Debra_M
I have struggled with weight through most of my adolescence. I was thinner in high school and in college started putting on extra pounds. The fresheman "15" became the freshman "25" for me and then every year after it just kept creeping up. I started teaching in 1990 and have tried diet after diet and every exercise tape imaginable and I would always loose weight but whenever I stopped strict dieting or eased up on my exercise, it seemed to increase the rate of my weight gain.
I've never been a large eater but my habits were eratic. When I changed jobs in 2004 and went to work for a non-profit education consortium, lots of travel left me eating at odd times and while on the road I hardly ever kept to an exercise routine. I started having warning signs of diabetes and my dad had a heart attack at age 60. That was a wake up call that I had to do something drastic.
Then the battle with my insurance company started. Their "requirements" kept changing and they put off approval for my surgery long enough to write an entire exclusion for the surgery into their entire policy. (Blue Cross / Blue Shield of FL). I decided that this was an investment in myself and my future health so I took my retirement fund and paid for the surgery myself. Instead of buying a new car...I'm walking around in my new model.
Sept. 11, 2007(my birthday and I couldn't think of a better gift) was surgery day. I heard of many complications and going into the surgery was as little scary but my dad went with me to hold my hand and make sure they didn't remove my left foot or anything weird like you hear about on the news. :-)
I was so sore after the surgey that I literally could stand up straight for at least two weeks. It's been 4 and 1/2 months since surgery and I'm down from 275 to 213. My goal weight is 135 and I plan to reach it by the end of the summer if not sooner. I'm feeling great and finally can say that I'm at 100% in regards to how I feel. A milestone for me was when I was finally able to paint my own toenails. Yippeee!
