rettahallman
I have been on a diet and weight roller coaster for 17 years. I am 36 years old, currently weigh 261 to 266 pounds at 5 foot 4.5 inches. I am considered, and feel morbidly obese. I am ready for a permanent solution, so that I may live life to it’s fullest with my family. Over the last 3 years, I have experienced even more weight gain and difficulty losing weight, that I feel is due to a change in my work area, shift, and the increased stress that is involved. I have noticed that with all of this extra weight, I do get short of breath with increased activity. I have stress incontinence, so no jogging, jumping, quick movements and forget laughing hard, sneezing or coughing! I have a worsening of my gastric reflux, causing me to take meds at least two times a day with Tums in between. I have pitting edema that is at least 2+ everyday in both lower legs. My ankles and knees are starting to give me pain, especially after sitting for any length of time and then trying to get up and walk. I also have neck and low back pain. The variety of these symptoms make it hard for me to motivate myself to become active. I feel embarrassed due to my weight, and have not gone to the gym with my husband because of this. I would like to give you a journey of my struggle with weight. I feel the snowball started going downhill in May of 1992. One month after I got married, I was in an auto accident, that caused me to be on light activity for several months. By that September I weighed 211lbs. By February 1993 I was in the 220’s. I dieted multiple times 1992-1995 with very little success. In September 1995 I started nursing school and gave birth to my first son. I weighed 240lbs. My OB doctor gave me a prescription for phentermine to help me lose weight. From 11/1995 to 5/1997, I was busy in school, being a new mom and I lost 110lbs. The weight came off fast, and because I could see the success, I worked out a lot to keep it off. I maintained my diet and exercise until I became pregnant in 2/1998. I delivered my daughter 11/1998 and weighed 215 lbs. It was time to diet again. I tried diet pills again with very little effect, and for the next couple of years stayed between 190-200lbs. I then became pregnant a 3rd time and delivered my son 12/2000. I weighed 245lbs at delivery. Once again, I dieted and exercised with limited success. The lowest I got was by 2002 at 195 lbs and this was once again with the help of diet pills. As soon as I stop taking the pills, the weight flies back on plus some. In 1/2003 I had a Mirena IUD placed, and my weight was 208lbs. In 4/2003 I had to have a laparascopic ovarian cystectomy and my weight was 218lbs. Over the next year I yo-yoed with diet and weight. In April of 2004, I started weight watchers with a friend of mine. My starting weight was 242 lbs. I stayed on the plan about 2 months and lost 7 lbs. Once again over that year, I would either be on a OTC diet pill, trying cabbage soup or the 3 day diet to try to lose weight. I started the weight watchers plan again 1/2005 with a few friends. My starting weight was 230 lbs that lasted about a month and I ended at 222lbs. My gyn office weight recorded in March 05 was 223lbs. I was starting to have increased issues with GERD , and the joint aches and pains. Over this year I had changed my staff nursing role to more of a front line manager that also has bedside RN responsibilities. I definitely had an increase in my stress level, not to mention the increasing demands of 3 active children.(Homework, athletic practice and games, mom’s aren’t allowed to miss!) I was, and still am constantly on the go with this. Here again, I was on and off dieting. With the new year 1/2006 came a start of trying weight watchers again, my journal and calendar have my starting weight as 255lbs. I lost to 243.8 by February, and in April started a weight challenge with several coworkers that I have documented in my calendar that ended in May and my weight was 239.5 lbs.(I didn’t win) .(I skipped my yearly gyn exam 2006) Moving on to May of 2007, I went to my GYN for my yearly exam and weighed 254lbs. I got diet pills again. Once again, little to no success, and immediate weight gain once the pills were gone. May of 2008, at my GYN visit my weight was 257lbs. Another trial of phentermine brings me to where I am now at 266lbs. I want to be healthy for myself and my family. I know that all of the diet pills and fads are not the answer and are not good for me. I feel that having a permanent tool in place will help me to lose the weight and keep the necessary lifestyle changes in place to maintain the weight loss. I have already started making changes to facilitate the success of my tool. I have started walking daily and made dietary changes for myself and my family. I know that if my weight continues to increase, I will see the health problems that I am already experiencing: High cholesterol, borderline hypertension, GERD, and pre diabetes, turn in to much worse health problems. I do not want to see this happen, I want to seal my success for weight loss with gastric bypass surgery, and stop this weight struggle and live a healthy life with my family.
