Sarah S.
S o this is meant to be my story right? Well let's just say my story is a long one which involves way too many hospital admissions, way too many doctors telling me I need to loose weight and that one magical doctor that changed it all. Lol. Ok So my story kinda began when I was 10 years old, well it actually began when I was born but nothing interesting until I turned 10, like almost everyone else on here I was an overweight child, suprisingly it never affected me emotionally and what not, it never actually has which I'm definetly thankful for. When I was 10 I was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis which is basically where you have the white blood cells in your body that fight infection I had too many and they weren't fighting infection, it's not cancer but I was treated with chemotherapy. So while I was 10 years old for most of that year I was in and out of hospital, had numerous scans, blood tests, xrays anything you can name, definetly a scary thing to be going thru at any age and especially as young as I was. I was treated with chemotherapy and steroids. Ok so flash forward 5 years to when I am 15, still overweight. That year my old primary school had a fete so I decided to go and I ended up getting the flu, stupidly I didn't get the flu shot that year and ended up sick (another thing to mention, the condition I had when I was 10 I had in my skin and my lungs) so I ended up in hospital again and had to have a lung biopsy which basically came back inconclusive but the doctor told me that basically the treatment that I was given when I was 10 had come around to basically bite me on my ass, it had kind of flared up with my lungs and made me sick. So I was given home oxygen for a while and steroids yet again to try and combat this new illness without a name. Flash forward to when I was 19 (last year 2007) and I got short of breath one day, all the same symptoms from when I was sick when I was 15 so obviously I stupidly tried to ignore these symptoms and hope that they would go away by itself but obviously they didn't. I was put into hospital again and was in and out of hospital for about 3 months, had another lung biopsy (painful) and my diagnosis came back as "Non specific interstitual pneumonia" which basically is smart talk that doctors use for "we really don't know what you have so we're going to put it in this wide bracket and treat you with whatever and basically you'll be our guinea pig"lol. Ok so everyone following on the story so far? Not confused yet? Good lol. So when I was admitted last year it was june, I had to have regular appointments with my respiratory doctor and then in August last year he told me something that I never wanted to hear, basically he said that the way things were going I might be looking at a possible lung transplant, not the kind of thing you want to hear at 19 when you haven't even started planning your life and then he went on to say that I should consider the lap band because if this were to happen it would be best if I was in top physical form and health. So I went home and thought about it, I thought that I would love the surgery but would never be able to afford so basically the money that I did have coming in I may as well have been paying for my grave, then in January I was given a referral to a Dr Love (true story lol) who is actually I don't know what part she's part of but she explained to me about the lap band and I was just sitting there thinking "well that's great but I can't afford it so why are you telling me this stuff?" So nothing really happened for a while and then in may this year after alot of referrals and what not I was given an appointment for the lap band surgeon. I saw him and basically he had already decided that he was going to do my surgery, all I had to do was see his nurse at the hospital and see his dietician which I did.
So now I'm waiting for a date, I've signed the papers for surgery and currently I am category 2 which is a waiting period of 2-6 months, I'm not worried or annoyed about the date or waiting period because the fact is - the hospital is paying for my surgery and I feel like I'm in debt to them I mean I'm getting a $17,000+ operation from them so obviously anyone would feel like that right? I'm definetly doing this surgery for the right reasons, you see others on here that are my age that are sometimes doing it for vanity but I'm definetly doing it for health, when my doctor told me about the possibility of a lung transplant I couldn't see a future for myself, I kept thinking that whatever money I brought in it may as well have been going towards my funeral (as sad as that sounds) now that I've been told I'll be getting this surgery I am definetly relieved, before I couldn't plan my life because I didn't know if I stayed this way (overweight) I would live past 30, now I can plan my life. I know that with weight loss surgery I don't have to plan for my funeral, I may never actually need a lung transplant but loosing the weight will be alot off my mind just in the fact that if I ever was to go on the transplant list at least I wouldnt be rejected because of my size where as if I didn't have the surgery I know I definetly will be. It's definetly a huge risk/decision/life changing experience that I'm going thru, I know everyone is completely different and would love to hear your stories. Thanks
