saramae
I was a tiny baby at just 5 pounds and started making it up by 3 years of age. By the time I was five, I not only one of the youngest but the tallest and heaviest at 65 pounds. Loosing my front teeth early and all at once made me very self conscious my first year of school and set the stage for low self esteem my whole life. Even though all of my family was obese, I was always the fattest. (I should add that my Mom is a dietitian and my Dad was a psychiatrist.) I was always on a diet and the most I ever lost at one time was 80 pounds. "It always came back with friends", as my support group says. By the time I was 25, I was terrified and weighed 220 pounds. I was clearly gaining at least 10 pounds a year and my life was severely restricted by depression as much as my size. I married when I was 44 years old and never had children.
I first looked at Bariatric surgery 20 years ago but decided that it was too radical. I guess that it really was not well tested at that time. In that time I have cultivated many commodities; 15 years of type II Diabetes,degenerative arthritis in my back and knees, moderate fibromyalgia, GERD, sleep apnea and hypoxia, hypothyroidism, cardiomegaly and congestive heart failure, etc. My cardiologist was please to my response to my pacemaker/defibrillator and suggested that I'd be a good candidate for bariatric surgery so I found a local OH support group and attended until I felt confident. I had to change PCP's to find a more supportive doctor and was approved after the six month waiting period. I am on disability and have medicare and pay for a supplement and was fully covered.
I had a laproscopic RNY done by Dr. Villares at Good Sam in Phoenix on May 15, 2007 and am now 18 months out from surgery. At my heaviest, I weighed 315 pounds and am now averaging 226 pounds, so my loss is just under 90 pounds. I only take heart and thyroid medications and have no more GERD. The only "complication" from surgery was an esophageal stricture which was very simple to fix. I'm still on oxygen and a CPAP at night.
I have been losing slowly since my 8th month and have been slowly adding exercise. Exercising has been difficult because of back and muscle pain, but I do what I can and am definitely stronger. It has always been hard to be consistent because I am a big picture, all or nothing kind of girl. I hope to continue to lose and meet my goal of 150 pounds.