bjsoupy
Hello, my name is Bonnie Campbell and I am a 57 year old grandmother. I have a daughter and two grandchildren and a wonderful supporting husband named Bob. I work as an IT Business Analyst in Plainfield, Indiana. My dream would be to someday have my own business as an self-sustaining artist.
Looking back, I know I have had weight issues all of my life. I grew up very poor with 2 brothers and a sister and there were times we did not eat. My Dad drank a lot and he took it out on us kids and my Mom. I escaped through drawing and sketching and reading. I was a teenager before we finally got above the poverty level and I found that eating was an escape. I started having weight issues but could control them through diets.
I stayed thin during my teenage years but only through starvation diets. If I ate normal, I would gain 20 lbs. This was the scenario I lived with in the coming years. Everytime I hit a rock in my life I would gain 20 lbs then I would diet and lose; but 20 turned into 30 then 40 then 50 and on and on. The dieting began to not work and I resorted to more extreme measures. I think one of them was an Optifast Diet where I ate (drank) around 600 calories a day for almost 6 months and only lost 50 lbs. I tried to wean myself off by going on a Weight Watchers diet but I gained 20 lbs back almost immediately.
I hit a huge rock while married to my previous husband. I was overweight by 50 lbs when I married him but he wanted to change me. I joined exercise clubs and there were times I was doing aerobic exercise 6 times a week. I was getting healthier but the weight did not come off ....I maybe lost 10 lbs. My ex then became verbally abusive to me and would tell me what a failure I was and how he deserved something better than me for a wife. I tried every weight loss gimmick out there and even went to the family Doctor for Meridia which didn't work. I tried the Adtkins diet, Susan Powter diet, Suzanne Sommers diet, Weight Watchers, Richard Simmons and the list goes on. The longer I didn't lose the more my ex husband became abusive. We would go somewhere to eat and he would take my food away from me or watch me hatefully as I ate. He would complain to friends and family how I let myself go. When I finally left the marriage, I was a wreck and had was more than 150 lbs overweight.
After the divorce, I decided that I wanted to do something for myself. I had read about bariatric surgery but never considered it. But my weight had left me with a list of comorbidities including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, sleep apnea and back problems. I wanted to live like a normal person. I looked into the various surgeries offered but was afraid of some of the procedures. When the lap-band came about, I decided that it would be the right choice. I went to a seminar in Louisville, Kentucky then went to Mexico to have my Lap-band done (because my insurance didn't cover it and I was a self-pay). The procedure was quick and recovery was easy. I lost 70 lbs in the first 6 months and was excited about becoming a normal functioning person.
But the weight loss stopped....so I went to get a fill to expand my band. This helped but didn't stop the hunger and I did not lose any more weight. I then went to get a second fill (the last) and again no weight loss. It seemed that I was barely eating but could not lose weight. Then the band started causing me issues with Acid Reflux and food getting stuck. I was remarried to my husband now and he wanted me to remove the band. He told me that it was causing more harm than good. There was a time where I could not get anything but fluids through and so I went to a Doctor to remove fluid from my band. He said that I needed to let the band work and that it was a tool. If it failed it wasn't the band's fault. All I know is that I was starving to death and gaining weight!!!!
My comorbidities were getting worse and I couldn't eat healthy with the Lap-Band so I decided to get it removed. My research started more than a year ago and with the input from this message board and Dr. Husted, I decided to go with the DS. I had my surgery on April 14th and I am in recovery mode now. I know I am so happy to be rid of that stomach-choking band and to feel like I have some control over my life.
When I look back, I believe I have been starving all of my life to try to be normal. I think there are a lot of factors that have caused this....not just eating. My heredity, the way my body absorbs and processes food and the way it is converted into energy. When I went to Dr. Husted's seminar, I realized that maybe ......just maybe it isn't all my fault and that I have been fighting against something I couldn't win at all my life. The DS is new hope for me....and maybe I can quit starving and start living. It seems strange that a thin lanky kid can eat like a horse and everyone will say it is in their genes; but an obese person is blamed.
Everyday I thank God for leading me down this path to find the DS procedure.
