tell me somethin good!

Anyone else singing that song in their head now? (; anyway! Just popping in to say hello and to say that today I met my first pre-surgery goal of losing 20 lbs. I'm so proud of myself because for the first time in my life I've stuck to a "diet" and maintained my weight loss. It gives me so much hope for the future! That being said, I've done a lot of reflecting lately, specifically about my motivation for having this surgery. Would any of you be willing to share what your motivation for having surgery was/is and how that decision had impacted your daily life (hopefully for the better)? (: I'm just curious because, like I said, I have SO much hope for my own future. Mine is kind of long so ill post it to my blog on my profile. (:


Love y'all

My motivation was twofold. The first was a doctor's appointment in which my doctor looked at me and said "You're 25 years old. You're putting on 30 to 40 lbs a year, you have type II diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. If you do not change your lifestyle, you will not live to see 50." Amazingly enough, it still took me almost another year to make the decision. The real catalyst was a trip to the local amusement park with my family. I spent a huge part of the day waiting in line to get up to roller coasters only to find out I couldn't fit in them. It was humiliating and devastating. I love roller coasters. That was the final straw - I was 26 with the lab results of someone at least twice my age and I could no longer do the things I wanted to do in life. I did not want to live my life this way. That was where I got my motivation.

I was tired... REALLY tired all the time.  I was having a hard time keeping up with my small children.  I was healthy, but I know it was a short term lease with all the weight I have put on.

My blood sugar started to rise to prediabetic levels even while on metformin for PCOS.  That freaked me out!  My father suffered mightily from diabetes and died a miserable man at only 64 in a nursing home.  I would be stupid to follow in his footsteps.  That was my final straw.

Now, no metformin, almost off all of my blood pressure meds, down 91 pounds total (37 before surgery) and I weigh less than I did in high school.  A1C has dropped to 5.0 without meds.  F you, diabetes!

My motivation went like this......met the guy of my dreams, got offered a dream job, moved to the Houston area for the job (with the guy of course) and then started getting sick.  In October of last year, I was put in the hospital for the first time with pneumonia.  Spent a week in the hospital and then a month later was back in the ER with pneumonia again.  I couldn't walk across our apartment and breath at the same time.  Got married in December, and started thinking that I needed to do something about my health.  Spent months in and out of the ER with chest pain (lots of pneumonia), and then was carted out of my office via ambulance in March.  In April I contracted pneumonia for the 4th time in 6 months and was put back in the hospital.  While I was there, the pulmonologist told me I needed to stop smoking and lose about 150 pounds to get my asthma under control, get my sleep apnea under control and get my breath back.  He suggested WLS.  Then my family doctor came in an hour later and put me on a heart monitor because my heart had enlarged.  My diabetes was getting back out of control after 4 years with no medication, so I was looking at meds again.  And I had this wonderful husband that I wanted to spend a long life with.  Then my doctor looked straight at me and said, "You're almost 37 and if you don't fix this now, you'll be dead before you're 40".  SHOCK!

 

So, I quit smoking in April, started exercising and changed my diet.  Had my first appointment with the surgeon in May and surgery in July.  

So far, I'm 50-ish pounds down in the past 4 months, no diabetes, no asthma, no sleep apnea and my heart has recovered.  I get to be with my firefighter for a long time.....and that makes everything worthwhile.