Nancy S.
I have struggled with weight my entire life. I have also been on every diet that there is....You name it, I've been on it. Weight Watchers (let me count the times...),Atkins, Fen-Phen(no I didn't screw up my heart), pills, shots, shakes...... Oh of course I would lose weight for a while, but it all soon came back on and more besides. My mother always made the joke that our family had prison camp metabolisms. If we ever had to go to a prison camp or anything like that, we would be some of the survivors!! Sort of sick humor, but probably true.
I first became acquainted with WLS at work. I am an ultrasound technician and we started having patients come through for workups for WLS/RNY's by Pacific Bariatrics. These ladies were mostly young and to myself I would say"I'm fatter than these girls."
But the real problem is that I didn't think my insurance would pay for anything like this.
Then in December 2004 my son-in-law had RNY through Kaiser. They sent him all the way to San Diego!! He came home and did really well post operatively. The weight just seemed to melt from him!!! I told him then I was thinking about it because there was really just a little person inside me.
Well, last year my husband and I took a big trip. A 19 day cruise through the Panama Canal. I was just miserable. I was so fat and ugly. We hardly took any side trips because it was too hard for me to walk very far. My husband insisted that we buy our dress-up picture. I just look like a huge whale standing there. Even dressed in grey!!!
This is me getting on the train in Jacksonville, Florida. That was horrible trip. I may have been smiling on the outside, but I hated myself on the inside.
When we finally got home I decided I couldn't live like that anymore. Plus I had become increasingly concerned that the weight was going to eventually kill me. We just kept adding more perscription medications and I just kept gaining and feeling worse.
I told my doctor in April of 2005 that I wanted to be referred for Weight Loss surgery. Much to my surprise; he didn't argue. By the next month, I had a referral to the UC Davis Medical Center Bariatric Clinic. I didn't know it then, but I have since realized that I had luckily landed in a program that promoted education preoperatively, had a great post operative support group and two wonderful surgeons.
