DiamondLil922
Hi! My name is Lil DeCola, and I am a 65-year old morbidly obese retired woman. I remembr the first time I saw my doctor label me as being morbidly obese. I was shocked and thought, "How dare he?" I knew I was somewhat overweight but never thought of myself as being MO. Not me!
But, yes me. That was 30 plus years ago. Since then, I slowly (or not so slowly) let my weight creep up to 357 lbs. In addition, my list of illnesses has greatly increased along with the number of prescriptions I have to take on a daily basis (32 pills a day, not counting over the counter medications like Tylenol, Sudafed, etc,). Let's see, I now have: diastolic heart stiffness, COPD, 3 cardiac stents, asthma, sleep apnea and Type 2 diabetes just to mention a few.
In the last several years I have also had both knees replaced (two weeks apart), a spinal fusion and a laminectomy that involved having 2 six-inch rods and 8 pins. I also need to have both hips replaced, but need to lose more weight before I can have the surgery.
I started seriously thinking about having bariatric surgery three years ago after my former sister-in-law lost an amazing amount of weight after her gastric bypass. Even though she had a number of serious problems resulting from the surgery, her outcome was still impressive. Of course, she was also 15-20 years younger than I am now, so that probably had a lot to do with her success.
I went to all the classes, did all the psychological testing, had some medical procedures done, and worked with the dietician. But halfway through the process, we left Ohio to go to Arizona for the winter for three months. Since then, I have lost my mother, my younger sister, an older brother and my oldest sister and moved from Ohio to Arizona to live on a permannt basis. Talk about life changes! WOW!
I have had a difficult time adjusting to the excessive heat here in Arizona. Living here fulltime is completely different from just spending the winters here. For instance, it's already 106 degrees in the shade, and it's not even noon yet. I celebrate when it's 95 degrees at 10 pm! Isn't that ridiculous?
Anyway, I have met with a bariatric doctor in Phoenix who has agreed to do my surgery within the next month or so, depending upon the results of my upcoming 24 blood tests, an EKG, chest x-ray, EDG biopsy (whatever that is), a physical therapy evaluation and another wonderful psychological evaluation in addition to getting releases from my cardiologist and pulmonologist. Luckily my insurance does not require a 3-, 6- or 12-month pre-surgery supervised weight loss. However, I am not letting myself off the hook and just waiting to have the surgery in order to lose some weight beforehand. I have gone from 357 down to 309 -- a total of 48 lbs. so far. I hope to manage to get down to 300 by the time I have my surgery.
My goal is 175 lbs, which is also the weight suggested by my surgeon. While I would love to get down to 140 lbs, I will be quite happy to attain and maintain 175.
I am concerned about all the excess skin that will be flapping and flopping after the surgery especially since I don't have the money for plastic surgery. However, as long as I am healthier, that's all that matters. Anything has to be better than wearing 4X clothes!
Do you know what I miss most of all being this heavy? It's walking. Such a simple thing -- until you can't walk across the street to the neighbor's house without feeling like you are going to pass out. There is so much to see and do here in Arizona, and I want to see and do it all -- without lugging my heavy oxygen tank along and having to sit down every five minutes.
So, wish me luck on my upcoming journey! I 'm going to need it!