The Journey of Loosing to Live

Aug 18, 2011

 I wrote on my Facebook profile the other evening that this time of becoming an "empty nester" is really now my time to soar.  

No one expects at 52 years old to walk  into their cardiologist office to hear after being a patient for 20 years, and hearing that either they need to loose 100 pounds, and quickly, or "...in 12 months we will not be having a conversation about blood pressure because (I) will not be around to have the discussion."   Let me go back a couple of months.....May of 2011 was extremely stressful due to multiple issues in a 4 week block, starting with a major surgery for my mother, and ended with the sudden death of a close brother-in-law.  In the middle of all this, I had an evening where I felt really bad, and was getting worse. My blood pressure spiked, and my heart rate would not slow down, no matter what I did to relax.  As medics were called to my home, I was sure that I would be sent home, with a new prescription to relax.  5 days later, I left the hospital with unmanageable blood pressure which had never been an issue for me. After 2 months, and 6 medications to mix and match ( I was only taking 2), the problem was not any better.  Enter Dr. Lauter.  My referral was for a gastric by-pass.  I asked about the lap-band (removable I thought) would not work, as I needed to loose too much is a short period of time.  The gastric sleeve I did not like the idea of actually loosing the size of the stomach, but there was no real other deterrent I felt for long term weight loss and management.  Dr. Lauter advised for the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. I had never heard of this procedure, however it seemed to him the only real option as we were really talking about saving my life.

Hence, this is my time to soar.  With the lable of "Mommy" changing with the youngest of 3 away to her second year of college, it really is time to find out who I am...outside of the Mommy lable.  What better way to begin soaring than to loose the weight that has been holding me grounded.

I knew that people took 6-12 months to prepare, file for insurance, appeal, make life changes before bariatric surgery was scheduled.  Mine was 2 months from start to surgery date.  My date is August 25, 2011, 7 days away.

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