the same for myself. I know that had my Grandmother had WLS she would have lived those yrs much different, and while she might have died early anyway she would have been able to really live while she was alive. When I think of this surgery and what it means and I think of my grandmother and her life I always remember the line Mel Gibson gave in Braveheart "Every man dies but not every man really lives. WLS is what I think of as a way to really live.
