tiny_dancer
Hi My name is Mary and I am 54 yrs old and having my RNY tomorrow (2/27/08)....my weight history mimics a lot of the profiles I've read on this site. I actually was underweight as a kid and was petite and weighed in in the low 100's during my twenties. Even then I was a dieter because I'm pear shaped and the concept of exercising off my hips took backseat to the prevalent attitude of most of my friends who dieted. Atrocious eating habits and a sedentary life style started to catch up with me in my thirties and that became my era of the latest fad diet....Grapefruit....Adkins....Weight loss clinic.....all of them were effective for a short term weight loss but of course I'd yo yo and gain back the weight eventually....I had my first child at 36 (just couldn't stop playing until then) and had a post- partum depression that necessitated antidepressants.....my weight jumped to the 130's and after my second child at 42 I was in the 140's.....I had wobbly bits and was once again dieting ....weight watchers and exercising...this would give me a temporary weight loss but my body (and bad habits) always took me back to that 140ish baseline.....I didn't feel pretty and the extra weight on my hips and thighs really curtailed my activities with my family and friends. I started to hate the swimming pool and staying in the back row at the gym and feeling less frisky with my super fit husband. Still I was relatively healthy and convinced that if only I could find the resolve and will power I could get the extra 25 pounds off forever ( I lost and regained those rat bastard lbs many many MANY times)....my real health and obesity problems started four years ago when I had a hysterectomy....I was slammed into a mechanical menopause and my body went wacko....looking back I think I was pretty close to a heart attack a few times...I had hyperlipidemia with high homocystine levels as well as hypertension with an irregular EKG.... I developed multi-nodular goiter and my weight jumped up to the 180's. This was really frightening to me as I lost my dad and grandfather and a couple of aunts to fatal MI's in their early 50's...after trying Rx diet pills and heavy duty exercising without enough weight loss my doc suggested that bariatric surgery might be my life extender..As a nurse I wrestled with the potential complications and even tonight on the eve of my surgery I'm still afraid of the life long aspects of the surgery....Eventually my decision to have the surgery was based on my healthy respect for my rotten family history....bottom line at 210 lbs (and sporting a recently acquired double chin) I just don't believe I can get enough weight off permanently to avoid the family cardiac curse. So here I sit (almost 3am) wrestling with the part of my brain that says I'm insane to do this and maybe I should have investigated and pursued other types of procedures more thoroughly and if I got a personal trainer and blah blah blah....you get the picture...Wish me luck ....my surgeries at 7am and I guess it's time to give it a rest and get some sleep
