mrscookie78
I just wrote an email to a friend of a friend about my experience with GB and so i thought I would repost most of it here:
I am now 32 yrs old (just had a b-day still can't believe that number!) and had been heavy my whole life. The funny thing is my parents both came from relatively thin families. I think the weight was a result of always feeling I needed to clean my plate as a kid and not being encouraged enough to be active as well as being fed junk food a lot of the time. I grew up with most activities being centered around food. Most Holidays were big spreads and we had lot of church dinners with plenty of food to go around too and I always ate what and how much I wanted. I didn't understand the idea of portion control back then. So basically I grew up a fat kid and was teased etc... As I became a young adult I pretty much accepted my size and learned to not make it a big deal. I had a lot of good friends and even dated a few guys who liked me for me so it wasn't until I started dating my now Husband that I found out my weight might keep me from having kids with him someday. So here's that part of the story!
I had always had odd periods and when I was younger I had always read it could take a long time for some girls to become regular so at first I wasn't worried. By the time I met my Husband I was 22 and had had several years of going long stretches with no period and then long stretches of just basically spotting all the time. I didn't know what was wrong with me but I didn't have insurance to see a Dr. either so I just dealt with it. Well bleeding all the time became an issue as our relationship grew and I had finally gotten a job with insurance so I went to the Dr. and was diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). It was very common among overweight women. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but basically it keeps you from ovulating most of the time so your periods are never normal and there are many other factors involved that can be bad for your health as well. The bottom line was my best chance at having kids some day was to lose weight.
A few months after we got married I tried my first diet! I had read that a low carb diet was best for what I had. I lost about 40lbs at first but ended up gaining it all back plus more. The good thing was I learned to give up soda and became very used to sugar free products which did help me a lot later. I pretty much lost a little and gained a little after that all the while we were trying for children on our own but I didn't have much hope. I went to so many Dr's who would take one look at me and tell me well you'll never have a baby at that weight. I had one appointment that I left in tears, the whole waiting room probably wondering what the heck happened. The first time I ever thought about gastric bypass or any type of weight loss surgery was I think maybe 5 yrs ago now. I should mention that my Hubby and I are originally from So. Cal and moved up to the Northwest about 3 and a half years ago with our jobs.
My hubby was also a very big guy and had surgery just 2 weeks before I did. It was really great to have a partner in all this as well. The first time I mentioned wanting to have this surgery to a Dr. he told me how most insurance companies require a 6 month medically supervised weight loss program before they would even consider me for the surgery. I remember at the time being so upset about that. I wanted to have the surgery with little or no effort on my part! I can look back at it now and be thankful that it didn't happend then because I wasn't in the right mind set and the program I went through here in Washington was exactly what I needed.
So my husband and I had a friend who had done it and we were pretty much feeling like this was what we wanted to do. I had heard about the program at Southwest Washington Medical Center before we even moved up here so when we did move it just so happened that several other people I worked with were intersted in having the surgery at Southwest too. I attended a informational meeting there with my Husband and a friend almost two years ago now I think it was Oct or Nov 2008. We went into that meeting thinking we wanted lap band and we came out knowing gastric bypass was the answer! The surgeon who spoke that night was the man who ended up doing my surgery and he was wonderful. We learned how they had a program designed to meet that 6 month requirement that most insurances had and they were experts at dealing with picky insurance companies. I finally had some hope! After that meeting we drug our feet about getting the paperwork in to start the program (I don't know why it is the only part of this process I regret). We finally had our first appointments in April '09. They didn't actually put us on a diet we just discussed a lot of good healty eating tips and were encouraged just to try what ever worked for us. They also prepared us for what we could expect in the hopsital and after surgery. We had both had success doing low carb before so that is what we started again this time with a goal of surgery in mind. Also knowing we were going to be weighed every month really helped us stick with it and by the time our second appt came around we had each lost around 15lbs or so (can't quite remember) but the Dr's were really pleased. It felt good just to be losing something.
I will finally go public here with what I weighed dum da dum dum...I was 340lbs at my heaviest and I was at a point where I was so uncomfortable and unhappy with myself that I just thought losing anything at that point would be great so I welcomed this program by then. By the time our 6 months were up we still had to jump through a few more hoops like having a psych evaluation etc. We had already had sleep studies done and were both diagnosed with sleep apnea before we even started the program. The good thing about that is it was one less thing we had to do and it was a co-morbidity (something the insurance took into consideration as a health risk because of the weight).
It took us a while to get our psyche evaluations done and also having had to wait a bit longer for our final appt's because of Dr's being on vacation we didn't get most of our loose ends tied up til around Oct or Nov '09. Then we waited and waited to see what insurance would say. On Dec 20th my Hubby and I both received letters from our insurance company Cigna. My Hubby had been approved and I had been denied! I was so upset, I didn't understand. What ended up happening was since the Dr we normally saw was on vacation for our 6 month appt we saw another Dr. who didn't sign the form actually recommending me for surgery. I was basically denied on a technicality. Luckily they resubmitted everything this time with the missing paperwork and I finally found out I was approved in early Jan. My Husband's surgery was scheduled for 1/22/10 and I was scheduled just 2 weeks after on 2/09/10.
Both our surgeries went well except I had a bad reaction to some of the pain killers they gave me in the hospital, it was because I am allergice to Vicodin which was in my chart and they basically gave me Vicodin under another name! So I had to stay 3 nights instead of two. The only time I questioned if I had done the right thing was the first few days home because you really do feel like crap. But even by the time a week was up I was a lot better. Since I couldn't take the liquid pain meds they send most people home with I had to take childrens tylenol which tasted so bad I resorted to taking crushed up tylenol in a tiny bit of juice and since I didn't know which tasted worse I mostly toughed it out with almost no drugs! I was back to work after 2 weeks but it wasn't by my choice. I work in a pretty small dept and we already had one girl out on maternity leave.
My Hubby had the luxury of a whole month off but honestly I think going back to work helped me get my strength back. I think it took my Husband a good 4 months or so to start feeling like his old self. It could be his body just needing to get used to things and I never felt like he got enough protien at first but now he is doing so great!
I am now about 8 and a half months out from surgery and feel better than I have ever felt. In total I have lost 174lbs. I lost 75 of that before surgery and almost 100 since. My Hubby has lost 187 total. We took up kayaking this summer which is something I was scared to death to try when I was heavier. We are also taknig a trip to Hawaii in a little over a week! This was a trip we had started planning as a reward to ourselves after we lost the weight. Fitting in those airplane seats will be easy now plus we are planning on going snorkeling and we are renting mopeds to run around the island on. So this is why I am such a big advocate for weight loss surgery. It was the best thing I ever did and I only wish it had happened sooner. We still have no kids because I have to wait until i'm a year out to start trying but Feb is only around the corner so I have more hope now than I ever did.
I do want to make sure you know this process was not all sunshine and rainbows. You need to be prepared to never think the same about food again. I don't know about you but for most people food is a big deal. We would plan activities and events around food. You have to let go of thinking about food for pleasure and your old brain does start to come back after a while. What I mean by that is I have caught myself loading food on my plate again like I used to when I know there is no way I can eat all that. I have recently started eating beyond the point of being comfortable once in a while and I have to remember that I had this surgery for a reason and it wasn't to get back into old habits. Having surgery doesn't make the old habits dissapear. It is different for everyone but to have long term success you need to think of food in a whole different way. That is still hard for me and may be something I always think about. I do know that having tasted (pardon the pun!) so much success I don't want to ever go back to where I was so I will do what I can to stay healthy. I do have to take vitamins for the rest of my life and I can't just go and eat like normal people once in while. For instance we are attending a Luau whle in Hawaii and part of the attraction of it is the food buffet they will have. It will be weird to turn down most of that food but I just have to think about my size 12 jeans (I was in a 28) and I'm not so sad anymore!
If you are contemplating weight loss surgery, I wish you tons of luck on your endeavor and though it may seem like time is dragging by now things will happen before you know it!
Please check out my before and after to see what I'm talking about!