Robin N.
I had always been a thin girl, that is until high school. I had started gaining weight. I got married at 19, and had our son at 22. 6 months after he was born, I devoloped Bells Palsy. At first they thought I was having a mini stroke. By the time it was figured out, it was too late to give me any medication for it. I was told that whatever I had after six months, I would have forever. So I do not like my picture taken too often because one of my eyes shut when I smile.....ANYWAYS, back to the topic. I did not lose much weight after our son was born. Each year I would diet, starve myself etc... no matter what I did, I gained weight. I am now 40 and hit my highest weight in the summer of 2007, 310 lbs. I was having trouble working out, I would be so out of breath. It killed me to walk up steps. For years my mother had asked me to get a RNY done. I kept telling her "Mom, I love my food too much, I cannot do it. Well, in May of 2007 I called up Dr. Anez's office an made an appointment for a consultation. I did not tell my mom that I did this, or she would of been harping on me until I did it. Dr. Anez was great. I actually was going in for a lapband, but after talking with him for awhile, he explained both procedures and told me to take as much time as I needed to decide if I wanted either surgery. Well, it took me a month to decide what to do. My insurance company informed me that I had to do 3 months with a dietitian and a physical therapist. Well, even following everything to a T, I lost only 5 lbs. What a bummer. The longest wait for me was for the approval from my insurance company. I had my surgery schedule for October 2, and we still had not heard. After my dietitian called Aetna again, the said "Oh it is sitting here on the desk". A whole month, and it is just "sitting" on someones desk. GREAT. Well needless to say, we rescheduled it and I had the procedure done on October 23, 2007. I love my surgeon and my dietitian. They are the best and support me. I went through everything without telling my mom. If I would of told her that I had the procedure done, there would of been too much tension from her, and I would not of been able to recover. (Our relationship gets tense sometimes). But I finally did tell her about 2 days after surgery. I recovered really well. The worst part for me was waking up in recovery. I was in so much pain, I yelled WHAT DID I DO???? They finally got me to relax by giving me a muscle relaxer. I was up walking about a hour after getting into my room. Everytime they woke me up for blood, vitals, meds, breathig treatments etc...I walked the hospital floor. I did not care what time it was. The more I walked, the easier it became for me to get out of that bed. Here I am, on the loser's bench and will not look back. I do not regret my decision.
