megganholzer
Hi,
I have been heavy my entire life. I remember looking around sometimes and realizing that I was bigger than anyone else in my class in high school. Even when I was really active playing softball in high school, walking everywhere in college or camping and hiking with my husband, I have still been heavy. It has always bothered me and I tried many different ways to lose weight including Weight Watchers and going to the gym. I did lose about 30 pounds on WW a couple times, but the amount of weight I still had to lose was overwhelming, so I gave up.
Although I wanted to be thinner, I justified not doing anything about it because I was healthy. No Diabetes, low cholesterol, no heart problems and no high blood pressure. I cooked healthy meals and stayed realtively active. But, on a visit to my gynecologist, he told me that I was very healthy and the extra weight was the only problem - but if I didn't do something about my weight, I wouldn't continue to be healthy. That really stuck with me.
Then, about 8 months ago, we got the monthly newsletter email at work from the County Manager and she mentioned a little something about weight loss surgery being covered by our insurance. I had never really thought that surgery was the answer for me, but something just clicked. I called and made an appointment for a consultation - definitely one of the hardest calls I have ever made.
I had NEVER talked about my weight openly - it was just too painful. I pretended like it didn't bother me and many people thought it didn't. But, there was rarely a moment in the day that I wasn't aware of it. So, after making that initial phone call, I had to tell my husband and my mom what I was planning to do. A lot of tears were involved - they were both supportive, although my husband still thought that I just needed to "walk around a little more." He is tall and thin, has always been tall and thin and comes from a family that is tall and thin!
I met with Dr. Tsuda and his nurse, Robin, and I immediately knew I was on the right path! They were so understanding and reassuring. A couple weeks later my husband and I attended one of Dr. Tsuda's monthly weight loss seminars and my husband finally realized that being overweight wasn't because I was lazy! And, that surgery was probably the best (maybe only) option for me to achieve real, sustainable weight loss.
So, for the past 7 months I have been making monthly visits to my primary care doctor, a psychiatrist, a nutritionist, a gastroenterologist and getting lost of bloodwork done. And, it has all been worth it because I am scheduled for my gastric bypass on Monday, April 18th!!! I am excited and nervous. I have never had surgery and never been hospitalized. Thank goodness I have my husband, daughter and 2 grandkids here to support me. Having never been thin, I really don't know what to expect - but anything will be better than where I am now. Wish me luck!
