lajean77
My name is Marcia Moore. I am 31 yrs old and have 5 children 4 living. I have been overweight all my life and I thought that it was something that I would have to live with. Over time I would see my friends having the gastric bypass or the lap band which my mom had and losing all this weight and I was known as the person to give your “FAT” clothes too.
My living situation is even different than most. My ex-husband lives me and everyone thinks that he is there just for the children due my job schedule working 12 hour shifts, but he is there for more than that. I basically rely on him for everything from doing the laundry, cleaning the house, going grocery shopping to tying my shoes, helping put on my bra and assist me in the morning by helping me get dressed. I love to cook ,but now I can’t stand no more than 10 minutes and that’s pushing it before I feel that my knees are going to buckle and my legs will give out and my back breaks.. I am 31 and I should not need a cane to help me get around.
One day I was listening to my kids talk and one ask "why we don’t ever do things" and another replied because "mama is always in the bed". 
My heart broke when I heard that because it is so true, but they don’t understand the pain that I am in everyday. My kids have to help me out of my chair on a daily. I don’t go a lot of places because I am so fearful that I will fall and there won’t be anyone there to help me up. I have fallen in the house and had to have Brian get me up and that was so painful. When I do go out to the store I will send one of the kids in to see if they have a cart to ride in or else I will either stay in the car or we will go to another store, but I have been doing this for sol long that I know what stores have carts.
So what made me choose to have the surgery? I recently got a job that I truly love working in a children’s hospital as a Health Unit Coordinator in the critical care unit and sometimes there is walking involved a lot of walking and I could handle the walking . I would break out in a sweat just putting paper in the printer. One day I was @ work and I was having chest pains and I informed the charge nurse who then sent me to the health nurse to have my blood pressure check. After they had check my blood pressure she looked @ me and said that I would either need to go to my primary caregiver now or to the ER. Since my doctor was right down the street I called her and she told me to come and have an EKG done so I did and she didn’t like the reading so she advised me to go and see a cardiologist. My father had a heart attack about 3 years ago so I asked him for the contact information. I made an appointment for that Monday thinking I would go in and he would say the normal that I needed to loose weight and send me on my way. 
Well I got the shock of my life after he looked at my EKG and said that I need to have a heart catherization the next day. I just looked at him and then my parents and started to cry uncontrollably. Scarred wasn’t even the word for it. I couldn't hear anything he was after that. My first question though was what was a heart cath? I hadn’t had anytime to do any kind of research on it. Then when I found out that I would be awake for the procedure that scared me senseless. I called my mom about 2am and I told her that I was so afraid that fear would stop me from having the heart cath even though I was thinking of my children’s fear is a powerful thing. My mom told me to go and we would take it one step @ a time which the staff was very friendly and even though they gave me something to relax me I was up and very alert the entire time , but it was a relief to find out that I didn’t have any blockage.
So now I have had my sleep study and was diagnose with OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) and I had my mental evaluation( I guess I am not crazy) and now I am waiting for United Health Care to approve the surgery. I hope I can have the surgery on the 14th of May but if not I will take the 12th. I just didn’t want to be on clear liquid diet on Mother’s Day. I am so excited and nervous that I can barley keep a thought in my head. I am the type that needs to know everything step by step so I can prepare myself, so if you have had the gastric bypass and would like to share any stories with please feel free to do so. I will keep you posted.
