Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
As young as 16 I was taking diet pills loosing weight and looking good, only for it to last a short time. By age 18 I was 175 and devastated thinking I was to heavy for anyone to want me, it almost seemed true since I didn't do really any dating until I hooked up with my first living in BF. I was 22, and weighing over 200 lbs, tried to do the deal-a-meal for three to four months only to loose like 20 lbs, and of course I gained that and more. Quit smoking when I was 27 *I think lol* and gained to 285. From there I carried this weight for YEARS. Going up and down just a little. By 2003 I found the Atkins Diet, lost 100 lbs in a year and felt so good.. Got into another live in relationship and couldn't stay with the Diet, so gained and gained even more. I went from 185 to 320, in just 2 years,at which time is when I started researching the WLS and felt it was my last chance at a healthier, slimmer, and happier me.
What was (is) the worst thing about being overweight?
The pain, hurting all the time for me. I have fibromyalgia, and so the more I weight the more I hurt. I also had no confident in anything much and anxieties in public was through the roof. I hated myself and felt no one would ever love me at 320. Just doing daily chores was hard on me, my asthma was allot worse then it is now. Couldn't walk far or stand long, and was always hot. I was almost ready for an electric chair to get around. I had to sit in the shower, and get a seat riser for the toilet. Due to pain in my knees, and unable to stand long enough in the shower. There was so many limitations that I dealt with that I just couldn't take it any longer so I started the process of getting the surgery, I was blessed, it happened so much faster then what it normally takes, an unusual circumstance developed and it sped up the process for me, and also I fought, I fought hard to get it, I wasn't going to take no for an answer if I didn't have to, I knew this was the answer to my misery.
If you have had weight loss surgery already, what things do you most enjoy doing now that you weren't able to do before?
I had my WLS in 07, by 08 I had reached 182 and was feeling so good about everything, just having some fibromyalgia pains, so spoke to a dr about the pain, they put me on Lyrica and from the medication and change in my eating I regained up to 265. Ended up using a walker, due to a nerve being pinched and because I couldn't walk to far without needing to sit and take a break. I was so devastated, about the weight gain. It was more then I could handle. Well I got off of the medications that was causing me to gain and remain at that weight, slowly started to loose until I reached a point where I stopped, and that is when I returned to the WLS diet/ Atkins diet and am now at 175 and am doing great. The pain is so much less. I go to the gym to swim 2-3x a week, walk my dog 3-5x a day and other then being tired from the Fibro these things I am able to do. I can sit in restaurant booths, theme park rides, seat belts fit better, I fit behind my steering wheel better, and I can buy cloths easier, there is a larger selection at this size then when I was 320. Weight gain can happen, and so I give a warning to you who read this, to be cautious of what you do end up eating, and allowing your Dr to give you. It has taken me since 07 to reach this weight where my goal weight is within reach, I will hit my goal weight, I have struggled and fought to hard to not reach it.