I love my DS!

Mar 29, 2009

I had DS in Vitoria, Brazil with Dr. Antelmo Sasso-Fin on October 8, 2008.  My starting weight was 243 and I'm 5'3" tall.  I had some complications requiring additional hospitalizations in the US - the first was for 2 weeks in October and November 2008 for a leak which took a month to heal, and the second was for 2 days in January 2009 for jaundice and dehyration.  As I write this however (on March 29, 2009), I am almost 6 months out and feeling fine.  I've lost 64 pounds, weigh 179, and am wearing size 14/16. 

About me:  I'm happily married to the love of my life for 13 years (but we've been living together for 18 years - I think we should get credit for that extra 5 years!).  We live in Louisville, KY, where I have lived my whole life.  We have no kids, we tried everything but no luck.  Since I turn 44 next month, it's not likely to ever happen.  I've made peace with that.  I do have 4 brothers who all live close by, and I see them all the time as well as their kids.  I have a dog, my sweet pit bull, Sally, who is 6 years old and makes me very happy.  She's the best dog ever.  I'm a paralegal supervisor at a large law firm where I've worked for almost 19 years.

I first became overweight at about age 10, normalized some at puberty and then, when I was about 18, I thought I was fat even though I was a size 10, so I started running and cut my calories to 800 a day.  I lost a ton of weight and fought to stay at about 100 pounds through college.  Then my mom got cancer and died, and I went off the deep end.  I became severely depressed and started binge eating, and gained 50 pounds in 6 months.  I stabilized at about a size 12 for many years.  At about age 28, I started gaining weight steadily.  I began the diet-and-lose-but-then-gain-it-all-back-plus-some syndrome.  I had considered WLS but they all sounded horrible and I kept seeing people gain all their weight back.  However, I was getting desperate.  I didn't have any serious comorbidities to speak of yet but I knew they were coming.  I started researching the lap band, and I found a link about the DS.  I've never looked back.  Of course my insurance doesn't cover WLS of any kind for any reason, so I took out a second mortgage and went to Brazil.  Even though I had some problems, I've never regretted my decision for one second.  The weight loss has been damn near effortless to this point.  I have never been so satisfied when eating.  My food issues are melting away.  I wish everyone knew about DS but we'll get there, one person at a time! 

I now follow up with Dr. John Husted, who moved to KY in 9/08.  I feel fortunate to have such a well-know, brilliant DS specialist so close to me (though it's a 3.5 hour drive, it's worth it).  I'm following VitaLady's vitamine regime for DS folks and hope that will work for me but it's too soon to tell.  I'm low in D and calcium, so that's what I'm concentrating on right now. 

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