evrblue
I have always had weight issues. As a child I was "chubby", and had what my relatives called "Baby Fat". I was pretty healthy as a kid and up until middle school my weight wasn't an issue to me. When puberty hit, I really started gaining weight, and like most fat kids I got picked on relentlessly. This continued into my high school years, when my weight was around 175lbs. Now I look at those pictures and think I look great! I gained more weight in college, way more than the "freshman 15". The love of my life, my husband Jack, passed away July 16 2010 from Leukemia. I had lost some weight in the yea prior to his death, but have since gained it all back and then some with emotional eating...
The last several years I have been on meds for Depression, and in the last four years I have been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism, Diabetes, Degenerative Disc Disease in my back and Arthritis almost everywhere. I have gained 140 lbs in the last five years. The Diabetes scared me into investigating WLS. I have had multiple knee surgeries. I have pain in my knees and back everyday, and my body just can't hold me up anymore.
I work part time as a CNA doing home health visits and my weight limits my work. Not to mention what it is to be obese and 39 and trying to date...
My Gran, my best friend, (and the best cook in the world) passed away in 2007 at 350lbs from congestive heart failure, but also had knee problems and walked with a walker. When I realized that I have less mobility than she did before her death at 80 yrs old, something clicked. I am trapped in a body that no longer works for me. I've got to get out of this body so I can live a functional life. I'm too young (39) to have the mobility and medical problems of an 80yr old.
So I'm back again, this time more serious about WLS than I was in 2006. And so it begins, again...
