My name is Amanda and I am 34 years old, located in Delaware! I began my journey in November 2013 when I made the decision to have surgery. I was 219 pounds at 5 feet 1 inch. I had heart trouble, high blood pressure, pain in my joints, a substantial inoperable back injury with nerve damage, border line diabetes, and a whole list of other ailments. In the beginning, I had very little support from my family. My surgeon required an info seminar followed by every physician's clearance known to man, nutrition classes, and life skills classes. I attended my 3 nutrition classes and when I entered my first life skills class, I wanted to back out!! A friend of mine, who also had surgery (bypass) was going through the classes as well. She encouraged me to continue this journey, that I needed to look at my quality of life, and that it was either now or never. I decided to push forward. I can still remember pulling into the hospital parking garage the day of surgery. I was a nervous wreck! Good thing I wasn't driving, otherwise, I may have just turned back around and returned home!! This was the first day of the rest of my life! I was pretty fortunate that I didn't have any complications, and faired well. After three months, I was completely off of all of my meds, other than my gastric meds for surgery! I had more energy, and just felt better in general. It was/is not an easy trip. However, I would not change it for the world! I am now 8 1/2 months post op, and down 83 pounds with approximately 10 more to go! I have little pain in my back, and finally feel as though I am free of the shackles that I was in due to being so overweight. I had to have another major surgery, a hysterectomy, in September, and since then I feel like I have hit my plateau. I also have started to slide into some old bad habits with refined sugars, and wraps. I need a little help from my bariatric friends to support me and to get through the last ten pounds. Thanks for welcoming me!
Amanda
