Astronomer_Bill
I am not much different than other people I guess. I was one of the big kids growing up. I can remember how my father would get so mad at me when I was a preteen/ teen during summer vacation because I was always happier sitting under a shade tree with my nose in a book rather than being active. Oh the fights we had. My mother has always struggled with weight and I know now that they were just worried that I would have the same problems with my health that she has gone through. I do have some of the most loving and caring parents and they have been so very supportive of me having the WLS. But when your a kid or young adult you don't want to believe your parents. Well guess what, they were right!
By 3rd grade I was the first person in my class to break the 100 lbs mark. The gym teacher allowed the other kids to tease me, I was very hurt. I can remember in 5th grade the football coach wanting me to go out for junior football. I guess because I was such a bigger kid then my classmates. When I asked my mom about it, she discouraged me because I'd have to shower with other kids and they would likely tease me. So I went out for band instead. I can recall in 6th grade going to a class rollerskating party and there being a boy-girl skate where the girls got to pick the boy they wanted to skate with. Every boy at the rink was picked by a female class mate but not me. I felt like such an idiot to be just standing there alone while several girls who didnt have a partner just skated by and giggled. Kids can be so cruel.
In junior high I hated gym class and kept gaining weight. In high school most of my friends had gone out for some sport or the other, I became a yearbook photographer. The fat kid with the camera around his neck.
To help my family cut the cost of school lunches, I spent much of my Jr High and High school years working in the school cafeteria in exchange for free lunches (and often seconds!)
In 11th grade, I so wanted to go to my junior prom. I actually had the courage to ask 13 different girls to the prom before I gave up. My best friend Dennis (who also didnt get a date) and I went to the movies that night instead. And I kept getting bigger..
My senior year I had reached such a period of depression about my weight and girls and what the future would bring after high school I was in such a funk that one of my favorite teachers actually was worried I was into drugs. I decided I needed to do something and I signed up for the Navy after High School. I dropped about 50 lbs my senior year to get into the Navy. Then I lost probably another 20 -30 the 8 weeks during bootcamp.
In the service, I went through a pretty stressful program and I just didn't have the tools to handle this emotional stress and I turned back to food. By year 3 (out of 6) of my commitment I was in real trouble with my weight, and I was told I could expect some real disciplinary actions against me if I didnt get back in shape. The beginning of year 4 I was told that I would be kicked out of the Navy if I didnt meet the physical requirements. I shutdown about the problem, I was pretty tired of the Navy and wanted to get on with college at that point. So I took the discharge(honorable) but my discharge papers state the reason for seperation: "Obesity". It has been something that I have been secretly ashamed of for years and it was not until the time of my preop that I even shared it with my wife Lisa.
In 1989 I started college and continued to gain. About this time my mother had a revision of the early intestinal bypass and had the stomache stapling. When she was recovering she was on a pure liquid diet of Ensure for 6 weeks post-op. I came up with the crazy plan that I could do a liquid diet myself and for 2 months that is all I consumed. It was the summer and I walked 10 miles a day. I dropped something like 60 lbs in 2 months. But soon summer was over and I was living in Minnesota at the time. I tried joining a health club but that didnt last long and by the next summer I had gained all the weight back and then some.
After college I went off to graduate school and by the end of my second year of gradschool I broke the 300 lbs mark at age 30. The next few years I let my weight roller coaster up and down. Dating was infrequent and rarely did I get a second date. I specialized in being every ones best friend,Mr Nice Guy.
I started having medical problems in 1998 when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Then in 2002 I started having gaul bladder attacks but the doctor I saw wrote it off as persistant heartburn. I suffered off and on until Dr Syn took it out when he did my WLS.
I have always hated going to doctors, I avoided them for years based on that little lecture about my weight.
In Feb 2004 I met Lisa. We quickly fell in love and by Easter I had proposed. We were married that summer. She loved me for who I was and I was so happy (still am) being part of a loving family. One of the things she convinced me of before we married was to start seeing her doctor. During the initial patient physical the doctor was concerned that she thought my thyroid was enlarged. She ordered some tests and every indication was that I had cancer. So a week after our honeymoon I went into surgery to have my thyroid removed. The surgeon said he removed a mass the size of a grown mans fist that was growing (hidden) behind my collar bone. Pathology fortunately determined it not to be cancerous. What a wedding present.
When I first met Lisa, she had been on Adkins and had lost 50 lbs. We started doing it together and I dropped 30 lbs in no time. Then we realized that we just enjoyed food too much and Adkins became difficult for us to do. We gained all the weight back over the next 3 years. A year ago, we adopted a newborn girl because we were not having any success having our own children even after going to a fertility specialist. These first 3 years of my marriage have been the happiest of my life. Then in December of 2006 I had another routine physical and our doctor (who I love dearly) told me I had Adult onset diabetes, high blood pressure that meds was not getting in check, my sleep apnea, high triglycerides, hypothyroidism and I was coming close to topping 350 on the scale. She suggested WLS. I was devistated and was convinced I had failed myself and my family. The Dr then gave me a medical journal on CD that she had just listened to that had changed her own mind about WLS, it was somethig she herself was against up to this point. I took it home, had a good cry with Lisa and we listened to it. We talked about the idea of WLS for hours and our fears, concerns, and worries. We finally went back to our PCP and told her we both were going to do it. Then we got online and started doing our research. This brought us to find out about Dr Syn and Lisa to discover OH.
We happened to be in Lubbock for another appointment a short time after this and we just walked into his center unannounced and started talking to his staff. They were so nice and helpful! Not what you would expect the treatment to be for a couple with a squirming 1 year old in tow. We decided this is where we needed to be!
We filled out all of the paperwork in record time when we got home and soon had our appointment for our consultation. Dr Syn was awesome! I was told I was a medium sized patient with above average risk because he saw I had an enlarged liver and all of my other comorbitdities. I left the office that day determined to shrink my liver! within a week we were approved for WLS by our insurance company. I went back to see Dr Syn in a month for my pre-op and I had lost 25 lbs and shrunk my liver a great deal. The pre-op tests also determined that I had gaul stones. So the gaul bladder had to come out.
Sometime around this time Lisa and I were at a church event and we were sitting on aluminum folding chairs and I broke the one I was sitting on. How embarrasing! It was nearly as bad as flying on an airplane and needing to ask for the belt extender each time for me.
On Feb 26, 2007, I had my surgery. It went very well. Dr Syn told Lisa that my gaul bladder had been inflamed for such a long time that my liver was actually attached and growning around it! OMG! Other organs were also attaching themselves to it. I am so grateful it is gone now.
I am so blessed that so many things I never would have dreamed possible have happened since I met Lisa. I can't wait until she can share in this journey. She is having hers done the 23rd of April.
I hope to write my continuing progress in my blog.
About Me
Carlsbad, NM
Location
46.2
BMI
Surgery
02/26/2007
Surgery Date
Mar 18, 2007
Member Since
