LzL

As many of you have already been where I am now, I decided to finally take control of my weight issues once and for all. I have dealt with the decision process for years. I thought all I needed to do is some plastic surgery, and viola!, I'd be transformed. But something had taken me to a more realistic reasoning after I started researching what the real issue was. My HEALTH! It wasn't a matter of just removing my excessive mass in my abdominal area. It was much, much more than that.

I had been overweight since my teens. By the age of 19 (when I got married), I was a size 16 and 175 lbs. My (then) husband was less that supportive when we had two children right away. After my second son was born at age 21, my weight never bounced back and neither did my abdomen. He warned me that if I passed 200 lbs. he'd divorce me. Well guess what... I not only passed it, but by the time I was 25, I was 230 lbs. So my dilutions of a long, lasting and loving marriage was tossed out for another woman who fit his weight criteria.

What was hard about all this is that he was right in that I really had gained a lot of weight. I felt helpless in the fight, because my body never bounced back from childbirth. Almost any stranger that passed my way assumed I was still pregnant, and would ask the preverbal question. In response I would turn 20 shades of red and hide in a large bowl of ice cream, or some other destructive means to make me feel better.

The phases of diet, no-diet, diet would be a struggle for years. When I was paying attention to nutrition, I did well, but didn't really loose the weight. Then I'd get frustrated and give up. Or I'd continually have reasons to eat, eat, eat. Someone has a BBQ, or a birthday, or the holidays... And many times it wasn't any celebration, it was just cravings. With many years of being on the rollercoaster, I didn't know how to stop my appetite.

By the time I was thirty, I was over 240 lbs... At forty, 250 lbs. I'd sort of stabilized by then, but alas, I really never got down below 250.

Then I met my second husband. I finally had a reason to want to get married again. We had been together for 6 yrs before we got married. It was good for a while, but as it goes, it only lasted long enough for family interference to rear its ugly head. His drinking started getting out of control, and the arguments weren't pretty. Many hurtful things were said on a regular basis, mostly stabbing remarks about my weight. And while most of the remarks made while arguing were things I could shrug off, the weight comments stabbed me so deep it was unbearable.

Then the unthinkable happened. My husband was suddenly killed. It was during one of his drunken states, and he never saw what was coming. A senseless fight and he fell and hit his head on the pavement outside our home. He survived a week after brain surgery and never woke up. We had been married only 16 months when he died.

I think that's what snapped for me. I couldn't take the life I was in and wanted to change it. My boys (who were already grown and on their own) gave me there support. Everyone else, I really didn't want to deal with. So I packed up my house in California and sold it. Then I traveled for several months throughout the US and finally landed in Virginia. I figured there was no way anyone in my family would want to move this far just to invade my life again. I was now officially the auntie who lived far away. No more family members looking for an easy way out by moving in on me and expecting me to fix all their problems. With the exception of my own children (who are the loves of my life), everyone else was off my radar of the ‘Liz Takes Care of Everything Club’. It was time to take care of myself.

After a few years and getting settled with a great job, and new home, and a much calmer life, I decided to really take charge of my health. By this time, I was now 50 yrs old and it seemed all the ugly aspects of obesity has reared its ugly head. I'd been suffering for years with back issues, but in the last few years, it has escalated to chronic severe pain that has been unbearable. I tried all kinds of therapy with little success. I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in 2 vertebrae and a facet joint, as well as bursitis in both my hips. Walking for any length of time is now challenging. I was also dealing with hypertension and pre-diabetes. And if that weren't enough, I was diagnosed with extreme hypothyroidism. WOW! that explains so many reasons as to why it was difficult for me to lose the weight to begin with.

All these issues turned around to the biggest issue of all. My weight! Though the osteoarthritis has been there since I was a teen (from an accident), the severity of pain has made my condition worse because of my weight. The hypertension and diabetes were definitely from my weight. The hypothyroid issue, definitely a contributing factor to the weight, but now that I know I have it, I needed to know how to deal with it. All these issues combined translated into the very thing that was making my condition(s) the problems that they currently are… I needed to lose the weight and that was all there was to it.

At this point, last March, I peaked at 280 lbs. The magical age of 50, plus post-menopause, plus the lack of movement from my increased back pain had led me to epic proportions unbelievably strained to my body. Though I really can’t totally blame my health issues, I certainly had a lot to do with the massive weight gain with my indulgent behavior.

I knew I needed to do something or it was only going to get worse. I was willing to pursue a way to deal with this, and my first steps where by slowing my food intake. Between March and June, I managed to lose almost 20 lbs.

I started my journey, starting with the research. After months of dealing with insurance qualifications, I found that there was no way I was covered. Heartbroken, but not totally discouraged, I started looking into other resources. Financing was almost impossible for the out-of-pocket costs in the US, so I started looking into medical-tourism outside of the US. Though I would strongly recommend to really think strongly about going this route, this is the way I decided to go. It was another 2 months before I was comfortable enough to take this decision and put it in to motion.

Then, the surgery date was set… July 6[sup]th[/sup]. I started my pre-op diet 2 weeks before and lost about 5 lbs. So at my surgery date, I was 260 lbs. I flew to Cancun, stayed long enough for the surgery and recovery, and flew home. I was very fortunate to return home with a bariatric physician ready to take my case for the after care.

It has been 2½ weeks since my surgery and I have now lost almost 20 lbs since the surgery. This is the most positive thing I could have ever done for myself and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to finally shed these pounds. The journey has just begun and I’m looking forward to what is ahead.

It’s been a long time coming, but I am on my way to a newer, healthier me.