Pat T.
About me....
Apr 17, 2009
A few years ago, an acquaintance of mine had gastric bypass surgery (he is doing wonderful and looking fantastic!). He had “discreetly” entered the hospital and when I saw him next (just a few weeks later), he looked amazing and happy! I actually didn’t realize who he was as he had shaved off his beard and cut his hair – I didn’t know it was him until someone starting talking about great Paul was looking! He has been kind enough to talk to me about his surgery and answered all my questions over a period of months. This is when I started thinking about weight loss surgery for me – I started doing a little research but not so much for me to make any decisions. I still didn’t have enough information to make an informed choice and I still wasn’t sure that this was the route I wanted to follow.About a year and a half ago, I decided to go to an informational presentation at Lahey Clinic (Burlington, MA) to find out more about weight loss surgery. My husband Steve came with me, as I wanted to know what he thought. The session was terrific – full of information. The speakers were the team that we would be seeing and working with if we decided to have the surgery. So it was great being able to see and hear the Doctors, the nurses, etc. and be able to ask questions directly. They also had patients that had undergone weight loss surgery discuss what surgery they had, how they did, how they feel now. It was truly amazing how much the surgery affected their lives. Steve and I discussed the session on our drive home and he told me that if I was interested in looking into it further, he would support me (he really is the sweetest!). Please understand that my husband has never, ever made any comments about my weight – he married me as a “big” girl and has always been supportive of everything I've wanted to do.
I still couldn't decide if this was for me - so I continued to do research and really, really think about what I wanted. I decided to attend another informational session about a year later and shortly after that I decided to at least make an appointment for the consultation to see if I was a candidate for weight loss surgery and get more information about it.
Well apparently I was considered a candidate for surgery - I was told that I was considered "morbidly obese" - it's not bad enough that I already knew I was heavy, but to be labelled "morbidly obese" and have it actually written somewhere, seemed to make it official - something that will follow me for the rest of my life - unless I do something about it.
I am not doing this for any other reason than to get healthy. I am doing this for me - I want to get healthy. I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, sleep apnea and severe degenerative disease in my lower back. I will never be "skinny" nor would I ever want to be, but I have too many co-morbidities than I care to have and I really want to be healthy and comfortable: mentally and physically.
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About Me
North Attleboro, MA
Location
30.0
BMI
Surgery
04/30/2009
Surgery Date
Mar 16, 2009
Member Since
