Nancy T.
I've lived in the Hudson Valley area of New York all my life. It is a very beautiful area, especially this time of year, when the trees are turning. I've thought about where I want to retire to, and although NY is expensive, I love the views and the weather here.
I thought I struggled with my weight my whole life (after puberty, before that I was as skinny as a rail, all knees and elbows) - my mom used to warn me about my weight when I was in high school, at 5'7" and 135 lbs! Seems like I was always on a diet, yoyoing down 10 and up 15 lbs, till when I got married, I was around 160. Then I had my two kids, and the struggle really began. With both of them, I gained only about 20-25 lbs during pregnancy and lost it immediately afterwards - but within 3 months all that weight was back on, and not 'baby' this time! By the time my daughter was in Girl Scouting, I was over well 200 lbs, but keeping pretty active. As the kids grew and my job got more demanding, I stopped being so active, and the pounds packed on - up to a high of 285 in 2005.
At that time, my doctor recommended I look into bariatric surgery. I am fortunate that I have no comorbid conditions at this time, but diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, you name it, all run in my family. I started gathering information about the procedure at that time, but then I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which my mom had died from. Talk about stress! I went down to Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC for a second opinion, and was very relieved to have them downgrade the diagnosis to a pre-cancerous condition, bordering on cancer. So just a lumpectormy, no radiation, and I'm on Tamoxifen for 5 years. But the stress of that time, plus the stress of trying to sell our house in a declining market, caused me to drop 35 lbs over the next year.
Then I thought "Hey, if I can lose weight, I should be able to keep it off for good", so I spent a year trying to maintain the 35 lb weight loss. Unfortunately, next time I went to the doctor, my weight was back up to 265. So we talked about the surgery again, and this time I went down to a seminar to find out about it. I made the decision in May 2007 to start down the path and see where it leads me. As of right now (Oct 21, 2007, just 4 days short of my 50th birthday ;-)) I've completed all the screening tests, lost 5% of my weight that is required by my insurance, and am impatiently awaiting word on whether they will approve my request for GB surgery. Of course, that is not going smoothly. The doctor's office faxed it all to the ins co, and after a week, I started calling to see where it stood. The ins co had never seen the paperwork! I don't know if it was faxed to the wrong number, or routed to the wrong department, but anyway, I got the dr. office to refax to the correct number, and then confirmed the ins co had the paperwork in their hands. So now I am playing the waiting game again, trying not to get my hopes up too much.
If all goes well, I should have my surgery at Westchester Medical Center on Nov 9, 2007. I've read so many positive things on this site, and chatted with people who are very friendly and welcoming, so I know that this will be a great resource for me on this exciting journey!
