Luanne
I have told you most everything about me in my profile. You need to understand that I have always been a little on the heavy side all my life. Really curvy as a young teenager. At 17 I was diagnoised with Lupus and told I had 3 years to live. I was shocked, I never heard of Lupus and I sure was not ready to die. I had jusy started a relationship with the love of my life. He was recently back from Vietnam and we were dealing with that trauma and then now I am sick and going to die. I don't think so. I found a wonderful doctor who helped me through some of the hardest years of my life. It was one thing after another and lots of surgeries which were an expirement at the time. Several time I almost didn't make it but God had other plans for me. The Lupus did cause trouble with my life and cost me a child at 6 months into my pregnancy and then my relationship ended agter 10 years. The good thing is today we are still best friends. I married my husband in 1984 on a sailboat in the Bay it was beautiful, small with family and a few friends. My illness continued and then I was diagnoised with cancer. I had a tumor removed and under went Chemo I have been 10 years free now and still counting. My weight continued to go up and down, mostly up, I was uncomfortable and always heard the laughs and side remarks from people. We are too quick to judge people on appearance instead of getting to know them. In 1999 I had 2 big things happen, one was a brain tumor which was removed with success, the other was the loss of my left hand due to neglect at the hospital. For the first time in my life I was in a lawsuit. The judge gave me 1.5 million in 2004 but I have never seen a penny. The hospital doctor had no insurance, she was a contract doctor on call that night and they sent her to my room, she did nothing as my hand turned black and blue and finally had no pulse. The nurse on duty finally removed the IV but it was too late the damage was done. I had to wait 2 weeks for the amputation. This was over Thanksgiving and into Christmas. Going back to work was difficult and appearance mattered, I was sent to an office where I was away from the public which made this even more difficult to deal with. Food was my friend if I hurt I ate, if I was sad or depressed I ate what a comfort food can be. When I had the accident with my leg and faced all the surgeries I knew I had to do something about my weight. Being in a bed not able to walk is life changing. My sister had the surgery 7 years ago and was one of Doctor Clarks first patients. She has done well and is keeping her weight off by continuing to excerise daily. My doctor thought I would be a good one for the surgery. So I wrote a letter to Dr. C. explaing all my medical history (which is a book) and asked if he would be willing to at least see me. He finally agreed and said he though we could do this but until we opened me up we did not know what we were facing. I had a lot of other doctors to see to get clearance, pulmonary and cardio and lots of lab work. Finally after everything I was set a date, June 20th, 2006. I was ready in every way I did all my research talked this over with my family and friends and just wanted the date to get here. It did and things went well I had to stay an extra day just because of my medical history. I felt great anf hated the protein, but worked through it. One more set back 30 days fter surgery I had a heart attack, there was a blockage in the bottom part of my heart. I had a stint placed in and what relief right away. I was back out of the hospital in five days. Dr. C. came to see me in the hospital, he was so kind. They found the blockage would have gotten worse and created a much bigger problem had it not showed up then. So now I am losing the weight slowly due to not being able to excerise but thats okay. I am doing PT 3 times a week and getting stronger, I hope to make it soon to support meeting, it will be in a wheelchair but that right now is a huge improvement.