Lyndsey Z.
The reason I decided on weight loss surgery is because I want to improve my health. When I was young I had a low to average weight... but in my teens... I was diagnosed with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome (causing elevated insulin levels)... and then slowly I packed on the poundage. During those horrid high school years... I began to gain weight no matter what I did (assumedly due to the PCOS). I was very active with dancing ballet, tap, and jazz, in addition to being on the varsity swim team... but even with all the exercise and what I would consider a fairly normal diet... I still ‘yo-yo’ed my way up past 200 pounds upon graduating high school.
In beginning college I started to have symptoms of pain in my throat with swallowing and an enlarged thyroid. Through all the tests they did... they only found a growth on my right side and recommended removal of just half my thyroid. I felt that the pain was greatest on the opposite side... and asked them to take it all. When they removed the thyroid... they found a tumor on the my troubled left side... the side they had said was fine. Turns out I had a condition called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis... which had been killing my thyroid all along... and to top it all off... it lead to CANCER. During radiation therapy, etc... I was unable to take supplemental medicine... compounding my time living with a dead thyroid.
Now... up to the lower 300's I am at my wit's end... all the gimmicks have not worked and I finally come to the realization that this is the hand I have been dealt. My butt-kicking primary care physician... tried to help me get my diet and exercise to work... but when it didn't she was the first one to suggest weight loss surgery because she has seen the success it can create.
I have family members who are obese... and I remember when I was younger I used to wish the genes would skip me. But... of course... here I am in the terrible position that they were in when I was younger. My mother, father, father’s mother, and aunt are/were all morbidly obese. This coupled with my immediate family history of cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease/attack, stroke, etc... scares me to think about. I guess I speak for everyone in my life when I say.... I am really nothing like the same old Lyndsey anymore. As fun as they think I am to be around... apparently I was even more fun!! And it's true... I know I don’t really enjoy life the way I used to... and they share a fear for my health and life... if I continue to live this way.
So for everyone who thinks I am the greatest thing since sliced bread....
Everyone who loves me...
HERE GOES... wish me luck!!
