Hello to Everyone- My personal story

May 29, 2011

Hi, my name is Lorraine and i am 57 years old and like most of you have fought this weight loss battle most of my life..... I am joining the rest of you on a life long commitment to lose weight and remain healthy. I want to apologize right up front for my spelling mistakes,  improper use of words, grammar, capitalization, rambling, and digressing onto other non related topics. I think this is kind of theraputic. not sure anyone else but me will ever see this but what the heck..
 
My family (except my mom, go figure?) is mostly all overweight and most of my aunts and uncles suffer from arthritis, diabetes, joint replacements, etc. A few have died too early, 65 and early 70's and i just happened to think how i have never seen an obese person in the nursing home. I guess that is because we don't survive long enough to get there. My family and i are however a very happy bunch of people. We love to laugh, get together with family and of course eat. My background is Ukrainian but we are not biased, we love food from all nations. I love Italian, Greek, Jamaican, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Indian, etc.  I feel truly blessed to live in a multicultural society where i can share food from all over the world.

I grew up in Toronto, a chunky child, often they would say that i was a big boned girl. Truth is that i just liked food and generally disliked activity. Gym was the worst class in school. I hated it. (Math too) . ..When I turned 11 something very strange happened and i grew a full foot in one year.. When i was 13 I was 6 feet tall and slim for the only time in my life, i guess i just got stretched out.  

 When i was 19 I entered the work force as a call centre rep working for Bell Canada. I just loved that job because they had the best cafeteria in the world where i could get french fries and gravy every day. The break feasts with muffins and bearclaws were also amazing. I loved my break times at work.That is when my weight started to climb. The first year working i gained about 40 lbs and joined for the first time weight watchers and my Baba took me to a gym (which was really just a little work out and then go swim and hang out by the pool). Of course after the gym i was so hungry i ate more than what i would have lost.

Many years past with gaining weight, losing a little, more diets, more gyms, more new year's resolutions until i blossomed to about 345 lbs. Now having that kind of weight is one thing when you are young but it is a totally different thing when you get older. Everything starts to hurt, a lot. Oh, and i should have mentionned, over the years I survived ovarian cancer (2003), extremely lucky it was stage one, broke my leg falling down some stairs (2005), my husband passed away after we had separated, Best thing that came out of that relationship was my beautiful son Andre who I adore more than anything else in the world. Poor Andre, I know he wants to be supportive but he is worried that i will somehow be different when i lose the weight. He has always known me as a big mama that he could squeeze and hug and was soft and nice. He is getting used to the idea but i can understand his feelings. He also worries about the surgery that something might go wrong but i just can't keep living like this any more. .

I also have cats, i love my cats. They are loyal and sweet and the best company. Recently they have helped me with the loneliness I sometimes feel. When i lived in my house i had up to 9 cats living with me. I know everyone says i am the crazy cat lady but my house was never stinky, litter was cleaned every day and some liked to go outside (usually to the neighbours perfect garden) to leave their buried little presents. I wonder why the flowers died? But now i am in a big condo and am now down to 3 cats. My son has 2 and he went away to university but guess who moved back home this summer? my son and his 2 cats so i am back up to 5 and doing the litter every day, sometimes twice a day. 

I am in a bit of a mess now, since feb i have had bad sciatic pain, mostly in the front and backs of my legs.. I had to wait 4 months for an MRI to find out that i have a large disc herniation with extrusion and severe spinal stenosis and degenerative arthritus in the lower lumbar region.  I met with an orthopaedic surgeon who will remove the herniated disc, do a nerve decompression, and put some rods and pins at the bottom of my spine. I have been resting and off work.  I have difficulty walking and have to use a cane mostly for balance. The surgeon thought that my spine recovery would be better if i lost weight so I am going ahead with the gastric bypass first. There is a long wait list for the spine surgery until May 2012.

I requested Dr Hagen because he had the best reviews and was head of the bariatric division. I met with him and he is such a nice compassionate person. He greets you with such a kind understanding smile there is no way you can not do anything but feel safe with him. I had a few surgery dates that I had to change due to my back pain being so bad but now i am all set to go for Oct 11, 2011 The sciatica and pain in my back has been easing up. I am taking way less pain meds now. I am now down to 289 lbs from the initial visit of 334lbs . I am sure that has helped my back. . I have decided to focus on my health. For years i have looked after everyone else, my husband, my son but now it is my turn and I am really excited about it. Life is good.

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