bamma2006
Hum, my story. I am fifty years old, and I have been overweight most of my adult life. I lost weight in high school, and was able to keep it off for quite a while, almost 5 years. Gained a bit while planning my wedding, and then I got pregnant right away. I had a really hard pregnancy, and ended up gaining over 60 pounds. I remember being very embarrassed when they weighed me in front of my hubby, and I weighed 213 pounds. I had a very hard time getting the weight off, but finally being successful about 3 years later. I lost over 70 pounds, and was down to a size 8-10. I looked fabulous. I then got pregnant again. I only gained 30 pounds with my son, and kept most of it off for a while, but then it just started creeping up again. I lost about 40 pounds before returning to work when he was 6. I then lost an additional 30 pounds on weight watchers, and felt great. But again, I had a hard time keeping it off, and gained all the weight back and more. I had gotten up to 260 pounds, when I decided that I needed to do something. I joined the gym, started working out, and lost over 80 pounds. Oh did I feel and look great. I was running, going to 5k races. Then I started to eat more and more, and suddenly found myself within 20 pounds of my heaviest weight. This winter we were redoing our kitchen, and to just work for a bit, I was all sweaty and gross. I also could not do anything without sweating profusely. Earlier that fall, I also fell into a very deep depression. I don't think I realized how bad I was until just recently. I was pretty close to checking out completely. I felt hopeless. My daughter would not let me take my grandson because she was nervous that something would happen.
I saw an ad on television for the lap band system right around Christmas. I started to look into it. I mentioned it to my therapist, and she just latched right on to the concept, and everytime I saw her, she asked me how much I had looked into it. She also looked up the program at Portsmouth Hospital, and gave me the link. I decided to look into the surgery in earnest. I checked out the website, and signed up for the April 1st information meeting. I signed my husband up to go with me, also. We sat through the meeting, and talked about it all the way home. I was so excited. I called my insurance company the next day, only to be told that my insurance would not cover the surgery. I remember crying hysterically. I called my hubby, and he was trying to calm me. He got upset because he knew we could not afford to pay for it outright. The next day, I called my insurance broker (we have a small business) and she contacted Anthem to see what they could do. I got a call from Donna at Anthem, who changed our policy so that the surgery would be covered. Well needless to say, I sent my application right in to Nancy, and called every other day to try and get an appointment. I finally got in the beginning of May. The day of my appointment with Nancy, I called everyone and got all the rest of my appointments scheduled for that same month. when I saw Nancy again the end of May, I had had my nutrition, physical therapy, psychological appointments all taken care of, I had started the classes, and losing weight. I lost 6 pounds the first month. I met with Dr. Gens in June, lost the rest of the weight, went through all the other testing, and my surgery was scheduled for August 15.
What a ride. It has been awesome. I would not do anything different, well except for maybe starting this years earlier, but I am glad I waited so I could get the band. I love it. It is such a good program for me. I am truly a success story.
