Sandy_A
My story is probably like most that go on this journey. I have had a weight problem most of my life - since at least 3rd grade. Most of the family meals were good and greasy, with fried potatoes and cornbread, and that weight I gained in my early years just stuck with me. In high school I was a "sleek" size 16, while most of my friends were size 9/10. I wasn't happy, with my size, but food became my comfort. My lowest weight I can remember being in my twenties was 185. In my thirties, along came the 200s and then some. By the time I was 45-46 I was at 300 pounds, I suspect a little more than that actually. I had many weight loss successes - only problem was they were very temporary....Yes, I tried every diet in the books. Even back in grade school I did the grapefruit diet, the egg diet, the cabbage diet, etc. I was a fairly active kid, but any weight that came off went right back on with a little more fat to go along with what I lost. Wow! How encouraging. That became the set up for the rest of my life until the time I realized - hey - I'm getting older, this is it! I have to lose this weight now or I'm going to really have a lot less years to live.Osteoarthritis became my everyday companion, as well as asthma, plantar faciaitis, problems with my hips/back - constant chiropractic care..... I ended up having to take ibuprofen to get out of bed or to go to bed, then Relafen for the arthritis (which causes liver damage), and I finally had enough!A friend of mine had gastric bypass surgery a couple of years ago and lost over 100 lbs. At the time I was working out, and had lost about 75 lbs, and I thought she was crazy for going that route. I proceeded to gain back my weight and she still has maintained the weight loss. Hmmmmmmmm! Maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. In March 2006, my PCP was on leave and I saw one of the Kaiser doctors on call and asked for a referral. I was told it was along process and that I would receive notice of additional steps I would need to go through and to just be patient. By June 2006, I still had not heard anything. I went to see my primary doc in July 2006 and lo and behold - there wasn't anything in my chart - her fill in had not bothered to chart or follow up on the GB request. At that point I weighed 296 with osteoarthritis, asthma, plantar faciaitis and stress incontinence. My PCP told me about the process at Kaiser - education, nutritionist/dietician, psychiatrist screening. Once that was completed, she would send the info and referral to the Northern CA review committee for review and referral to the program. After jumping through the hoops, I received an acceptance letter to the program and found out there were many more hoops I had to go through. My first appointment at Fremont Kaiser Bariatric Specialty Department was on 12/6/06 for orientation and first weigh-in. In my orientation packet I received information about how most patients would have to lose and maintain a 10% weight loss, go through orientation, have goals set for their weight loss, exercise, nutrition, AND still see a psychiatrist again. On 12/4/06, I started exercising regularly at Curves. I started a 1200 calorie diet I received at the meeting with the dietician. I began reporting my weight loss to Kaiser regularly. I also began attend the local bypass support group. On 3/27/07, my weight just before my surgery was 252!! I lost 44 lbs since 12/06/06!! I had my surgery at Kaiser Fremont with Dr. Hahn. On 3/29 I was released, and here it is April 1, 2007, I’m home and on the computer telling my story. So far- so good! J
