Happy Monday! I must first share my fun weekend. I had the chance to go bowling with some of my family and I got three strikes in one game. It was just about getting some activity, but I must admit it felt great. I love spending time with my family.
On Sunday we took our teenage son to the pumpkin patch. When he was carving his pumpkins I admit I took a small nap on my couch. I was woken up by my son yelling that he cut his hand with the carving knife. I’m assuming he did this because I warned him not to cut himself! I jolted up to find his wrist dripping with red substance and a full on panic began. That’s when he said, “Gotcha”. He had used red food coloring to make his pumpkin look bloody and decided to prank mom by applying it to his wrist. Thanks kid….
Today on my blog I want to talk about the beginning of my journey. Naturally the fist step was deciding I wanted some medical help losing my weight. I have known people who are overweight and have absolutely no health issues. I loved myself the way I was. My weight though and the way I was shaped led to some serious problems for me. When I was diagnosed with Charcot foot though (will talk more in a later blog), I realized it was time to get my weight under control and my diabetes.
I once saw one of those reality TV shows about a man with type 2 diabetes who was really not that overweight, but underwent gastric bypass. He did it to control his diabetes. That is when I started thinking maybe this was right for me. I am one of those people that researches everything to make sure it is right for me. I talked to people in real life who had been through this process. I called my insurance company to find out the steps and financial obligations.
I then signed up for a weight loss seminar geared towards bariatric surgery. This was also a requirement of my insurance. My sister joined me as my support and the facilitator of my weight loss meeting was phenomenal! She talked about a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss whether you choose surgery or non surgical weight loss. Most centers do both.
Your support team includes a dietician, psychologist, surgeon, nurse, and coordinator. I was so impressed with the wrap around services all in one spot.
We got a booklet that showed the types of surgical and non surgical approaches. The facilitator talked about all of the hormones that live in the bottom of your gut that have contributed to your out of control hunger and obesity. She said being overweight is not all my fault. What a relief to hear someone say this after years of feeling like the medical community made me feel like that. I’m not going to say I had nothing to do with my weight, but at the same time I truly felt out of control. I felt supported and non judged. Many overweight people feel judged constantly for their weight and connected health problems.
That very day I filled out the health information sheet and turned it in. I drove four hours away to a place my insurance covered. I was no more than half way home, having lunch with my sister when I got the call already. Of course I was having a nice pasta lunch (I told you I love pasta)! I got all the information for my insurance and within a month I had my first appointment. In my upcoming blog posts I will talk about pre-requisites for surgery. They have changed some, however I will share that my process took seven months before I had surgery.
I hope you will continue to follow my blog even if surgical weight loss is not right for you. I will share more in the future blogs about other programs I’ve been on. I have been successful for short periods of time on other programs. I also used these other programs to keep my weight under better control most of my adult life. Surgery really is only a tool. I still have to make choices everyday to stay on the right path. Some days are much harder than others. I hope to support you all as you journey through this as well. I know it’s not easy and it helps to know you are not alone. Until next time, best wishes.
Mandy