justmerobin
I was always very thin....till I got pregnant the first time. I probably weighed 90# then. I put on what the doctor wanted me to and more. Then with the next baby I put on more...and the next more. I like to call it baby fat but when the baby is 28 it just doesn't work anymore does it?
By the time I was 40 I was up to 200 pounds, then the next 5 years I put on 50 more, then the last 4 years 50 + more. The last two years have been the worst of all for weight gain. The man I'd been with since I was 15 decided that he wanted out. I got past the divorce pretty quickly all in all but I had no one around to really hide food from any longer so I just ate. And ate. And ate.
We lost my oldest sister in November of 2003, due to problems associated with obesity. Then last August Mom's little sister, same story and then this February Mom's little brother. Same thing. Multi system failure due to the heart, lung, kidneys being unable to keep up with the load put on them by the excess weight. I remember the ICU nurse who was taking care of my aunt told me it was like having a Volkswagon engine in a Mack truck, trying to pull it up a hill. I thought....that's me too. I'd been thinking about the surgery for about 2 years but wasn't on Medicare yet and my ex's insurance, which was still covering me then, wouldn't pay for the surgery. When my aunt died I got serious about it, found out that I would be able to get the surgery through Medicare. I can't tell you how happy it's made my mother. She's scared to death but wants me to be healthy and I want to be for her too. For myself too of course! I can't put her through anymore NEEDLESS suffering.
Luckily I'm pretty healthy but for sleep apnea, high blood pressure, which I just developed over the last two years, and CFIDS.
I'm more afraid than I've ever been in my life but I'm going to do this.
