Shannon A.

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Obesity & Me

Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.

I was a boredom eater. Moreover, my body always told me I was hungry, I felt insatiable hunger even short periods of time after a large meal. It took lots of food to make me feel full, and the feeling never lasted long.Dieting was a lifetime issue, and while I would lose, I never learned how to change my eating for a lifetime, and invariably the weight I had lost from diets always came back...and then some. Emotionally I was getting more and more depressed about the limits my weight put on me. I was having trouble keeping up with my children, one who has special needs, and I was not being the parent I wanted to be. I was hurting. I needed something drastic to help me overcome my obesity. I was scared that I was following right in my fathers footsteps and would die at a young age because of some complication of my heath due to my obesity.

What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?

The worst thing about being overweight is the physical pain and exhaustion of doing daily things. It shouldn't hurt so much to cook dinner, or wash dishes, or go up and down stairs with a load of laundry. It was painful to live my life overweight.

If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?

I have been able to do so much more since my RNY in October. I am wearing heels again, riding a bike, taking my children out for long walks in the neighborhood, walking just for the heck of it. I am able to hold my children on my lap and read them a bedtime story. These things were all just visions of what my life should have been, and now I am living the life I dreamed of living.

How did you first find out about bariatric surgery and what were your initial impressions of it?

I had had relatives an friends have RNY for various reasons, and to varying degrees of sucess. Like a lot of people I thought well if you could just do it on your own by whatever means you could it would be better than doing a surgical procedure to lose weight...honestly I think I believed it was giving up, that losing weight was supposed to be this thing we fretted over and obsessed about, and that I should be able to do it myself....without cutting up my insides. I think also I was afraid of having surgery itself, I had never had any surgeries and that scared me more than being obese.

Describe your experience with getting insurance approval for surgery. What advice, if any, do you have for other people in this stage?

My experience with insurance was easy, but my biggest piece of advice is to just do what they want you to do....it makes things sooo much easier. you may thing 6 or 8 months of monitored diet will take forever, but they do it for a reason...it helps you prepare for your new life....just do it! Take the time to learn about why you are obese in the first place and get right with those feelings.

What made you finally decide to have the surgery?

My increasing unhappiness with how I was living my life....my children are a bit of a handful and I was just getting by in life doing the minimum with them and hating every moment. I knew it would just continue, and get worse if I didnt do something now.

How did you decide which proceedure to have?

I decided at my last meeting with the surgeon to avoid doing the sleeve and go straight to RNY, simply because I did not want to have to do two surgeries, when the better outcome for me would be the RNY.

What fears did you have about having complications or even dying from from the surgery, and what would you tell other people having the same fears now?

I had the standard fears, having never gone through a surgical procedure, I just was super nervous about the whole situation...to those worried about complications or dying from surgery, I said "I would rather die trying to make a difference, than to die having done nothing at all to change my life for myself and my family"

How did your family and friends react to your decision? Would you have communicated anything differently if you could now? How supportive were they after your surgery?

My family has been super supportive of my decision to have surgery. Having a great support system is absolutely a necessity when you feel your lowest, they will help get you back up. Simple as that.

What was your stay in the hospital like? How long where you there? What things are most important to bring?

I was in the hospital for three to four days. I was up walking right away, and managed pain fairly well. I was frustrated with not feeling like sipping and worried I would be dehydrated,but everything worked out well
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