Wendy M.
I started putting weight on around 8 years of age. Mom always said I was "chubby", and that my "baby fat" would go away as I grew taller. So I guess you could say I never grew tall enough! When I graduated from high school I was 175 lbs, by the time I married the first time I was 190, at the time I got pregnant I was 220, and when I delivered my son I weighed 190. I thought at that time that maybe my best bet was to just stay pregnant as I seemed to lose weight best when pregnant (morning sickness - however, it was 24 hours a day for the entire pregnancy!). My weight crept back up to 220 until I went through my divorce - and then I lost weight rapidly for the first couple months. Although I had tried numerous different diets to lose weight in the past (Weight Watchers, Diet Centers with injections of pregnant women's urine, every fad diet that came out), this time I decided to try Richard Simmons plan, and I did really well for about a year. I got down to 164 lbs and was exercising nearly 2 hours a day. But once I started dating and going to bars, and getting involved with an alcoholic that made me feel like nothing . . . well I put on more weight than ever before, eventually climbing to 270 lbs. I went through counseling groups, Overeaters Anonymous, Weight Watchers (several more times), Nutri System, Rotation Diet, Atkins Diet - even a nutritionist and dietician. I went up and down and up and down - guess this is what they would call yo-yo dieting. When I married for the second time I weighed in about 250 lbs (losing 20 pounds before the wedding). But stress and financial worries and being caregiver for my mom in her last years - well everything just overwhelmed me, I guess, and I climbed back up to my highest of 369 lbs. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea (now so severe I am on a Bi-Pap), high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritic knees, severe back pain, and diabetes (Type II). I decided that bariatric surgery might be what I would need to help me lose the excess pounds. So I started researching bariatric surgery. I talked to my doctor and she and several other doctors wrote letters to my insurance company that they felt I should have bariatric surgery. However, it was an exclusion to my contract, and despite 6 appeals was denied. I heard somewhere that in some states the Department of Vocational Rehabiliation will pay for the surgery, so I contacted my local office. I think the biggest reason I kept pursuing the surgery was because I love my job - I am an audiologist in the public schools and it has wonderful benefits which are important to me because of my health and my husband is disabled as well - but my job requires me to travel a lot between the schools and climb stairs and get down on the floor with the little ones and carry equipment back and forth - and I just didn't know how much longer I could do the job. It took me two years and a lot of persistence, but they finally approved the surgery on August 5, 2008. I knew that most surgeons and insurances require you to go on a weight loss program for 6 months, so I joined Jenny Craig plus I worked with my physician and the nutritionist at the medical center ( Group Health). During those two years before Department of Vocational Rehabiliation approved the surgery, I was able to lose about 50 lbs on Jenny Craig, but couldn't afford to continue on the program. I did learn much about nutrition and different life-changing habits, but was able to keep off only 18 lbs. of that 50 lb weight loss off over 1 1/2 years. The surgeon explained how it is nearly impossible once a person reaches weights as high as mine to lose the weight. Each time we go on a diet, we lose muscle as well as fat, which lowers the metabolism. So next time you try to diet, it gets more and more difficult because your metabolism is slower and slower. Well, here I am - 3 days away from my surgery, and both excited and nervous. I'll try and do good about posting about my journey.
