Bobbie D.
My story
Well, I can say that I was a thin little thing until I was 6-7 years old. My mom was killed in a car accident when I was 6 and I moved to Wisconsin from Missouri to live with my dad and his wife.
They were farmers and all meals growing up were meat, potatoes, bread. There were always cookies in the cookie jar and very little fruits or vegetables offered, so of course there are very few veggies that I like today.
I was heavy through all of my school years, sometimes the biggest girl in my class. I did a diet pepsi diet one year in high school (all I had was diet pepsi, healthy huh?) I lost quite a bit of weight and got to a size 15.
In April of 2000 I had a VBG done. There was no real education or follow up mandate and the surgeon did many different kinds of surgery, not specifically specializing in bariatrics. I'm not blaming the office, but where I am now I see such differences that make me think that I might not have failed with it if I had the tools that I have now. I did lose about 90 lbs in a year and felt wonderful. I can't actually pinpoint the out of control months where it seemed like weight came pouring back on and I didn't understand what ws happening. Long story short, it all came back.
I met my (future) husband when I was 16. He and his family were also farmers so much of the same types of foods as my family grew up with. He wasn't into swimming or being physically active, but he worked very hard so has always been a very healthy weight. Since he liked to watch races and truck pulls and things like that, I stopped swimming and riding bike to be spend time with him. 3.5 years later when we got married, my dress was a size 22.
We have been married 21 years now. We have 2 children who are nearly adults. Many of my eating habits have unfortunately been passed to them, so now not only am I trying to fix me, but also share some better habits with them. The first thing I've done is put better choices in the fridge and pantry for them to choose from.
My husband, Ryan, has never had a problem with my weight. I am so lucky to have him.He did however become concerned for my health in the last couple of years when my blood pressure became dangerously high (216/114) and I thought I might have a heart attack. I was afraid to check with our insurance company to see if I could have another procedure. A friend of mine started to bug me over this past year about why I wouldn't make the call. She became rather relentless (at my request) and finally in about July I made a consultation with a bariatric specialty office.
The doctor (James Kemmerling) was very informative and confident that he could revise my surgery and should as my band was so tight that he could hardly get the little camera through to see what was going on down there. He was not surprised that slider foods were the only thing I could comfortably get down and whether consciously or not had resorted to since anything dense caused pain or got stuck.
So about 4 days after my initial visit, Dr Kemmerling's office got approval from our insurance for revision to RNY. I had this surgery on 9/1/10. As I write my story, I am almost 12 weeks post op and feel better than I have all of my life. Not even considering the pounds that I have lost, I am off all blood pressure meds and have a totally normal level every day. I have energy like crazy and have started an exercise regime which is something I have never done. I will continue to update my blog but just wanted to capture "my story" this morning.
