Hello everyone, my name is Joanne, I'm a 48 year old divorced mother of 3 kids ranging in age from 11 to 15 and I live in Charlotte.
I've struggled with my weight my entire life. No joke, went from chubby preschooler to chubby elementary schooler to fat middle schooler... then from high school to birth of my first child I bounced between fat and thin. Every so often with superhuman effort of eating next to nothing and exercising like a madwoman I could lose weight and maintain it for a little while, but then the weight would come back. Once I finished having my kids I was having trouble getting below 180. Then once my 40s hit not only could I no longer lose weight, but I felt like I had to diet just to slow down gaining weight. I have tried seemingly every diet known to man and many different weight loss prescriptions, supplements, etc. I was never able to lose more than 10 pounds and would then stall and give up and the weight would come back plus some. I am now at my all time high of 240 (at 5'3, so 42.5 BMI). I have finally had enough of the diet rollercoaster of optimism and crushing disappointment. Weight loss surgery was always in the back of my mind as a last resort, but I am there now.
I've been researching various bariatric surgeries and most of the books and information seminars for surgeons in my area focus on lap band, VSG and RNY. I was bouncing between VSG, liking the removal of the part of the stomach producing grehlin, and the RNY, liking the malabsorption aspect and wishing they could combine the two ideas. Then on another online forum I stumbled across the BPD-DS and after lots of reading I have decided it is the surgery I want.
As a side note, I am amazed at the online bariatric community and how so many people are willing to help each other out and offer advice, opinions, and information. I am a little frightened by how little official info there is for life after DS surgery, particularly how to handle the vitamins and labwork. But there is a lot of online information and I am hopeful that I will feel confident about that going forward.
I am a self pay partly because I don't want to spend another year of my life on a medically supervised diet to qualify for WLS through insurance, and I could totally see insurance denying WLS for some other reason after I spend yet another year dieting. So I've decided to go with Dr. Esquerra at Mexicali Bariatric. I have read tons of reviews about the practice and plan to contact them on Monday. I'm hoping to be able to have the surgery in early July when my ex is taking my kids on vacation, but if that doesn't work out I will find some other way to get the surgery maybe in the fall.
Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded. It feels good to lay it all out there with people who understand (if they bother to read this mini manifesto, ha).
I've struggled with my weight my entire life. No joke, went from chubby preschooler to chubby elementary schooler to fat middle schooler... then from high school to birth of my first child I bounced between fat and thin. Every so often with superhuman effort of eating next to nothing and exercising like a madwoman I could lose weight and maintain it for a little while, but then the weight would come back. Once I finished having my kids I was having trouble getting below 180. Then once my 40s hit not only could I no longer lose weight, but I felt like I had to diet just to slow down gaining weight. I have tried seemingly every diet known to man and many different weight loss prescriptions, supplements, etc. I was never able to lose more than 10 pounds and would then stall and give up and the weight would come back plus some. I am now at my all time high of 240 (at 5'3, so 42.5 BMI). I have finally had enough of the diet rollercoaster of optimism and crushing disappointment. Weight loss surgery was always in the back of my mind as a last resort, but I am there now.
I've been researching various bariatric surgeries and most of the books and information seminars for surgeons in my area focus on lap band, VSG and RNY. I was bouncing between VSG, liking the removal of the part of the stomach producing grehlin, and the RNY, liking the malabsorption aspect and wishing they could combine the two ideas. Then on another online forum I stumbled across the BPD-DS and after lots of reading I have decided it is the surgery I want.
As a side note, I am amazed at the online bariatric community and how so many people are willing to help each other out and offer advice, opinions, and information. I am a little frightened by how little official info there is for life after DS surgery, particularly how to handle the vitamins and labwork. But there is a lot of online information and I am hopeful that I will feel confident about that going forward.
I am a self pay partly because I don't want to spend another year of my life on a medically supervised diet to qualify for WLS through insurance, and I could totally see insurance denying WLS for some other reason after I spend yet another year dieting. So I've decided to go with Dr. Esquerra at Mexicali Bariatric. I have read tons of reviews about the practice and plan to contact them on Monday. I'm hoping to be able to have the surgery in early July when my ex is taking my kids on vacation, but if that doesn't work out I will find some other way to get the surgery maybe in the fall.
Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded. It feels good to lay it all out there with people who understand (if they bother to read this mini manifesto, ha).
