rebeccagrace3
Well, I am very new at this so bear with me. But I want to make an effort to be a part of this community because I'm coming to realize that support is an integral part of this process.
So... my story. I grew up a little bit on the chubby side but not to the point that it effected my life. During high school, I started to get sick. I was sleeping alllllll the time, like 16 hours a day. I was catching every illness that was going around, and getting sicker than everyone else. I was gaining weight at a rapid rate, even if I starved myself and exercised two hours a day. For two years this went on. I was in and out of the doctor's office every two weeks and they never found anything. Eventually my doctor suggested to my mom that I should be put into therapy because the only explanation he could come up with was that I was depressed- ie the weight gain and endless sleeping. So, I was put into therapy and eventually my therapist prescribed an anti-depressant because she couldn't find a signifcant reason for me to be depressed. Right around that time, my mother (who is a nurse and extremely well educated in the medical profession) was speaking to my family practice doctor about this and asked him about my thyroid levels. His response was that he never tested my thyroid because I was too young to have a thyroid disorder. My mom insisted that he check anyways. A few weeks later, we got a call from my doctor. His first words were, "I am so embarrassed." Now, this is clearly not something you hear often from a doctor in the days of malpractice suits and all. Admitting a mistake is the very last resort. Well, my throid results came back. Normal thyroid hormone levels are from .5 to 5.5. My levels were in the 200s. The higher the levels, the more underactive your thyroid is. They also checked my blood for anti-thyroid antibodies. Everyone has a small amount of these in their blood stream but my levels were in the thousands. My doctor had never seen levels like this. All it means is that my white blood cells were attacking my thyroid as if it was a germ or a foreign body. As a result, I had no thyroid hormones in my body at all. Thyroid hormones control your metabolism. I was promptly put on medication that is supposed to replace these hormones, but the issue with my specific case is that the levels are constantly shifting. Sometimes my medication is not enough, sometimes it is too much. So I have to get checked coooonstantly and there were times where the weight gain was uncontrollable.
I'm now a college graduate and at least 100 pounds overweight. I'm facing the terrifying unknown that is my future with the disadvantage (as we all know) of being unhealthy and overweight. My self-esteem has taken constant hits since high school because of my rapid transformation from a size 10 to a size 20. A few years ago, I approached my family with the idea of gastric bypass surgery. I was met with a lot of opposition for such a dangerous surgery on someone so young. My mother especially didn't like the idea since she is a nurse-midwife and has seen many women my age who have had the surgery have difficulty with pregnancies.
My mother however, was inspired by the idea. She was 100 pounds overweight herself and old enough to not worry about having babies. Last summer, she had gastric bypass. I was a little bit ticked off at first because, well, this was my idea! And she wouldn't let me do it! But then I realized that her reasons for not wanting it for me were valid, and didn't apply for her. I wanted her to be happy, and I saw the pros of the surgery for her just like I saw for myself. She has since lost 140 pounds and looks/feels amazing. So, for my graduation present, she asked if I wanted to have the lapband. I jumped on the idea!
So here I am, almost through the process. I started getting everything done in May and I'm hoping to have my surgery August 21st. Now I just have to get insurance approval!! I am soooo excited to be this close, and I am anticipating a very helpful experience with this website.
Ok that was a lot. Thanks for reading this far if you did!
