pgrorud
My name is Patty. I am married and have 2 children ages 19 and 15. I live in a small town in Wisconsin. It is so small we don't even have a bar. That is good though. When I grew up I was always named, "toothpick", "skinny Minni", "skinny as a rail", the list goes on. I am 44 years old now. Those skinny nick names are long gone. Todays date is March, 22 2009. My weight is 248.8. I now weigh the most I have ever weighed. I have many problems with many of my joints. My weight causes me difficulties with my breathing plus I have asthma. I think about my weight constantly and how it prevents me from feeling good and doing the things that I want to do. I worry about a young death if I don't make a last ditch effort to do something to get this weight off once and for all. I will be meeting with my surgeon on March 25, 2009. My husband and sister are going with me to provide support. My sister had RNY about 5 years ago. I went with her to some of her appointments and many support groups. I was with her before she went into the operating room. She cried and was full of emotions. Her husband and I waited for her after surgery. She looked pretty rough. I told her I would never have weight loss surgery. I am eating those words!! Not literally lol!! I, Like many of you, I have tried many different diets. I cringe when I hear the word "diet". It makes me feel sad. I have on and off again thought about the RNY surgery for myself. But fear of the surgery would keep me from it. My brother had also struggled with his weight. One year ago, he was only a few months away from having his surgery. He was so excited to finally look forward to getting rid of the weight and lead a new healthy life. He had planned on coming over to my house on June 6, 2008 to help grill a bunch of chicken on the grill for my daughter's graduation which was being held on June 7, 2008. He still lived at home with my parents and my parents would always tap the ceiling (which was the floor to his room) to wake him up. They didn't hear him move at all. Finally my Dad went up to his room and Jeff was dead. We had an autopsy done to find out the cause of death. He died from sleep apnea. Please research and look up symptoms of sleep apnea. It is a silent killer. Jeff never got to fullfill his goal of losing his weight. I know he did not want to die fat. He was my brother and best friend and he will forever be missed. It was about 2 mos. ago, I woke up and said to myself, I want to do this. (The surgery) Prior to this my family Dr. had been working with me on trying to get the weight off. I talked to him and told him I want to go ahead with bariatric surgery. He thought it was a good choice for me. My pomonologist has suggested bariatric surgery prior to this too. I was being told that if I would get the weight off it would help me with all of my cormorbilities. There is a family history of obesity. I know how bad things will get if I don't do something soon. My knees and right hip are in constant pain. I will keep you all posted on my journey to a "new life".
