DeeBert
I was not overweight as a teenager and when I got married, I wore a size 10. I cannot blame my weight gain on my pregancies, because I actually lost weight with each pregnancy. Some time after the birth of last son and my surgery in 2005, I ate my way up to 250 lbs. We planned my oldest son's wedding for over 1 year and I vowed to lose weight before the wedding, I never did...I HATE looking at the pictures of the wedding because I was FAT. I was depressed and miserable. I have always been a very outgoing, friendly and active person. Because of my excess weight, it got to where all I wanted to do was sit at home and read or watch TV. In 2004, my son and DIL announced that we were going to be grandparents, I was elated, it was at the time that I decided that I wanted to be an active part of my grandchild's life. That meant being able to play on the floor, walk around the mall, zoo, disney world, etc. I would not sit at home. I had high blood pressure, depression, restless leg syndrome, plus more. I couldn't walk or stand for long periods of time and it even hurt my knees to kneel at church. Over the years I know that I spent over $10,000 on every diet plan, gimmick imaginable. I would lose weight only to gain it back plus some. My husband was the one to encourage me to look into weight loss surgery. Of course, the only one that we knew about was gastric bypass, because a friend of his had had RNY. The more that I read about it the more frightened I became. Then I read about the Lap Band and I knew that it was for me.
After the long approval process and all of the testing, I had surgery on Feb. 14, 2005 in New Orleans, LA. In April I had to go back into surgery because my port had flipped. The first year post op was very trying for me. From April to Aug. I had 5 fills and never felt any restriction. Then for 3 months I could not go to my surgeon because of the damage by Hurricane Katrina. In early 2006, I went back to my surgeon and had 2 more fills, no change. Finally, I decided to look for another surgeon and it was Frances S. that recommended me to Dr. LeBlanc's staff. They are great and been a life saver for me. I started going there in May of 2006 and since then I have started to lose weight. I am still not quite at restriction, I think that I need another fill. It has taken me 20 months to lose 48 lbs. but I only need to lose 3 more lbs. to be under the 200 lb mark. That was my first mini goal even though, I never thought that it would take me 20 months to reach it.
Throughout this entire battle, I have not and will not give up. I love my band and I will reach my goal of 135 lbs. and when I do, it will be for life and I will never gain this weight back. I take this journey day to day, and each day does get better. I am much healthier now and off all but one of my medications. I feel better and I now walk 2 miles at least 5 days a week.
I am enjoying my grandson and my entire family. God is great and life is getting better...