Ginnysboy

Hello every one, looks like I will be able to find some good information from this site! I am 52. I have been battling with being overweight since I was a child. I would be considered a yo-yo dieter, losing then gaining and losing then gaining until about 3 years ago when all of a sudden I could no longer stay on a diet and no longer lose weight. I was just 4 pounds shy of my heaviest at that time which was 333 pounds. I was concerned because almost over-night I became insatiably hungry all the time. Gorging and binging on food to be hungry again in 15 or 20 minutes. My doctor started doing blood work to try and find a medical reason for this change and at the same time he started talking to me about having the sleeve procedure. I kept putting him off, after all I had always been able to lose weight in the past…finally 2 and a half years and no conclusive medical reason for the horrible constant hunger I decided to go to the free seminar offered by my hospital and weight loss center at Anne Arundel Medical Center. I did this more or less to shut my doctor up because I was tired of him telling to go and see about the surgery.  I will say that within 10 minutes of the seminar I turned to my spouse and said “I need to do this”. And with that decision I started the road to a new and healthy me that I am currently on. This all started with the seminar in May, my insurance requires 6 months of dietary training and all the wonderful tests and exams that I had to go through like everyone else. I was eligible to have the surgery in December of 2014 but decided the holiday season with as busy as I am and not being able to get off of work at that time was not the ideal time to do it, so I scheduled the surgery for January 12, 2015. Prior to the surgery I lost about 14 pounds and that was a struggle with constantly being hungry but I did it. I also decided the hardest thing for me to do would be to give up diet Pepsi I was addicted (about 8 to 10 soda’s a day!) and I did this in October months before the surgery as my test to myself that I was truly committed to the whole process.  My surgery went well, 45 minutes. I was in the hospital for 2 and a half days. I had some fluid retention issues but a diuretic help solve that in just a half a day. The couple of other issues I had were a gout attack about a week after my surgery and then about a week and a half my blood pressure dropped really low (I was still on a full strength blood pressure medicine regime at that time.) Both issues handled by my Primary Care Physician. One of the keys to my success has been walking and exercise. Before the surgery if I could walk 2 blocks without sitting down to rest I was lucky. As of this 6 month point I walk on average 5 to 6 miles a day and, I love it! My doctors all are ecstatic over my progress. At 6 months I have lost 142 pounds. I have gone from a size 3/4X shirt to a large, a size 44-46 pants to a 32!  My surgeon has told me that my success is impressive. They usually see this type of success rate a year into the program not 6 months so they are all pleased. I have been asked to speak at my surgeons seminars and have already done this once with another scheduled later this month. I have also been asked by the surgery center to be a mentor to others in the program. I no longer take blood pressure medicine, I am no longer border line diabetic, I no longer use a CPAP machine to sleep, my cholesterol medicine has been cut to a fraction of what it was and I am no longer taking medicine for allergies/sinus issues. All in all I am healthy and happy! My only regret is waiting so long to decide to have the surgery!