So this is it! This is my new path! I have made the decision to go through with gastric bypass surgery. Some of you will be super supportive, but I am expecting people to ask me "WHY?".
I am diabetic, that's why! I am only 34 years old, and that is too young to be having that health issue! I come from a long line of diabetics. My mother, father, both grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and so on and so on and such. Yeah, really no way for me to escape it!
I had gestational diabetes through my pregnancies with my boys, but by the time I got to my little girl, they told be I was full blown diabetic. I was going to have nothing of the sort! So in a matter of months, I lost weight, and dug myself out of the hole! Way to go, me! Then I got pregnant, and here comes the diabetes. And after delivery, it just sort of hung around.
So what now? Okay, I did it before, I'll do it again.... more weight loss! I am awesome! The gym is my best friend! Then as I am standing outside of the child care center, waiting for our turn to drop our kids off. Rachel raises her hands for me to pick her up. I bend down, lift, then.... ouch! What is this? My back didn't like that! The pain changed, and moved, until finally I found out I had a "pinched sciatic nerve". And so I stopped seeing my best friend (bye bye gym). The weight came back.... diabetes attacked.
Then I proceeded to have the worst year of my life. Lost my father in law, my husband lost lots of work, my poor little dog had seizure after seizure.... all in all it was more then I will put here, but I can tell you I lost my drive.
Anxiety runs my life now. So that left me, and my dear sweet supportive husband, trying to figure out where to go from here. Take control of my diabetes, and my anxiety, and get my health back on track... so much easier said then done. Nothing is working, and EVERYTHING is out of control.
So I try thinking of it in a different way.... what if I take care of the weight first? Should get rid of my diabetes, plus help with my back issues, and possibly more! Great idea! But how? I have tried everything.
I have been overweight my whole life. In high school I got myself down to a size 7-8, then met the man of my dreams who had a truck, and job, and money to spend on me!!! So he bought me doughnuts every morning, Del Taco was our dates, and worked at Pizza Hut. I was shocked to find myself buying a size 16 dress for prom! How did this happen? Ohhhhhhh...... the man that loved me did it with food, and my weight was never an issue for him. If I was an 8, or 16, or even 24.... I was his sexy Candi, his best friend, and nothing would turn his eye from me. WHAT AN AMAZING MAN!!!
So why would I ever let my weight bother me? I guess the answer is... when it effects my health. So I made the decision to lose the weight... what now? I have a ton of friends getting the ever popular "Lap Band". They are all shrinking like crazy! So I ask my doctor, and she looks at my file, and yes, I qualify. You have to have a BMI of at least 40 to have the surgery, and I am at 40.2. But even without that, as long as your BMI is 35, and you have certain conditions that are brought on, or worsened by obesity, you can have it done. So then I am forwarded to an introduction class (which took months to get into). I went to the class, fully expecting to be getting information about the "Lap Band". But this class was a "bariatric information session", so we learned about banding, plus gastric sleeve and gastric bypass.
Imagine my surprise when they explained that 80% of diabetics go into remission after having gastric bypass! Some as soon as they leave the hospital after surgery! 80%?!? The numbers were closer to 20% for banding. It has to do with the "re-routing". Below is a link to a 60 Minutes report explains exactly why (and helped my decision).
Now I have a 2-3 month long wait until I get into the classes I need to take before getting surgery. These classes last about 3 months, then onto a wait list for surgery. So as of this day, I am looking at a possible wait of up to a year before I get it done!
So what do I do to pass the time? Why, I obsessively look up information, of course! I read news articles, doctors web pages, blogs, and search and watch anything gastric bypass related on Youtube.
Which all lead me here. I gained so much information , and I am looking at every positive and negative of this choice from every angle. I have a lot of people to thank! People who weren't afraid to tell their story, show their pictures, and even show their extra skin! And I feel that it is important to return that favor.
I will attempt to be as open and honest as I can be. But I want to help people make the best decision FOR THEMSELVES that they can make. We are not cookie cutter people. We all have different reasons, different bodies, and different tastes. What may work for me won't always work for you, but that is why it is so important to read as much as you can. The "big losers" give you hope, and the "sad stories" give you pause. But it is as important to read those sad stories and the happy, because you have to know what is going to happen, and what CAN happen. The good, the bad, and the UGLY (whoa, that extra skin!).
Also, I hope that my friends and family that read this will realize what I am going through, and be assured that I did not enter into this without a great amount of thought. Having the surgery has it's dangers, but so does NOT having it!
Diabetic, at 34? What does that mean to my future, and where does that put my kids?
My grandmother died from complications of diabetes. Enough said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4029652n&tag=related;photovideo
