Let's get this thing started! (SMILE)

Jul 25, 2009

I have been one of those people who seemed to fight my weight my whole life since puberty at the early age of 9! By 8th grade I already had a potbelly that wouldn't go away. I think I first tried Ayds diet "candy' then. High school and the weight was still climbing. I was so shy and not very good at physical activites. By my junior year I weighed 195. Then I had a huge crush on a boy and stopped eating dinner! I lost 30 pounds and looked pretty good at 165! In college my highest weight was 235. I came down to 193 and stayed there for several years, but i was a poor college student then, riding a bicycle a lot, to work and school. Then I married and came to Alaska from California. I weighed 218 when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter in 1980. I gained 45 pounds with her! After that I gained fairly rapidly until I was about 300 pounds in Oct. 1986, when a doctor said I was diabetic. I had also had high blood pressure since college. After I found out why I had craved sweets, I made drastic changes in my diet and over a period of a few years i lost 70 pounds and kept if off for several more years. Then in 1995 I had to get more aggressive with the diabetes meds.Avandia and Metphormin, in particular, started making me regain weight, even though I was eating the same food! Very frustrating. Also started having swelling leg troubles from the Avandia. (Eventually I stopped it) Then I had to go to Insulin - and being so Insulin Resistant, I had/have to take a LOT of insulin..... my weight ballooned! 300 and more.... in 2008 I reached my highest weight ever, 336. By then I had been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis that was causing me pain walking and lots of neck and lower back pain.

Currently - I was approved after a year for gastric Bypass with Dr. Julie Ellner in San Diego, CA. My surgery is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2009.  I have so far lost 42 pounds total on her Liver Shrinking and now liquids only diet - pre-op rules. I feel better just from having even that amount of weight gone! SO now the real story will begin to take shape!!

Till next time, Barbara

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