Leslie Baker
Hi there. My name is Leslie. I am 38 years old, pushing 39 in July of 2008.
For most of my growing up years, I was the "skinny" one. One memory I have from when I was in Kindergarten, was my best friend's older brother referring to my younger brother and I as "Spaghetti and Meatball". My younger brother was always battling weight and I was one stringy looking little kid. In my teen years, I was very active with exercise. It was nothing for me to bike about 20 to 30 miles on one trip. I grew up on the coast of New Jersey, across the bay from NYC, and where we lived, it was about 12 miles to go from my mother's home to the tip of Sandy Hook. Round trip it was a 24 mile bike with hills to climb and long flat stretches that required continuous pedaling in order to keep moving. Not being a driver at the time, my 10-speed bicycle was my sole transportation and I used it constantly. My weight at the time was about 125 - 130 pounds. I looked good and I felt great. My health was not an issue at the time.
By my early adult years, I had climbed to 180 pounds but still considered myself to look pretty good. I still had a "waist", even though I had a bit of a tummy. I didn't know how to diet because I had never had the reason to know. That had always been my little brother's task at hand.
In January of 1991, when I was 21 years old, I gave birth to my oldest daughter. I sprang up to 220 pounds during the pregnancy. Following her delivery, I joined Jenny Craig to lose the "baby weight". The program at the time seemed to be helping despite this additional cost of about $100 a week for specialized foods, but the scale slowly started going down. Then after a couple weigh ins, the scale kept tipping back up. The lady at the facility advised me to get a pregnancy test. I was flabbergasted at her suggestion, thinking there was no way I could be pregnant this soon after having a baby, but I took her suggestion and had a pregnancy test done. In December of 1991, I gave birth to my son. I had two pregnancies back to back. Exactly 10 months and 4 days apart in age and was up to a new high in weight - 247 lbs.
Being an "at home" mom at the time, I took many walks with the children in their stroller. My mother who is an RN told me to just walk off the weight. I enjoyed the walks with the children but continued to struggle with the weight. I tried to go back to Jenny Craig but the location had closed and I was unable to pursue this particular avenue any further. However, by 1993, I had managed to get down to 220 lbs where I seemed to plateau and get stuck.
In 1993, I was involved in a horrible auto accident that left me temporarily paralyzed for about 1 1/2 months. During this time, I was placed on numerous medications, some of which caused weight gain as a side effect. The time following found me in physical therapy and then entering a new pregnancy with my youngest child.
In 1994 at age 24, I gave birth to my youngest daughter. About 25 weeks into the pregnancy, I went into premature labor which landed me in bed for the duration of the pregnancy. With no exercise available to me, I just seemed to "spread" while being stuck in bed.
Within a year of my youngest being born, I went back to work. I had divorced my children's father in November of 1994. Within a couple years of working with hospice patients in the home setting, I was in extreme pain all the time. After several years of my doctors bouncing me from facility to facility, medication to medication, I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia by 1999. My weight had jumped to a whole new high by the summer of 2000 topping me off at 280 pounds. When I confronted my doctors about this, I was told that the medications where helping me to stay active and the weight gain was just something I would have to live with. This was unacceptable to me since Diabetes and Heart Disease ran rampant in my family and I was just barely 30 years old. I had no intentions of dying at an early age because of weight gain caused by medications. I informed my doctors that I was discontinuing all medications and that I would just "deal" with the pain. However, despite stopping the medications, the weight stayed. I followed many diets - Slim Fast, Atkins Diet, Meal planning and exercising with "Sweatin' to the Oldies". I was miserable with the weight, and was diagnosed with Chronic Bronchitis during this time frame and ended up in the hospital several times for acute episodes where I needed IV medication therapy to help me get better. The doctors kept telling me if I lost the weight, I'd be able to breathe better. I can remember just looking at them exasperated. By 2002, I had heard of gastric bypass surgery and I began looking into it. Unfortunately, the insurance that I had was no longer taken by the Bariatric Surgeons in my area and I was left heart broken.
I moved from New Jersey in 2003 to Kansas. While living there, I kept having issues with my breathing and the Bronchitis. It was also during this time that I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and was placed on Metformin to aid in blood glucose control along with diet.
In 2005, I was rushed to the hospital for what we thought was a heart attack. I was visiting for the weekend with my future husband in NW Arkansas. After 2 1/2 grueling days in the Cardiac ICU, I was told that my heart was fine and that there were no cardiac issues at all. Instead, I had G.E.R.D.S. This was followed by further testing that showed erosions in my esophagus and duodenum. My husband Joe and I got married in September 2005. With this marriage, I gained two beautiful step children as well.
Joe and I had discussed this surgery numerous times, and he showed me albums of his late wife who had the surgery. She passed from another condition and not due to any surgically related issues. Joe is my best friend as well as my husband and assured me that we'd find a way to get me the surgery. He also told me he loved me just the way I was. While I know he accepts me for who I am and what I look like, my health issues are of major concern to me and I've continuously read about the procedures and kept praying about it.
In February of 2007, I took Diabetic Education and Management classes. I had a wonderful nurse educator and my nutritionist put me on a 1600 calorie diet with a laid out menu plan on how many Carbs, proteins, etc. that I could eat each day.
Now, in 2008, a very dear friend of mine, Tracey, had the surgery here recently. She's a couple weeks post-op now. She's been wonderful by sharing with me everything about her surgery experience, and the discipline and structure that needs to religiously be followed in order for this surgery to be effective. When I first learned she was having the surgery, I would just cry. There were tears of happiness for her, and at the same time, there was a level of envy because she had done what I so desperately wanted. After talking long with her the other day, I made the phone calls to my insurance company and found out if Dr. Roller was in my network of providers.
Once I had obtained network participation from my insurance company, I called Dr. Roller's office and left a message asking for a call back. Within 10 minutes, Mari called me and we had a wonderful chat. I was now crying again because this time, I was taking the first step into hopefully having a surgery that will benefit me so much in so many ways. She gave me a number to call so I could get registered into Dr. Roller's seminar, which he has a requirement for anyone who is considering the surgery.
So, my exciting news at this time is that I go on April 4, 2008 for the seminar. I have been on cloud 9 since this past Friday, and after doing much research on Dr. Roller, am confident that he will be able to help me in a way that I have not been able to do on my own.
I have been going on a fairly regular schedule to the fitness center that we belong to, and my latest feat is swimming a half mile in the pool. I found that exercise wise, swimming helped me the most because the water helps with the Fibromyalgia. I am still following the diet that my nutritionist placed me on over a year ago and now I have this dream of mine to look forward to.
I know that there will be a lot of footwork and preparation that goes along with getting ready for this surgery as well as afterwards, but I believe that the end results will be worth every second of it.
I am currently 265 lbs.
