PatMBo
This is my story of how I came to get a lap band. I submitted this letter as part of the process to be approved for the lap band & figured it fits here. The only things that are different are -- I already turned 50 (in November) & got the band (in February). Everything else is the same!
I have been struggling with my weight since childhood. At the age of 11 my mother took me to my pediatrician for a check up. After weighing me (I weighed 111 lbs), he wrote a strange word on my chart & gave my mother a prescription to help control my appetite. I went home, looked up the word in the dictionary & cried. The word was obese. Thus began my journey into what would follow for most of the 39 years afterwards. I began taking the small yellow & black capsules, hoping they would help me lose weight so I would be thin like my sister & be able to wear normal (not “chubby”) clothes & not be teased on the playground at school for being fat. The pills worked for a while & I lost some weight, only to quickly re-gain it.
During my almost 50 years I have lost & gained weight many, many times. At the age of 16, I joined Weight Watchers & lost 80+ pounds. Once again, however, I gained it all back, plus more. I have been a member of Weight Watchers in four different states, in six different towns. I tried many other ‘diets’ including physician directed weight loss plans. I have been successful at times but unfortunately have not been able to maintain a weight loss. At my lowest adult weight I weighed 168 pounds (1985). I am at my highest now, at 304 pounds.
My weight has affected me over the years in a number of ways. It affects me physically because of the limits it places on my ability to be physically active as I once was. When I was at my lower weight I would enjoy jogging with my husband & even participated in a number of 5 & 10K races. I can walk now (we walk 2 miles most weekday mornings) but am quickly out of breath & my joints (especially my knees) suffer from the excess weight. At home I am not able to accomplish all the daily tasks that I could previously accomplish at a lower weight due to getting winded & tired more easily.
The toll my weight has had on me mentally includes being depressed because I am this heavy. I do not like the fact that persons who don’t know me will often assume that I am lazy or have a complete lack of self control, based solely on my being overweight. It seems I continue to gain weight, in spite of my effort to eat healthy (most of the time) & be relatively active physically.
Financially, my weight has cost me thousands of dollars over the past decades. Most recently, I was successful in losing weight with Medifast, under the direction of a bariatric physician. The Medifast program was very expensive and not covered by medical insurance. I lost over 70 pounds but when I stopped taking the supplements I re-gained the weight. I do not know the total amount of money my weight attempts have cost over the years, but I do know if added up, the amount would be staggering.
Spiritually it has also been a struggle because I know I am not taking as good of care of my body as God would have me to do. I have even participated in the ‘
As I get close to reaching the age of 50 I realize now, more than ever, the effect that excess weight has on my health. No longer do I just want to lose weight to be thin like my sister, but I want to be thinner so I can live longer, be more active & not have my life cut short because of the long term effects that it will have on my heart & other organs. I realize that this program is not a ‘cure’ but a tool to be used to help me adjust my food intake. I am tired of the struggle of weight loss & gain and am now willing to do whatever it takes to return to a lower, healthier weight and to learn how to stay there for the remainder of my life.
