KarenLaRoche
Introduction:
Well let's see here... I'm 40 years old and have struggled with my weight since I got pregnant the first time. It's always been lose 20 and gain 40 and then you go for awhile and think well i'm not that big and you really are. I've been researching WLS for about a year now and in the beginning said that i'd never do that but my neice had surgery Jan 2005 and she looks great, had no problems and from there my journey began. I saw my gyn. in Sept. and he said I was a perfect candidate for WLS and I told him I had an appt. with the surgeon in Oct. When I saw the surgeon he also said I was perfect but that now BC/BS of Alabama requires a doc supervised 6 month diet before approving surgery, I was disappointed yet determined so off I was to find a doc that would "supervise" me. My PCP in Abbeville said he would do it so now I am just beginning my 4th month. I saw Dr. Beaver(my surgeon) Thursday Feb. 2 and so far so good!! He scheduled my physical therapy/dietician appt. for March 14 and I see Br. Beaver agin April 3. They will call me with my appt. for my phsy. because she was full in March but the nurse said everything looks good with ins. requirements and she saw no problem with me getting a surgery date for May!!!! I want May because my step=daughter will be home May 30 and she is getting married June3 and I want the surgery behind me (and hopefully a few pounds, too) so I can help with the wedding. I am so excited and yet I am also scared of a new way of life but I know this is the life I want for me. Well gonna go now i've been on this website for hours now and i really need to get something done. Amazing how you can get addicted to the thousands of wonderful and inspirational stories you find on here.
MY FAMILY
Feb. 7, 2006
Since I have learned how to update this I can keep up with more things and tell you more about me and my journey. I was a big baby but sorta grew out of that. When I was in HS I can remember getting clothes out of my closet for school and crying to my mom that i was fat. Well i only weighed 135 and how i've longed for those days. I married my HS sweetheart in 1985 and began a new life. I was doing good until i got pregnant and we lost that baby. Within 6 weeks of losing that baby i was pregnant again with my daughter Kandice. I didn't really gain alot of weight with her because i was sick alot but after she was born in Jan. of 1988 i never lost the weight. Seems like from then on i began trying every diet there was, i'd diet lose some weight get frustrated because it wasn't more and just give up and settle for being fat. In 1992 the daycare i was working at was sold and so i decided to stay at home and keep a couple of kids. Well being at home i tended to snack with the kids, eat when i was bored, eat when i was upset, basically just eating all the time. This kept on for years, i did work outside the home a couple of times more but not for long periods of time because Kandice was sick alot. Now i am just not even getting on the scales, i ask myself why bother...i am at a consistent weight and staying in the same size clothes so i just ignored it but inside i was so miserable. We bought a new place and moved in 1994 and i went to work at Sears for awhile, i hated walking thru there and feeling like everyone was looking at me. But working there was good for me, i lost some weight and felt better about myself but that didn't last. I worked there a couple of years before quitting to stay home again and this time gained back everything. I was in that comfortable mode with hubby and it even got to the point where i didn't want to go see friends, didn't want to go to church and most especially didn't want him to touch me. I was miserable and i made everyone around me miserable. I picked fights with him for no reason and he started staying gone more and more. Well in August of 2001 he came home one night and told me he didn't love me anymore and wanted a divorce. I thought i was gonna die then, my parents divorced when i was little and i had swore that my daughter would never have to go thru that and here we were. Our divorce was final in Oct. of that same year and Kandice and i were living in a nice little two bedroom house trying to start a new life and i was gaining weight again. I missed David so much, i begged and begged him to try again but before he had ever left us he had met someone on the internet from our town and was now seeing her. Well i made up my mind to lose some weight because who would want me in the dating world like i was. I lost down to 200 lbs. and looked good, i was proud of me but in the meantime every guy i met wasn''t my Mr. Right and i'm still seeing David (my ex) way too much. I finally realize David is just using me for sex and i can't believe i've been so stupid. At this point i give up on looking for Mr. Right and tell myself that when the time is right God will put the right person in my path. In 2003 Kandice and i move to a new place that we can rent to own and God puts someone in my path. I met Mark in Sept. and by Nov. he has moved Kandice and i from Rehobeth to Abbeville and his house. He has three kids, a daughter who is now 24 and a k9 bomb dog trainer in the navy and stationed in Cali., a son 22 who is stationed on a ship off coast of Italy and in navy, and another son who is 14 and lives with his mom nearby. He is my rock, we have now been married almost 2 years and he will tell you he loved me from the beginning. He supports me in all that i do, he keeps me going to that garage every day to walk on the treadmill and workout. I am now staying home again, at least until i have surgery, and i feel those old feelings starting to creep back in...but luckily i have good friends who make me see that he fell in love with me like this (well have gained about 20 lbs since getting married). I just need to be happy with me because everyone can see that i'm not. Okay enough rambling for now i have to try and get my 18 yr old daughter out of bed so she can get ready for school. Will write more later......taataaa
Feb. 11,2006
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr its freezing here today so one of those days where you are stuck inside. Not much going on here, my step-daughter just called from Kuwait and told us she is coming home (well back to Cali.) next week and that the wedding has been moved from June 3 to April 22. The navy wants to send her back over there June or July to do her 6 months and so they had to move the wedding date up. Most of you know I wanted my surgery date in May before the June wedding, well no such luck now having surgery before the wedding. I wanted to look nice for Shannon, maybe even be down a few pounds but now the only weight i'll be down is a few from the diet. Oh well not giving up gonna do my best and look my best and that will just have to do. Gonna go for now and spend some time with Kandice before she has to get ready for work, will update again later.
Well its April 11 and it has been awhile since I updated. The wedding is still on for June 3rd and i've been lining up a photographer and helping any way I can. I think this wedding may be bringing us closer together or at least I hope so.
I'm in the last month of my supervised diet, I go weigh-in on April 24 and then I see the surgeon on April 27th. Not sure if i'm losing because right now I just refuse to even get on the scales.
Mark is having his knee surgery Thursday and I hope and pray that goes real smoothly because he is not one to just sit around, he has to keep busy. That man is something else and I don't know what I'd do without him. He and I have spent alot of together time fishing, we went to the river a couple of days and caught some nice hybrid bass and that really gave him fishing fever. It is so nice to live so close to the lake and be able to go anytime.
Well I guess thats about all I have to say right now I need to email Crystal she has come to mean so much to me and she is having her surgery tomorrow at the Medical Center. Until next time..........
Well its April 25th and yesterday I finished up my 6 month doctor supervised diet. I had gained 2 lbs. but blood pressure was up again and I was retaining water bad. I got all my information to Amy at Dr. Beaver's office and she will get it in the mail today or tomorrow so i'll wait a couple of days before I start bugging the ins. company :) I talked to Amy on the phone a few minutes ago and she said right now it would probaly be a June or July surgery date :( I guess that beats a year from now but my step-daughters wedding is June 3rd and I sure did hope I could have it behind me before then. I'm probaly getting the cart before the horse anyway because I haven't even been approved yet and here I am getting disappointed about a date. I just feel like such a whale lately and I hate going outside yet i'm an outside person just can't deal with the heat. I'm also dealing with some depression, money has been kinda tight due to Mark being out for knee surgery and I want to be able to go back to work part-time but Mark won't let me until we get the surgery behind us, he says no use starting a new job and then have to take time off guess he makes sense.
But then on a positive note, my friend Crystal had her surgery and I think she's doing real good I hope she knows how proud of her I am and how she is such an inspiration to me. I'll be so glad when I can meet her and we can just sit and talk, maybe before long we will meet on that losers bench. Well I better close for now but will update as soon as I have any info at all.
PICTURES OF RELATIVES
WOW long time since I updated!! I finished up my doc supervised on April 24 and Amy sent in my paperwork on April 25 and the waiting began. BC finally got my paperwork in the system and to a reviewer around May 10 and on May 18 I was APPROVED so then it was wait again for the letter to get to the docs office which it did on the 23rd and so today I have an appt. at 9:30 to see Dr. Beaver and then I will get my surgery date.
July 20, 2006
Gosh its been along time since I updated but here goes. I saw Dr. Beaver on May 26 and got a surgery date for June 7 at Flowers Hospital in Dothan. So at least things with the wedding will keep my mind occupied until surgery time. The wedding turned out to not be as bad as i expected. Glens family came in from Delaware and they kept commenting about how they had never seen a family of ex's that all got along so well. It is a relief to have that behind us and now its time to start getting everything ready for the hospital. I had to be there at 5:00 am and come to find out I was going to be his first. I got checked in and we sat down in the waiting room and I bet it wasn't 10 minutes before they called me back to this little room where i had to change and they began getting all my information. At this point I was terrified!! After just a little wait back there they rolled me to another room where no one could go with me :( so I told Mark bye and told him how much I loved him and then i was wheeled away but when i got to the other room there was Paul Sauls, a very nice man that we go to church with and he told me he would be with me the whole time. After a little trouble he got an IV going and then they took me to the operating room and at this time i'm even more nervous and have all kinds of thoughts going through my head. The people back there are very nice and they keep me informed on what they are doing. The one nurse tells me she is just putting some oxygen on and thats all I remember in the OR. I vaguely remember waking up in the recovery room and they are trying to get another IV going and they are putting it in the top part of my right thumb! ouch!!! The next thing I vaguely remember is being taken to my room and being sick at my stomach. I don't really remember who all is in there, really I don't remember much of Wednesday afternoon at all. I know i was in some kind of pain and so so nauseated so i kept mashing the button on that pain pump and they kept giving me nausea medicine. Wednesday night was sooooo long, my daughter stayed with me and I know she got so tired of me. Finally Thursday morning comes and my hand where the IV is has become the size of a football so they have to take the IV out, i was so afraid of that because i have no veins. They take me on down for the leak test and let me tell you that stuff taste AWFUL but got it done and back to my room. The girls helped me get a bath and wash my hair and get in my gown and I felt better. They came in and stuck me several times trying to get another IV going but they couldn't and I asked them couldn't we just leave it out and they said they would have to call the doc because that was how i was supposed to get my meds, i said well can't ya give me shots and they said they'd call and see what he said. So a little later they came back in and said he said that was fine, so they gave me a shot of morphine and phenergan and i was able to rest for a while and finally got something to sip. The rest of the day was spent sipping, walking and sleeping and then Friday morning he said i could go home, i was so ready to get out of that hospital bed they sure don't sleep good. My SIL got me home and got my meds for me and i rested until Mark came in from work. He was here with me all w/e and really took care of me, he was the best nurse. At this point i had lost 7 lbs. Since then i've lost 35 lbs., seen Dr. Beaver for my first check-up and am finally starting to feel human again. I sure wasn't prepared for the tired feelings and easily got frustrated but now things are good i basically live off of peanut butter crackers but do get my protein shakes in. Still don't always get all my water in but working on that. I'm exercising daily and hope to see more results. This is still the best thing i could have done, sometimes i look at food and wonder what i've done but when i put on clothes and they fall off or someone comments on the weight i've lost and tell me i look good then i don't miss the food at all. Well I'm gonna to stop here for now and will try to be better at updating.
August 2, 2006
I can't believe it is already August and it has been almost 8 weeks since I had surgery!! I finally feel good and have more energy. I spend lots of time walking and in the pool especially since it is so hot. I've lost 41 pounds and am hoping to hit 50 before I go back to see Dr. Beaver August 7 for my check-up. I've tried lots of things and so far do pretty good on most. Hamburger meat tends to do the best or real moist chicken but I find things that work and tend to stick with those most of the time. Some days I still don't get all my water in but i really try. This morning I was trying on some clothes I had packed up and couldn't believe that I can get in my size 18 Levi's and I was in 24's and they were snug, I can't tell you how good that feels. I tried on some other stuff that I haven't wore since I married Mark and that was almost 3 yrs ago and I can wear them now, it is great I can't wait to be in "normal" sizes again. Well not much else going on except school shopping for the kids, this will be Kan's last year and Joshua starts in HS. Marcus gets out of the Navy the 23 of this month and will be coming home, I can't tell you how excited his dad is. I'm a little scared because since Mark and I have been married neither of the grown kids have lived here so not sure how it will be. I love Marcus but he is the one that is hard to get close to, i'm not sure how he feels about me but maybe seeing him more often will help. Time will tell. Well i'm gonna close this update for now and will update more after my check-up. I sure miss my friend Crystal, I wish i'd hear from her so i'd know how she was doing.......
