Last straw stories

[ragdollx19 1]

I had some allergy problems a few days before my DH and I were going on an adult get away to a cabin in the woods. At my pcp's office they have a mirror on the back of the door that you can see yourself from a side view while sitting on the table. I remember staring in disbelief at the person in the mirror. Dont get me wrong I knew I was fat well before this but I had avoided realizing how bad I had let myself get. We ended up having a great time on our trip but I realized there were so many things I wanted to do but wouldnt for fear of being too tired, too fat to fit on an tube and go tubing in the river, all kinds of things. Someday I want to do that trip over and do what I really want to do!

[dwarden 1]

I have a few different versions of "BubbleButt's Guide to Newbie Nursing" depending on my mood for the day. But one rule that is always in there is that we can live vicariously through our patients. We needn't experience everything first hand to understand the lesson. We *can* watch as others go through the motions of that experience, we can learn quite well from watching.

quote]

I hear you! I've been a nurse for 18 years (3 yrs ICU and OB, 10 years ER/Trauma, and 5 years OR/PACU), and agree totally. Very few things are as miserable as holding a 100 lb leg for a 10 minute surgical scrub. Except maybe holding it and doing the scrub, too.

For me, it was sitting in the orthopedist's office at the age of 38 and hearing that I only had 5-7 years left in my knees if I didn't do something drastic to get the load off them. I didn't want to be 45 years old and getting knee replacements. I knew he was telling the truth because I could no longer walk up or even down the stairs. As a nurse, getting up and down the stairs in an emergency is a required skill. (Picture the Code Blue team stuck in the elevator.) Forty-five pounds later, I can do both and even run the bases with my kids some.

[Melissa S 1]

ragdoll, that sounds exactly like what i just emailed to a good friend of mine... i told her:

"sometimes its hard for me to look back and wonder how i allowed myself to gain so much weight. it really does sneak up on you. i mean, i know i grew out of my clothes, and i had more aches and pains... i remember once i lost like 60 lbs and really liked the way i looked...and vowed never to allow myself to get that big again.... well, i got bigger and then some. i know i have major body image issues. i almost hate to look in a full length mirror. but hopefully with time i'll start feeling better about myself. its such a struggle"

i was just in the orthodontist office with my daughter this morning and caught a glimpse of myself in his mirror... needless to say... i did a little scoot to the right just so i didnt see myself. :cry

[Lucy 0]

I've been overweight my entire life. A few years ago I joined a gym and worked out every day for 6 months. I ate nothing but lettuce, chicken, and fruit and managed to lose about 25 lbs. Then I tripped while crossing the street and broke my ankle. I had 2 surgeries and gained back the 25 I had lost, plus another 20lbs. I started to become incrediby depressed and lost all my motivation. My ankle had mostly healed, but it wasn't ever going to be strong if I didn't lose the weight. Six weeks ago I was at my grandmother's house -- my grandmother has always been emotionally abusive to everyone in our family and has always ridiculed my weight. It was her birthday party and she started telling everyone there that I was pregnant (which I am not, just fat) -- she did this on purpose so that everyone would come up to me and congratulate me and embarrass me. A week after that, I saw a documentary on TV about the lap band. I immediately started doing research on it. I found a surgeon, I just took out a loan from the bank, and my surgery is in 30 days!

Oh, and the evil grandmother? It's taken me 27 years to realize that you can't choose your family, but you can choose to not allow them into your life. I am on the road to doing positive things for myself and part of that is separating myself from the negaive people in my life, grandmother included. Hitler had family, that doesn't mean they had to like him, just because they were related to him.

[DRIVER 0]

OMG! Do you realize that you have lost 20 LARGE boxes of Velveeta cheese?

Fantastic, freak'en fantastic!

WOW :faint: I never thought of it like that, relating weight loss to something that I dearly loved, (Velvetta cheese my old favorite)

Next time I'm in the grocery store, I'm gonna stack 20 boxes of Velvetta up on a shelf and take a pic of it with my cell phone, and make it my screen saver!

307/268/190ish

I'M WITH THE BAND

[LisaM 0]

I travel (fly) a great deal for work. I'd been pushing the seat belt limit for a while, but always managed to get it snapped.

About a month ago, I got on a plane and the inevitable happened. No dice on the seat belt. I had to request an extender.

For me, that did it. Never again. And now I'm here.

[musicalmomma 1]

This is the most inspiring and moving thread I've ever read. Thank you all for sharing your stories. I'm truly moved.

For me, well, I let my mom keep me from getting surgery for several years. I am now 38 and finally realized that my mom is going to out live me if I don't get this under control. I finally had to sit her down and explain that she can't possibly understand what a battle this food addiction is. She would always open up her book of 'self control' stories and unintentionally make me feel like an out of control loser. She'd tell me that when she gained about 20 pounds once...a lady pointed it out to her and she just cut back her portions and execised and if I just did the same I would lose weight! I looked at her and said..."Mom, I am NOT 20 pounds over weight...I am 120 pounds over weight! I THINK the time of cutting back and taking a walk are past me...I NEED HELP". She still struggles with my decision, but she's being MUCH more supportive as the time draws closer.

My actual FINAL straw was watching my WONDERFUL husband go from 250lbs when we met 10 years ago to 438 pounds today! He was denied for the lap band because his BMI was "too high" REDICULOUS! He's appealing, but the truth is, we BOTH want to get healthy and fit and feel good doing routine things. We want to take our kids skiing and white Water rafting...we want to ride the roller coasters with them...we want them to know we value our health and set a good example for them so they hopefully won't struggle with this in adulthood.

I have an 18 year old and 15 year old daughter from a previous marriage. My 18 year old suffers with Juvenile Rhumatoid Arthristis, since she was seven. With all the meds she's been on, and my poor example, she's 280 pounds. My prayer is that once she see's my success, she'll give lapband a try!

[Lana24 10]

Sure do. I was just telling a couple of people this story the other day.

I was working at a hospital on midnights and we had a patient that was at least 800#. We didn't have a scale big enough to weigh her. She was in ICU, in a coma, and we had two hospital beds chained together to hold her.

She needed to be turned every two hours. It was a tiny hospital and a small staff on midnights. We simply didn't have enough people to turn her every two hours, we weren't strong enough so we had to call the fire dept every two hours and have them come and help us.

At one point she needed a procedure where a cath would be threaded through her groin artery. We couldn't even do that without the help of the fire dept. Called them again and they came out. One guy was on his knees pushing up on her gut fat and the other fire fighter was on the other side trying to hold her gut fat back so we could get to her groin. The guy on his knees was pushing up with everything he had, he was shaking and sweating trying to hold the fat up. Each time the fire dept is called the police come out with them. Two police officers were watching in horror, gagging and becoming ill at the scene they were watching.

I realized that really big lady started out at my weight at some point, I mean.. she wasn't born weighing 800#. That was my moment, that's when I realized that she never likely thought she would be laying in a bed at 800#+ while a fire department was holding her fat up and out of the way.

I knew GB wasn't for me but within a month of discovering the Lap Band, I had surgery.

Wasa,

I just wanna cry...OMG

[sfeiner 2]

In july of 2005 I was vacationing at a remote northern wi Lake with some of my grown kids and my sister and some of her grown kids. My sister weighs over 450. We shared a cabin and one morning she just stopped breathing as we sat at the table talking. I felt for a pulse and there was none. I yelled to the other cabins and said call 911,,,cone and help me! We had a terrible time getting her on the floor but we did and started cpr ( I was the only that knew it but they learned fast) It took 20 min for the first responders to come and they had a defibulater and got her heart started. We had to ventilate her for another 29 mun before an ambulance could get there. It took about 8 guys to get her on the gurney and her fat was just hanging over the sides. In spite of my fear for her, I was shocked. She went to one hosp and then was med flighted to a larger one. During all this she arrested 5 more times but did survive it. After her discharge, I talked to her about WLS and she said "I will if you do" (She sees us as about the same size even though she weighs a couple hundred pounds more ) I said I would and started researching. I had never heard of LB at that point but when I researched it I knew that was for me. I drove her too all the meetings and appointments and did the insurance research etc and then when she was all approved she backed out. She lives to eat. if she can't eat she would just as soon die. I wanted the surgery from the minute I heard of it. I don't ever want to have 8 men have trouble loading me on a gurney! I don't want my fat draping over the sides! I know witho9ut a doubt that that's where I would get at the rate I was going. Every diet I ever went on netted me a gain of 2x what I lost. I'm also a nurse and have my own memories of trying to turn, clean up and do procedures on the really huge patients...NOT good memories. I don't want to be some other nurses nightmare patient!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

... She lives to eat. if she can't eat she would just as soon die. ...

Sometimes it's not a lot different from any other addiction. Drugs, alcohol, any of them.

Very sad.

I'm glad that you are ready for a change. Sadly, we can't change the whole world. I think food addiction is a bit easier than other addictions in the sense that we don't typically fight treatment as much as others. We don't usually want to be fat, we don't want unhealthy. We seem to be more ready to deal with food issues vs. the alcohol/drug issues of others. I don't know, maybe my thinking is wrong but that's just the way it seems.

[shortgal 5]

I have a different view of our addiction to food. No one would tell an alcoholic to have three small drinks a day, no one would tell a drug addict to have three small "hits' a day and no one would tell a cigarette smoker to have three small "drags" a day. They dont tell them that b/c they know it's impossible. One drink, one hit, one drag and they're back hooked.

Well you cannot give up food and you try to have three small meals a day, but then you eat one extra bite of something you shouldn't, ice cream, chips, bread, whatever triggers you and bam it's all over and your out of control again.

That is why people who have WLS are successful when they could never be before. They now have a tool! A new "thermostat" that says you've reached the right temperature, shut down the furnace.

Will we still have to work at it? sure. But basically we're already experts at working at it. Most of us have been on diets most of our life. I think we just had broken thermostats that needed help.

Cheers to our bands! And wishing us all a smooth ride with few complications!

LOVED READING THE LAST STRAW STORIES! Thanks for sharing!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I don't view it as an addiction as much as an obsession or compulsion. I think there is a difference. We don't go through withdrawal symptoms if we give up chips, we don't get the shakes from a lack of chemical. We might have a bit of low blood sugar but that's what the shakes come from, not withdrawal. We don't break laws to get more food, we don't do a lot of things that those with true addictions do. Again, I see it more as an obsession or compulsion but I agree with your thermostat scenario.

[shortgal 5]

Agree with some of that, but we don't have to break laws to get food, it's readily available ( legal) and some of it is very inexpensive. Most alcoholics don;t have to break laws to get their fix either for the same reason. But yeah, they can break the law if they drink and drive.

Drug addicts break the law b/c the drugs they use or the way they get them is illegal.

No withdrawal symptoms? Lots of posts about people with migraines/headaches on the pre-op diet.

And that same great full feeling food addicts get after a great dessert or a big meal, I think is like the high a druggie gets.

I think we could also say they are obsessed or compulsed to do the drugs/cigarettes/alcohol. I see that as similiar, but fatties will never be hauled off to jail for eating while driving! LOL

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Agree with some of that, but we don't have to break laws to get food, it's readily available ( legal) and some of it is very inexpensive. Most alcoholics don;t have to break laws to get their fix either for the same reason. But yeah, they can break the law if they drink and drive.

Drug addicts break the law b/c the drugs they use or the way they get them is illegal.

No withdrawal symptoms? Lots of posts about people with migraines/headaches on the pre-op diet.

And that same great full feeling food addicts get after a great dessert or a big meal, I think is like the high a druggie gets.

I think we could also say they are obsessed or compulsed to do the drugs/cigarettes/alcohol. I see that as similiar, but fatties will never be hauled off to jail for eating while driving! LOL

A thin person can be a caffeine addict too and still have a headache from not taking it. Caffeine withdrawal does not cause true Migraines, but headaches... yes.

If I take your food of choice away from you such as chips or cake, are you going to start shaking violently? Vomiting violently? Hallucinating? DTs?

Nawww, I don't agree we experience the same issues as an addict.

Drug addicts break laws to get more money to buy more drugs. How many MO people have you read about that break into houses to steal twinkies?

Obsession and compulsion, yes. Addiction... I don't agree.

I never got a great high from eating a massive quantity of food. I felt like a complete failure and was miserable because I was too full. Yet as miserable as I was I was thinking about what I was going to eat next. But nothing euphoric that would mess with my driving and that's what drug addicts and alcoholics are looking for. A euphoria that is so severe it messes with coordination and ability to drive a car.

[Jazzywoman 0]

I know this is an older thread.. but I wanted to post anyway!

Here's my moment:

I never thought of myself as overweight, because I still had nice clothes, and could wear cute shoes even if they were a double wide.

In my eyes.. I was heavy.. not obese. Othere people even said that I wasn't fat.. just chunky.

This summer I had my darling 2 yr old grandson for a month. Dh took a photo of us sitting in a chair, snoozing. It was summer, I had on a sleeveless top and shorts.

What I saw in that picture absolutely shocked me. My thighs were as big as my grandson.:faint:

That's when I knew I needed something. My date is Next Thursday, December 27th.

This summer I will have my grandson, and I will make sure that my thighs are not that big again!