I'm a girl, I know the name ParamedicDuke is confusing sometimes.
I opted for the sleeve because I didn't like the idea of a foreign object in my body, and didn't want bypass because I felt like it was almost an extreme (I know weird, but that's how I rationalized with myself, I didn't want my intestines re routed).
Although my BMI is less than 50, my insurance company covers it anyway, which is a score for me. I am also happy to get 85% of my stomach removed along with some of those pesky gastrin hormones.
Ironically for my age cosmetics came no where into the picture for me and my decision. It was all health based, I have some thinner friends who don't understand where I'm coming from, and say things like "OMG you'll look so good!" or "You better not get smaller than me I'll be pissed". Granted they aren't some of my better friends, but you can get a picture of what my age groups mentality is.
I have a bum knee, and PCOS, and being 130lbs over weight and having to maneuver in the tough terrain us EMS personnel deal with is risky business. Not to mention only being 5'6'' and having to jump in and out of the Ambulance seventy times a day has it's toll.
I get sleeved on November 16. I'm not really afraid of surgery, being in medicine is a good, and bad thing I've found. One because the RN that started my IV for my endoscopy touched the area with her unwashed hands after she cleaned the area, and another is that I intubate people frequently, and I don't like the idea of being on the receiving end of it.
But it can be a positive thing. Being able to understand the risks better, and knowing statistics are good. And since you know the process it's nothing new to you, so you have a lot less on your mind.
I think the scariest thing for me is the incision pain. Probably a silly thing to be worried about in such a procedure, but I've never had surgery and probably have never experienced pain like that. So the unknown is what worries me. But I'll work through it best I can.
I would appreciate any suggestions, comments, or advice from anyone, banded, sleeved, or bypassed. Thank you!
Well. Here we are. You and Me, Me and You. I bet you're wondering how you let your life come to this. How could you end up in front of the computer at this ungodly hour reading a blog about someone that you hardly know, or at least thought you knew. I'll tell you how. Fate.
Fate has been a cruel mistress, that is, if I had mistresses, but also a fantastic one. My life began simply enough. I was born to a Paramedic Father, and Nurse Mother, with one older brother. I grew up normally. It wasn't until I met a certain Argentine that things began to get obscure in my life.
Dating a very talented Musician with a famous mother, and successful business man as a father would be any 16 year old's dream. Put the cherry on top with summers in Spain, and learning Spanish in that 'oh so sexy' Argentine accent and you have a cocktail for adventure.
Truly it was an adventure, every minute of it. Probably the best years of my life so far. Until I graduated High School and life hit me like a ton of bricks. Realistically I knew there was no future for me living in Spain. I returned home, and my estranged relationship only suffered more, until under the weight of the stress it snapped like a fine weathered thread pulled to it's limit.
I felt like life was pointless, and I packed up what belongings would fit into my mid sized car and hoofed it to SoCal. Land of renewal, land of redemption, land of a whole lot of Mexicans. There I settled into a good routine. Working, School, Sleep, Working, School, Sleep. But how much could I handle at the tender age of 19? Again I felt that thread begin to age, and the stress began to pull tight until finally it relented to the pressure, and I was on a plane back home to Michigan. Even then I still hadn't forgotten my years with the Argentine, but life was still moving forward at an alarming pace.
Michigan weather began to cool, and the breezes were nipping at my new California glow, and the urge to escape this place of memory and heart break swelled in me once more. A chance meeting with a certain Doctor to be set my mistress in motion once more, and before I knew what was happening I was on a plane to India.
The heat of North India was fierce. But the new budding relationship of this brother of a doctor to be was keeping my head swimming in cool water. Four months passed, and it was time for me to return back to that place that I had been trying to escape for so long. Back to the land of my parents, and grandparents.
Life again, sat on that sting, I watched and waited for months. Idly passing my time with months on end in a small room, hoping that things would change, that life would begin again. I wondered how long my life had been in a stand still. Three years.
College was a refuge, for a short time. It wasn't until I decided that I would begin again, alone, just me, just Miss Duke, and no one else. I would depend on myself alone for pushing forward, did things really begin again. Here it is, Four years later, I'm a Paramedic Extern, and soon I will be attending a very nice University in Detroit. Wayne State.
Something came out of my trials and tribulations. I traveled the world, learned three languages, learned a lot about myself, about other people. I became conscious of other people. Something many Americans never learn, never attempt at, never imagine.
Now that there is some understanding of who I am, how I am, and why I am. I can begin the blog that will help fill in the missing lines, and paint with broader strokes to elaborate this short explanation of a Legend.
