Heather N.
My story huh.....
Well I was skinny when I was little... Hormones kicked in around the age of 9 and suddenly I was all curves. I was never small even in high school because of those curves.... my nickname was hips (not one I choose trust me). Then at the end of 10th grade I experienced the lovely joy of date rape. Not going to go into that on here but I started eating trying to hide myself... Well all it took was a little tiny kick and suddenly I developed PCOS. That being said I didn't know that's what it was for a very long time. But that summer of binge eating started me on the slippery slope of yo-yo dieting. By graduation I weighed 160 (at 5 ft 4). I was supposed to join the Navy after high school.... but I weighed too much and ended up failing the tape test as well. They kept delaying when I was supposed to leave in hopes that I could get my weight down, and I kept praying they would just let me go because I knew I would lose it in basic training. No matter what I tried during that 7 months I couldn't lose the 5 inches I needed to lose to go. I ended up telling them to shove it because I got tired of whether or not I was leaving depending on who was holding the tape measure. (I could get measured by one person, and told yes I was going... an hour later a different person would measure and suddenly I would be over by an inch).
About a year after graduation I got engaged to my DH, and that fall when we got married I weighed in at 152 after months of dieting to get there. We moved to Missouri (from Virginia Beach) because that was where his family was. Than a few years later he joined the Army. I can't quite say when I went over 200 pounds... before or after he joined the army. Somehow I missed that transition. I was told by a Doctor in Missouri that I would never have kids (I don't ovulate). He never did any tests to find out why I didn't have periods just told me I was fat and couldn't have kids. He also repeatedly told me to lose weight (this is when I learned to hate Doctors!)
Little did we know that a miracle had occured when he left for basic training... I was pregnant. I miscarried that baby... and as painful as that was it gave me hope. I wasn't supposed to be able to have kids... When we were reunited in Germany after he finished his schooling we began to try in earnest to have kids. I was exercising and actually managing to lose weight too... I weighed 215 when I got pregnant with Tessa, my miracle. After giving birth I weighed 210. That is the lowest weight I can remember since I got married in 1995, and that was in 1999.
After having Tessa I was working in the clinic in Hanau (I used to be a Certified Nurse Assistant) and doing my own research. I discovered a condition called PCOS. I researched it and there was a specialist in Heidelberg at the military hospital... so I got the Doctor I worked for to refer me (she didn't think I had PCOS btw... thought I just needed to lose weight and it was a never ending supply of you would be so pretty if... why don't you just...). The specialist looked at all my lab work and my history and told me that I did have PCOS. That was a huge relief... to finally know why my body didn't seem to work like everyone elses.
When we returned to the states we had been trying in vain to get pregnant again. We always wanted a big family... and while we would have been happy if Tessa was our only child since she was a miracle, hope springs eternal. One of my worst Doctor moments was when the fertility specialist my Doctor sent me to refused to treat me because I weighed 235 lbs. She refused to believe that I exercised (at the time I was training for the Avon 3 day breast cancer walk and was walking over 4 miles a day in an effort to lose weight and train) and told me that PCOS was besides the point and if I would just lose weight (eat less, move more) that then they would treat me. But not until I was under 200 lbs. She also told me that Clomid doesn't work on fat people (direct quote).
I went back to my PCM furious, because I had told him that I didn't want to be refered out for just that reason. He said she was full of it... and perscribed Clomid for me on his own. Two months later I skipped that walk I had been training so hard for.... because I was pregnant.... with twins. Sadly, I lost one of the twins to vanishing twin syndrome but I have my lovely Samantha from that experience.
Right after Samantha turned 1 I decided that I wanted to try and have WLS. I was leaning towards the band and got a referal from Tricare to see the surgeon. I was supposed to see him in August.
We on vacation before my husband left for Iraq and came home pregnant. I was in complete shock... Karah is a huge blessing, but of course that ruled out having surgery. Right before Jim left we found out that my mother was terminally ill with cancer. She had been diagnosed with Renal cancer a few years prior and succesfully survived surgery and they said she didn't need chemo.
That was a horrible time period for me.... Jim was in Iraq (for those of you that remember the Chow Hall bombing right before Christmas in Mosul that year... his unit), my Mom was in Virginia dying while I was in washington state pregnant. I did get to see her at Christmas (the whole family went home for Christmas... all 20 something of us, except for Jim). She died on February 22, 2005 and my daughter was born on March 17.
After Jim came home from Iraq I started thinking about my life. I was turning 30, and my Mom died when she was only 61. I didn't want to die young, I wanted to stick around and see all my girls grow up. I turned to exercise and dieting in January of last year. I worked out constantly and was religous about good carbs bad carbs (essential for PCOS). I managed to get down to 215, from 240. But it didn't last.... nothing ever does.
We moved back to Germany in August and I felt pretty hopeless as far as weight went. I didn't think that Tricare covered WLS overseas, and was fed up with constantly trying to lose weight but my body always fighting back. In January I found out that they do allow surgery over here, just only at one center. I went to see my Doctor here.... originally he told me I didn't qualify, then I pointed out what my chart said about my weight.... I weigh 256, but everyone says I look like I might weigh around 210. A mixed blessing in this case. Once he realized what my weight actually was he had no problem submitting a referal, but I had to see the NUT and the Pscyh first. It took a month to see the NUT (they only come to Vilseck once a month), and a week to see the shrink. Then he put in my consult.... that was when I got my first shock, a doctor who normally sees patients within a few weeks couldn't see me for three months. I was upset... but you know, most people have to go through a years worth of junk before they can see the Surgeon.
I see him on the 25th of June and hope to have surgery around Mid July, which according to everyone I have talked to is sure can happen.
So I'm hoping to have my surgery over with before my husband leaves to go back downrange in August sometime... When he comes home in 15 months it will be to a whole new me (at least on the outside)
