My Story

[lillian.b.white 32]

Hey y'all!

I started researching WLS options back in 2000 when I started college. I've been fat my entire life. I've never been below 200 in my adult life. I researched for a while, but didn't go through with it at the time because my parents were a bit nervous about it and I was busy with school. A few years later, I had gained more weight and started looking into it again. I started seeing a doctor and going through the motions (documenting that I've tried dieting for at least 6 months). It was at that time that the company I worked for switched insurance plans on me. Well this new plan had an obesity clause in it that refused to cover anything related to obesity and weight loss. Talk about discrimination!! So that threw my surgery plans right out the window.

The years went on and so did the weight. I got up to 335 lbs!! A great aunt of mine ended up passing away (she was about 90 - lived a wonderful life!) and there was a meeting for her "beneficiaries." Well this was total news to me. I went to the meeting and found out she found a way to put away a small fortune. She had no children and gave all nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews and great GREAT nieces and nephews divided portions of it. The amount she gave me just so happened to be pretty much the exact amount that a lap band cost in my area at the time. I took that as a sign and went with it.

Unfortunately in Massachusetts, they won't (well, wouldn't at the time) let people self pay for some reason, so I ended up going to Connecticut for it. In January (or early February? So long ago now) 2009, I had my lap band placed. I went for follow up visits regularly for the first 8 months or so, but grew tired of making the 2 1/2 or more hour journey, so I just stopped going eventually (stupid, I know).

I had some pretty good results (if slightly slow). I hit the 100 pound loss in January/February 2011. I was over the moon! Later that year, I ended up going back to school. I still worked full time, so with two full time schedules, I kind of ran out of time and energy for the gym (which I had previously been doing really well with), and forget about meal prep! I ended up gaining about 20 lbs during that year (it was only a year of schooling). In 2012 I started working at a dental office and went on a juice cleanse for a month with one of the dentists and lost about 15 pounds.

Then I ended up taking a job at a chiropractic office in 2013. I was doing well keeping the weight off (and not so well trying to take more off). Then I was in a car accident (Head on collision with a drunk driver). I hurt my back pretty badly and was unable to move much for a while. To top it off, the accident was in November, right before seasonal depression sets in. I ended up gaining 20 pounds. Finally when I was feeling better and weather was warming up, I decided to start couch to 5K. I lost a few pounds over the next couple months. Then all of a sudden, I started feeling this extreme, constant nerve pain that went from my back all the way down to my foot. The doctors didn't know what was going on and I ended up dealing with that for 4 months before they decided I needed a cortisone injection in my spine. That finally did the trick, but by this time, I had gotten up to 280! I was terrified! All this work to get the weight off and I gained nearly half of it back with two injuries in the course of a year!!

Since then I've been working on it, but I've only just recently really started working on my binge disorder. I've been able to slowly take some weight back off. Well, last month that same nerve pain came back! I was determined not to gain weight this time. Well, at this point I'm pretty much bed ridden (the doctors didn't want to do an MRI because it had only been 4 weeks. Then I started losing feeling in my leg/foot and feeling constant pins and needles, so they booked an MRI right quick. {It's scheduled for Tuesday!}), but I'm tracking my food intake and consistently losing, even though I pretty much can't move at all. As of this morning, I'm down to 246.6! Only 11.6 pounds away from my original low weight, and I plan to surpass it this time! I've done a lot of internal work on myself lately and think I've got the binging under control now!

Anyway, I've recently been thinking about converting to the sleeve. I'm worried about long time risks of keeping the band in. I now have an insurance that covers WLS (AND post weight loss abdominoplasty!! That will be my ultimate reward! My loose skin already causes some irritating problems), so I've decided that after this nerve stuff is over, I'm going to schedule a physical with my new doctor and discuss the possibilities of doing the ole switcheroo! I don't consider myself a band failure. I'm still making it work for me, as long as I'm doing the right things. But I have heard the typical shelf life of a lap band is about 10 years and I've had mine for 8.5 already. I don't want to just take it out and be totally done because I'm dreadfully afraid of gaining everything back, but I do get occasional port pain and I can't lay on my stomach on a firm surface because some of the equipment in there really digs in and hurts. I like the idea of the sleeve because you don't have bulky foreign objects inside of you, but you're also not rerouting your intestines. It seems like a happy medium! [emoji4]

Phew! I didn't mean for this to be quite so long! But that's my Story and I'm sticking to it!! Oh and there's not a day where I don't thank my great aunt for leaving me that money. Even though I wish I didn't have to spend it in the first place and my insurance should have covered it, I truly feel like it saved my life. I had diabetes, fatty liver disease, couldn't move well, couldn't fit into some seats (airplane seats were suuuuper uncomfortable and almost impossible!). Life was becoming unbearable. I look back at pictures from then and it looks like I'm about to explode! I'm forever grateful!!

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