Marebeth
For me I developed asthma at 6 months old and was sickly. I was a scrawny child and back then with asthma they thought of me as a sickly child being skinny......when i was about 9 I remember my mother asking the doctor to give me something to gain weight!!! So he gave me some liquid vitamins of some kind and I had an appetitie. I became plump by 10 and in school I was teezed as Godzilla because I grew up tall compared to the other girls my age. A whopping 5'2!! Then my asthma doctor put me on a diet the summer after 6th grade. I started 7th grade 3 months later 30 lbs lighter and people didn't recognize me.
I was conscious of my weight throughout school, getting married and even after having my son. After we got divorced I lost the pregnancy weight down to 125 at 23. Then I remarried at 26 and weighed 135. Then I stopped exercising and kept eating the same!!! Bad news!! At 28, I was healed of asthma and went off all my asthma medications cold turkey. It did something to my metabolism and slowed it down to a crawl. I started gaining weight fast. First year I gained 30 lbs. It didn't help that I went to church and everything was surrounded by food and fellowship, LOTS of food and sweets!! I rededicated my life to the Lord and I was happy with that....so I ate.
To make it short, I got divorced, was single for 5 years. I had lost those 50 lbs twice before I remarried a wonderful guy in 1998 and moved to California. He is overweight but to me, it's what is on the inside that matters. I know the Lord put us together. I had a business in Texas for 10 years, closed it and at the new job I was hurt and required carpal tunnel and was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I had recently lost 50 lbs down to 175 (being meeting my new husband) but I soon found those 50 lbs again. My husbands diet was much different that mine, full of starches, carbs and red meat. I soon plumped up to 260. My muscles weren't doing too well with the weight gain and the lifestyle of eating we had. My highest weight was at 305. With Fibromyalgia I cannot take Phentermine or anything with caffiene. I will if I had to but only short term.
I was scheduled for lap band surgery in Nov 2007 but I had lost 42 lbs and the holidays were coming up and I had no time to concentrate on the plan. My husband and I are pastors of a small church and we do a huge Christmas lights display, Santa and Mrs. Claus schedule and a Toy and Food drive for needy kids and families. (Maybe you saw our house on TLC last year?) So I postponed until February. Then mom went into the hospital and I flew there for a month to help her out. I was doing pretty good until then and I had hoped that I could get back on it. Never happened.
Then October 31, 2008 I fell down 12 stairs and hit a wall. The injury was a compression burst fracture of my T12. One week in Trauma ICU and a week in acute rehab I went home with a full body brace. I had a hospital bed in the dining room, a wheelchair, walker, potty chair and shower chair. I wore the body brace for 4 months and lost all my back muscles. Spent almost a year in physical therapy. My husband was my caregiver and after I got the brace off the hospital bed went upstairs to the guest room. I didn't spend the night in my own bed for over a year.
Now after having a nerve block on my L3, L4, L5 and epidural spinal procedures on T9/T10 and L1/L2.....my pain has been reduced but I still have pain. They said I may eventually need a spinal fusion so in January 2010 I told my spine surgeon I want to give it a year before I decide. He thought that was a good idea.
In May 2010 my PMR doctor said no more physical therapy or spinal procedures for the next 6 months to see how I do. He also suggested weight loss surgery. I was down to 250 and I really thought I could do it myself without surgery.
Then on August 4th I went to 24 hour fitness for water class and slipped on the tile on the steps into the pool. My feet went up and I went down - hitting my injured back on the first step.....Oh my goodness I screamed and cired....my back popped in several places and I hit my ribs. I sat in the pool waiting for the ambulance. Went back to the same hospital, had a CTscan and NO fractures.....just bad bruising. I spent a week in bed with severe pain but it slowly subsided.
My PMR doctor went into sports research so I went to my new doc....Dr. Yamasaki and he's so nice. He knew some personal things going on in my life....actually some horrific things this year and he said if he could he would write me a prescription for a vacation. I really need it. I told him i would re-visit the lap band or whatever works!!! So he is referring me. I then called my PCP and he wrote me a referral too.
I got my UC DAVIS Bariatric Surgery Center packet and filled it out online and put it in the mail on Friday, August 20th. I will go to orientation on September 1st. I hope since I was approved for surgery before they will push it through quickly....I don't want to have time to keep thinking about it. I also hope they don't want me to go through the colonscopy and endoscopy again.
If you got this far reading, congratulations and thank you for reading my story!!! I know if it's meant to be, it will happen!
