weasey253
I think this section is all about me, right? Novel idea -- here goes;
Growing up I never had a problem with my weight. I was short, though and compact, so I never had the 'lithe' look about me. I was pretty athletic and active so I was muscular and was able to eat a TON of food without really gaining any weight. My favorite after-school snack in elementary school was 2 (or 3) Omar brand(anyone remember them??) cream filled cupcakes and several handfuls of potato chips. In high school if I did gain weight, I would just starve myself for a few days and it would come off. As I got older, however, the days of starvation would increase with not as much to show for it!
With all my 'comfort' eating, it is obvious to me now that I have fought depression and very low self-esteem my whole life. After I was prescribed Prozac in 1989 I discovered I couldnt even remember NOT being depressed, even in childhood. But I am getting ahead of myself.
After my marriage in 1974, at which time I weighed 112lbs, I gained the proverbial 15 lbs in the first year of marriage. Which sucks, because even though I held it there for awhile, when I got pregnant in 1976 I gained 50 lbs on top of that. So there I was at 177 lbs. trying to perform the most athletic feat of my life - deliver a baby!!! And, of course, you only LOSE about 20 lbs. even with all that strenuous exercise
I did manage to lose about 40 lbs before getting pregnant with my second child in 1979, and only gained 35 lbs with that pregnancy, keeping me under the whopping 177 of my first pregnancy! On a side note, childbirth was absolutely the worst thing I had ever gone through, a definite '10' on the pain scale, and pregnancy not much better, so I had my tubes tied right after my second child. I did not lose as much weight after my second delivery, so tabled off at about 145-150. Because I was still able to be pretty active - aerobics, swimming, etc., I didn't 'feel' like I was really 'fat.'
In 1986 I developed Graves disease (overactive thyroid) and it went undiagnosed for several weeks until it was pretty bad. My thyroid was radioactively destroyed, requiring me to take a hormone replacement for the rest of my life. I lost weight with the disease, but they told me it was mostly muscle mass, not fat, and while trying to adjust my synthetic hormone level, I gained about 20 MORE lbs.
Then the next year I went through a personal crisis which caused me and my family to move and change churches. I became less active and started to add more lbs. By 1995, when my family went through a TRUE crisis, I was hovering around 185 lbs. On August 12, 1995, my youngest son, James, dove into a neighbor's swimming pool and broke his neck, becoming paralyzed from the chest down. He was 15 at the time and a born athlete. He had no interests outside of sports. He had started playing baseball at 4 yrs, soccer at 5 yrs and participated in basketball, football, street hockey and swam like a fish. He only read or watched TV when the weather forced him inside (which wasn't often, since backyard football is best in the mud!)
Anyway, at first I lost 30 lbs because I couldn't eat. I was with James constantly in the hospital and rehab and didnt even WANT to eat. Then after the first period of adjustment I started to eat again, gaining back the 30 lbs and adding about 10. When James went to college, I traveled from our home to his campus (about a 45 minute drive one-way) every night for 4 years so he could live on campus and have dependable help while concentrating on his studies.
During that 4 years, I would drive up about 11 p.m. help him get to bed, get him up during the night if there were an emergency, such as his air conditioner going out in 100 degree weather, his heat going off in 10 degree weather, or a fire drill. If there were no emergencies, I would get about 5 hours of sleep. Then I would get him up and off to class, leaving for home about 10 a.m. When I got home I would sleep usually about 8 hours. With this lifestyle, there was only time for sleeping, eating and helping my son, so guess what?! Another 20 lbs.
Another complication was that when I tried to go back to an exercise routine like I was used to I would become so emotionally overwrought seeing all the healthy, strong bodies so like james used to be, I couldnt finish. I know a lot of people may see this as a copout to exercise, but up until this time I had always LOVED water aerobics, so I think my emotional state truly hindered my efforts.
My son got his BA in 2002 and attended grad school in Pasadena where a couple of his friends went with him to help. While he was gone I worked a full-time job for 6 months, during which I gained another 5-10 lbs. due to its very sedentary nature, and my exhaustion keeping me from exercising. His friends both came back to Ohio to go to grad school and James also returned home to finish his MA in 2005. When he returned home, I only helped out part -time and he had other helpers which became a comfortable routine. So comfortable, in fact, that my weight climbed to 225 lbs.
At the beginning of 2006, when the scale started creeping towards 230 - way more than 100 lbs overweight, since I am only 5' 2"- I started investigating gastric bypass surgery with the Barix Clinic. My husband had Humana insurance through GE which required a 6 month doctor-supervised diet, so I proceeeded with that protocol. However, when I was finished, I had only lost about 5 lbs. After months of wrangling with Barix's insurance department, Humana, my doctor's office, and Smart Records medical record service, I finally gave up on weight loss surgery in February, 2007.
Then my son accepted a full tuition scholarship to Regent Law School in Virginia Beach. Another out of state move... and of course, I KNEW he would do much much better scholastically if he didn't have to coordinate all his care and rely on sometimes very undependable aides. So we made plans for me to go with him for at least a year. Unfortunately, by this time, my weight gain had made it almost impossible for me to do all his care and I needed a drastic solution fast. My only hope was that GE had changed insurance carriers in January and I wouldn't have to start from square one on the bariatric surgery maze.
I got a flyer in the mail about Deaconess Weight Loss Clinic and there was an informational seminar that I couldnt attend because of a prior commitment. I called the office and poured my heart out, telling the person who had answered the phone my whole story and how I had investigated weight loss surgery already and couldnt I skip a few steps?? She let me talk to Kelly, the Director, and Kelly was very sympathetic. She let me setup the first consult appointment on May 11, 2007, and things have just kept rolling
along from there. I explained my situation to Dr. Rodriquez, who was wonderfully understanding and he urged Peggy, in their insurance department, to help me expedite my claim with our new carrier, United.
Long story short (Much MUCH too late - I know, I should write a book!) I had my hand-assisted laparosopic RNY surgery on 6/26/07 and am recovering very nicely so far. In the tests leading up to my surgery, we discovered my gallbladder did not work, so Dr. Rodriguez said he would take it out. I also had a small hiatal hernia which has bothered me for years, but all the gastro docs I went to said it was not significant enough to bother with. On the day of my surgery, Dr. Rodriguez must have taken pity on me, cause he DID repair that (thank you Doc!) and I am hoping to not only feel better because of the weight loss, but because of getting two serious ongoing problems fixed.
Please pray for me and my family as I recuperate, because we are moving to VA Beach less than 6 weeks after my surgery and we are all really freaked out! So far God has blessed us with no complications, and not even any nausea or vomiting and I have wonderful Christian friends praying for me all over the country which I am sure has made all the difference. Thank you, all!!!!
