Dixie K.
It's a common story. I was a chubby kid, slimmed down in high school, got married young, had babies too young, gained a lot during pregnancies, got lonely and depressed, ate like there was no tomorrow. I always planned to change my lifestyle but the time was never quite right.
I did Weight Watchers with little success. I did Atkins with great but short-lived success. I did Overeaters Anonymous and lost some weight but did not resolve my issues. I hated my body and I was disgusted with myself. I never talked about being fat or the pain and struggling that went with it. I somehow sorta believed that, if I didn't mention it, no one would notice.
I endured the rude comments and the discrimination stoically. I was often humiliated and to whom did I turn for comfort? My supportive and nurturing best friend--carbs.
As the years rolled by, the scale crept higher and higher. My back and knees were in constant pain. I was depressed and lethargic. I developed more and more health issues including asthma, sleep apnea, gastritis, and arhythmias. I had truly hit bottom.
As it happened, my sister went into a local surgeon for a lapband at about that time. I watched and cheered for her each step of the way and I gradually came to believe that I would follow in her path. I began the process and saw a slew of specialists in preparation. I was making progress, but nothing felt right. I was troubled by some nagging doubts such as the inexperience of the surgeon with the procedure, the lack of responsiveness of his staff when I had a question, and little to no explanation regarding the whys and wherefores of the steps of the journey. When I called the office to ask for an update on my progress at one point, I was literally told, "...don't call us, we'll call you..."
I was reading, reading, reading about the various WLS options. I KNEW that I needed to change courses.
My husband was also suffering with a high BMI, type II diabetes, hypertension, joint pain, and had experienced a silent heart attack at some time in his past. We realized that this was something that we could do together. We had been best friends, spouses, and soulmates for 38 years. This was the next step in our journey.
I made a call to Barix and we went up for an initial consultation with Dr. Taylor. We felt very comfortable and we would have climbed up on any OR table they had given us that day.
Now, in May of 2010, we are on the home stretch toward taking a giant step toward health. We have his-and-her RNYs scheduled for June 23rd at Barix in Ypsilanti.
On June 23, 2010, the hubby and I had his-and-her laporoscopic RNY gastric bypass surgeries. We were absolutely impressed and thrilled with our care at Barix and both surgeries went great. We were not able to share a hospital room as we had hoped but, in hindsight, I think they were right to separate us.
I had worked hard to prepare myself physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I was determined to proceed with dignity, cheerfulness, and gratitude. The husband...not so much. He wanted to sleep through the first week and was very grumpy with the nurses and me. I was crushed. I had pictured us going through this together, but that was not happening. These circumstances continued as we returned home and lasted about two weeks. I was very troubled by what I experienced as negative energy. "This too shall pass" and it did. We began to gradually align our efforts as soon as he began to regain his sense of well-being.
Next, I was hit with a pair of challenges. As we began to eat a wider variety of foods, I was plagued with frequent nausea. In addition, I developed an infection in an incision and it opened up and began to drain nasty fluids. It felt and looked rather horrifying, especially to the hubby but again, it healed in about two weeks and that crisis was over.
At three weeks, the scale froze for me and refused to budge for ten days. At the same time, the husband was losing a pound per day. How discouraging, but...this passed, too.
He is off his diabetes meds now and we are both off meds for hypertension. That's a huge WOW!
Story to be continued....
