AllieBB

Hello,

I am 66 year old female who has had a weight problem her entire life. My top weight was 412 lbs and I was 5'2" tall. My current weight is 256 and current height is 5'1". I shrunk with age which is not a favorable thing to do when you are trying to reduce your BMI.

I have osteoarthritis in both knees, currently bone on bone, and in desperate need of replacements in both kees. I started using a cane due to pain in 2000. Now, 14 years later I have graduated to two elbow crutches and continual pain. In the past four years I have lost 156 lbs on a glycemic-index diet to prevent diabetes Type 2. It has been very successfuly for me as noted.

During the endless years of dieting gaining and dieting again I have reached many plateaus. This one has been the most devastating! For the past 12 to 18 months I have struggled with 5 lbs and no progress. I am frustrated and my doctors are baffled. In January I was given the opportunity to start swimming under the direction of my osteo-physiotherapist. When I started swimming and water exercise I couldn't swim even one lap because of the pain in my knees. Today I can swim 15 laps and continue on with 1-1/2hrs of physio-water exercise, 5 days a week. I was determined not to set my psyche up to fail so I waited from Jan 17 until May 20 to get on the scale. The result a disappointing NO CHANGE! 1000 calories balanced and 3 hrs of exercise and nothing, Nada, zip!

The doctor I saw on May 20 was my orthopedic surgeon. The assessment: No surgery until BMI is 30. Why because the chance for positive recovery changes dramatically from 5% risk at BMI of 30 and 70% risk at a BMI over 40. So the referral was bariatric surgery as the best intervention to finish the weight loss for safe a successful recovery from knee replacement surgery. And now, here I am in line for the seminar and lap-band surgery on Jun 4th.