animal_lover
My name is Kim and I currently live in Anchorage, Alaska. I am excited and nervous to be having surgery in just two days (12/27/11). It has been a long road to get here but I am ready!.
I was not a heavy baby or child and did not come from heavy parents. The only person in my life with weight issues was my maternal grandmother. She was a very heavy baby and remained heavy until her death in April of this year. In my adolescent years I was average weight but had to be very careful or I would easily put on weight. In college I put on the typical "Freshman 15" but easily got rid of the weight by paying closer attention to my selections in the cafeteria and increasing my exercise. I ran into the same issue in graduate school...but again by paying attention I was able to maintain a healthy weight. I moved back to Alaska after graduate school and into a horrible job situation. The weight slowly crept up until I was at my then highest weight of 187. I had lost focus on how I needed to eat and due to the horrific number of hours I was working, I rarely had time for exercise.
In 1997, a very dear friend asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I looked in the mirror and was horrified by my size. I immediately took action and by the wedding in April 1998 I was at my goal weight and feeling great. My job continued to be incredibly stressful but I had made changes in my schedule to allow for exercise 5 - 6 days a week- I think that is how I got through the stress too. Then one day in 1999 we were all notified the office was closing in a week and had to find other jobs. Even with that stress I managed to maintain my weight. I decided to go back to school for another master's degree.
Life was great until late October when I developed a myriad of symptoms including extreme nausea, diarrhea, all over body pain, IBS/GERD, extreme fatigue and rapid weight gain. I was eventually diagnosed with PCOS, Fibromyalgia, IBS and chronic fatigue syndrome. Over the course of the next eight years I was seen by just about every type of provider with little relief of any of the problems and no explanation for the continued weight gain. On Thanksgiving 2006 I had a new set of strange symptoms come out of nowhere. Four months later I was diagnosed with MS. I was actually relieved to have an answer to some of my issues but this did not explain the weight. Around that same time I developed horrible, daily diarrhea. This went on for six months and my doctors could not find a cause. The only good part is I lost almost 90 pounds between Dec 2006 and June 2007. My brother got married in March of 2007 and I was one of the bridesmaids...I actually looked pretty good in the "made for skinny girls" dress my sister-in-law selected. Unfortunately, things didn't last and the weight came back on rapidly. I have tried just about every program out there and my body just will not let go of the weight. Even right now while I am on the pre-surgery program I am barely losing anything but following my surgeon's instructions to the letter.
After nine years together my SO and I decided to get married. He has been an incredible support through all of this. We love to travel and have been on many trips all over the world. 2010 was the first year my health really messed up what should have been a wonderful trip to Australia. We have another big trip planned for this October and I am hoping I will finally be feeling healthy again. I also miss all the fun things we use to do together like hiking and just going for long walks with our dogs. I am looking forward to doing these again very soon!
I have so many things in my life to be thankful for but my weight has been dragging me down both physically and emotionally this past year. I am hoping 2012 is going to be a wonderful year full of lots of changes that can get me to where I want to be.