I finally put me first, and getting me healthy so I can live a long happy life and quit sitting on the sidelines
and watching the world go by.
I would have never thought I would be sharing my thoughts and feelings with others, much less putting on paper how much
I weigh and how much weight I gained in the past 8-10 years. In doing this, I am not only helping myself deal with my
"issues" hopefully I am helping someone else in the process. After feeling horrible for almost 2 years, I went
to my PCP; who proved to be a pompass doctor who didn't care. I went to him with dramatic weight gain
in 2 or 3 months and a bloated stomach, I was passing out and felt miserable, he did all kinds of tests and failed to read
some correctly.
The last time I saw him before filing a complaint against him with BCBS of Florida, he told me to just get up off
the couch, quit being lazy and stop eating! as he leaned against the desk and filed his nails.
Not once did he ask what my diet was like, how much I ate or if I exercised - he just looked at me and my weight on the
scale and judged me.
I walked out of the office stunned that a doctor would act like that. On my way out, I stopped at the desk and
asked for my tests that had been done just out of curosity to see what my blood levels were.
I looked up what some of the results were and found out my pelvis was separating more. I was in a wreck in March
1999 and crushed my right side of my pevlis into the middle "floating" section, which makes me limp sometimes and makes it
painful and difficult to walk or exercise. I had something sitting on my kidney they couldnt' identify and no testing
showed my left ovary; which I had been told was "displaced" 3 years earlier.
When I was still having major problems, I made an appointment with my GYN.
I went into surgery within 2 weeks. I was disagnosed with Severe Endometriosis, Adenomyosis (enlargement of the Uterus) so I look 6 mths pregnant all the time and he took out hundreds of fibroids & polyps. The only cure is menopause or a hysterectomy, and another surgery is not an option.
The doctor said I had lost 17 lbs after surgery from all the tissue and fibroids/polyps they removed. He put
me on hormones to try and stop the fibroids/polyps from returning, and they just made me crazy - and my symptoms worsen.
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We took the youngest children to Disney for the weekend and got a call from our oldest son; who was 17 at the time, his
best friend he was supposed to be staying with died.
With the death of our oldest son's best friend at age 17, I was in a tailspin of emotions. His
death hit me really hard because I felt responsible when I suspected something was going on with him and was just too wrapped
up to call his mother. He had a heart attack at age 17 they said due to obesity and an enlarged heart from exercising
so much because he felt such pressure from his friends to "find" a girlfriend when he really just wanted to
be accepted and loved.
I remember sitting in Rooms to Go and our youngest daughter said hey mommie there's Eric - so I look around and see this
spanish boy who looks similar to what he looked like. I cried so uncontrollably the salesman had to leave for a few
minutes he was so embarrassed. My husband said on the way home, you need to get the doctor to change your medication.
I realized then, how much the meds were affecting me - I have never cried in public and the least little thing made me cry.
I was done with medication and said I would never go back on hormone treatment again. It took a few months to get
back to my old self and regulate my body, but I did until I started gaining weight again and my stomach swelling more, which
made it difficult to breathe sometimes.
I started having a few episodes of sleep apnea off, which scared me to death. I started really thinking
about dying and who would take care of my 2 youngest children if something happened to me.
I knew about GLB from a local radio show where one of the guys had it done and lost weight like crazy. I
did daily and nightly research on the internet for Weight Loss. I found out about it - Adjustable Gastric Banding
System and joined a great support site: Lap Band Talk and a couple of other support groups.
In January 2006, I went a seminar with Dr. Grossbard in Zephyrills. I just withered when I read how
much it would be - $20,000 BUT it would save my life and get me healthy.
The worst part of the whole thing was I had to take a picture - the only picture anyone has taken in years of me. At
the Weight Loss Seminar, they weighed me at 289 lbs. I was so ashamed because I knew I had lost
17 lbs from surgery and then another 10 lbs...that was 300+ lbs OMG. I never looked at the scale at the dr's office,
I just turned around and told them not to tell me.
For me this was really hard to take the most I had ever weighed was 212 lbs.
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