Snowbutterfly
I'm a 28 y/o female in Alaska and I've been overweight for as long as i can remember. Even at age 11 I was in the mid 200's. I totally admit that its my fault for overeating, but I just recently figured out that reason was much more complex. When i was an infant i had pretty bad febrile seizures (seizures brought on by fever and heat). I've gotten sick alot my whole life and everytime i did get sick i'd get a fever, and have a seizure. One day i had a pretty severe one and the doctors said one more and i could end up brain dead or dead so my mom agreed to put me on medications. Up until this point i had been an extreamly active child. The medication slowed my metabolism (and my activity). Between getting sick alot (as im sure you know when your sick you dont want to do anything) and having a slower metabolism i started putting on weight. Then came the teasing so food became a comfort and then the weight REALLY came on. By the time i was 15 i had hit 280's and maintained that for many years. Of course that wasn't easy. I was constantly on a diet, always watching what i ate but never losing. After I had my son at 25 i started gaining weight again. I was sicker than normal (think feeling like you constantly have the flu with respiratory symptoms, and full body aches) so i was even less active and turned to sugar (soda and chocolate) for energy (bad bad idea). That packed on the weight fast and i topped out at 364. About this time i started getting bad pitting edema in my legs (talk about yet ANOTHER reason i couldnt move) so i went to my PCP to discover the source. I'd had low protein levels for years so she theorized that this was the cause and so began the search for why. I had all the normal testing (kidneys, heart, stomach) with nothing to explain the protein loss. I got all my blood tests and did alot of research on anything that looked off. One thing that didn't look right was my IGG (immunoglobulin G) level. I found on the internet that low igg can be the cause of low protein (since esentially immunoglobulins ARE protein). I asked my doctor about this and she said she had that about that too and sent me to an infectious diseas specialist. He ran ALOT more test, then sent me to an immunologist who did alot more and it was finally figured out i had CVID (common variable immune deficiency). A pretty severe form too since both my b and t cells were extreamly low (cells responsible for protecting against bacterial, viral and fungal infections). My immunologist was shocked i hadn't been hospitalized (yay for me for staying a hermit). Soon after that i started IVIG infusions once a month (infusions to help my b-cells, but nothing could help my t-cells). My levels came up a tiny bit, then fell again so they switched me to every 3 weeks. My levels came up a tiny bit again but i still stayed low. My doctor told me they couldn't increase the med because i'm at the highest dose possible because of my weight. I had been seriously thinking of WLS before and after hearing that i could literally get sick and die any day if i didn't lose weight i started the preop process. I just recently got approved and was scheduled for AUG 25th 2014. Im ready to be healthy!!
