nanaspez

I am a 56 year old mother of two sons, 32 and 29 and a grandson who is 10. I have a very wonderful and supported husband that I've been married to for 34 years. I have never had a weight problem until I became ill and a back injury that lead me to a full disability at the age of 47. Up until my day of surgery I was taking 27 prescribed medications, one of them was prednisone and I have been taking that daily since 1997. There were times that I would have to up my predisone for 2-3 weeks at a time. After 2 failed back surgeries I have severe degenerative disk disease and the only shot I have is to do a spine fusion and artificial disks up my spine. Well, the manufacture of the disk states that the disks shouldn't be placed in those with Lupus, which I have. I also have osteoarthritis in both hips. 3 years ago I had a right hip replacement but within 6 months it came loose. So I had to have a revision. Just had a CT scan to see if it is loose again. My left hip has a cyst and is bone on bone but I refuse to put my body through 4 major surgeries in less than 4 years! I have two autoimmune diseases that leave my joints in lots of pain. So with all that I climbed to a size 14 and I knew that if I did not take control at that time, I would gain more weight and be more in pain. I knew that one thing I needed to do was to get off all those poisionist pills the doctors had given me over the years. So after much discussion with my regular doctor, rheumatologist and back doctor, I went to Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto to speak to two doctors there. The doctors were shocked over my "cocktail" of meds. I was going in thinking of doing the lap band but Dr. Morton told me because of my Lupus (ugh once again) I was not eligible. He did assure me the sleeve was the way to go and that I should be able to get off at least 1/2 of my meds. So I went for it!

The first month was really bad, my body went through a bad withdrawal from the lack of pills. Prior to surgery if I forgot to take my meds in the evening I would be sick for two days. So since I couldn't take any pills for about a week my body went crazy! The 1st night in the hospital the nurses had to put ice packs on and under my feet and under my neck due to hot flashes. They only got worse to the point it would be cold and rainy and I would go stand out on the deck in the middle of the night just to cool off. IT WAS GOD AWFUL!! Those lasted almost 3mos, I still have them just not as bad and not everyday, all day!

The second and third month got worse; I had a lupus flare-up where I had a hard time walking. Then I caught a cold and cough and after 3 weeks of that it turned into pneumonia! The weight just melted off of me. I thought I was going to die, couldn't eat, drink and was very weak. I questioned this surgery, cried to the nurse at my doctors office and told her how I wish I would have never done the surgery!

I was in maintenance at 6 months but struggling to eat. I am now 5 days shy of 7 mos and need to gain about 15-20 pounds. I am now just to the point I can eat just about anything and getting in about 1000 calories, if I have a 7oz Corona to help me get those calories in!

My poor body lost the weight so fast I have lots of hanging skin. My poor boobies went from a overflowing 38DD to a 34D. Went from size 14 to a loose 6.

I no longer question my decision to live longer and live a healthier life. We have a small orchard with about 14 different fruit trees, a large avocado tree that has the best avocados, walnut tress and a huge array of vegetables. With all this fresh fruit and vegetables I should have NO EXCUSE!

Good luck to all