May Q.
Did you eat?
Jan 01, 2013
For the past week I have been religiously looking up videos on YouTube about people who have gotten the vertical sleeve gastrectomy. Seeing their stories has lifted up my hopes in such a way that my fears have actually gone away. To be honest the only fear I have now, is not getting it done.
At the same time while I am so happy and exited to start this journey. I have a tremendous sadness in my heart. I am sad because so many of us obese people go through life not enjoying it to the fullest. We are limited by our weight, and we miss out on precious time with our family and children. That is something I have never really paid any attention to.. Until now!
This weekend my 2 nephews came over the house to stay the night. They usually sleep over on the weekend. The oldest one tells me “Tia (aunt) can we watch a movie today?” I said: “sure we can, but when your little brother finishes his game on the computer, that way we can all enjoy the movie… we just have to decide what to watch”
So about 30 minutes later he asks me again “Tia aren’t we going to watch a movie?” I tell him that I have been waiting for them to finish their game on the computer, but if they are done we can go ahead and start a movie.
He looks at me with a smile, then his face expression changes within seconds and asks me “did you eat?” I said: “no I haven’t eaten I’m not hungry, but why are you asking anyway”… He tells me “Because every time you eat before we sit to watch a movie, you get very tired, fall asleep and we end up watching the movie by ourselves”.
That comment broke my heart into pieces. It’s like he was telling me how I’m missing out on our nephew/aunt time. It’s the truth no matter how small of a meal I have, I always get extremely tired, and even though I try to fight off the tiredness, sleep always overcomes.
When we watch a movie, I always get awakened by their laughter and I ask “what did I miss” and I always see the disappointment in their faces as they tell me I have missed another happy moment.
My obesity takes over... I am tired of missing snippets of my nephew’s life because I am too fat to keep up, or too tired to stay awake.
I don’t want to keep missing anymore happy moments… Life is too short, and my nephews will grow up soon.
-May
p.s. leave a comment if you have ever experienced something similar.
Check out my personal blog at: http://newday4may.blogspot.com/
Hi!
Dec 31, 2012
Hi - I am May and I am new to www.obesityhelp.com.
Before I start my first post I would like to say how inspiring and supportive I find this website/forum. I have never read so many posts with such encouraging words. Reading the different posts I have concluded that there are a lot of caring people out there.
Moving forward – One of my co-workers helped me stumble upon weight loss surgery. He is extremely overweight and has been doing all the things that are required from him before he has his surgery. Each time we talk a little about what he has been doing, I learn a little about WLS myself. After a while of having these conversations I started to think about my own weight struggles. Ultimately it inspired me to start researching about the different WLS options out there.
I am only 5 feet 1 inch tall and 102 lbs overweight. Last year at about this time of the year I was 120 lbs overweight. So I started to exercise, starve myself and eat as much vegetables as I could. Still, I didn’t manage to get any much weight off. The 18 lbs I have lost and miraculously maintained, makes me think each day how I don’t want to gain them back - EVER! So when my co-worker started to talk to me about what he learned at the informational session, the hospital, his surgeon and the nutritionist. I said to myself that I cannot afford to keep working out year after year and only manage to barely lose 18 lbs a year. I asked him how I could sign up for the informational session, and here I am today.
I have my informational session January 28th 2013 and I also have an appointment with my PCP that same month.
For years I have seen many of my co-workers go on “vacation” for about a month and come back to work looking like Rock Stars. I heard each time that it was WLS. Each time I thought I couldn’t get it because I assumed you had to be +300 lbs to qualify. All I could say to myself was: “wouldn’t it be nice if I could qualify for WLS too." Basically assuming you had to be +300 lbs overweight to qualify for WLS stopped me from asking how I could find out if I too qualified too.
Boy was I surprised when I said to my co-worker a few weeks ago, “too bad I probably don't qualify”, and he answered back by saying: “Well May they gave me a package here that says what the guidelines are, let’s take a look”. When we read all the information, and I saw that there’s a change that I qualify; this made my hopes rise automatically.
Today I am 102 lbs overweight, I am pre-diabetic, suffer from severe migraines, and have a BMI of 37.8 If I don’t take care of this now, I don’t want to see what tomorrow has in store.
Since I have other health conditions that I have not mentioned, as I said earlier; I have made an appointment with my PCP to see if those other health conditions will allow me to qualify by my health insurance guidelines.
Right now all I know is that under the stretched out skin/stretch marks, excessive weight, belly rolls, cellulite, big boxer arms (as my mom calls them), double chin and chubby face... I know I can find the true May. She’s been hiding and isn’t scared to come out and greet the world. So If I get approved to start my mission towards WLS and beyond, I know hard work and determination will help me shed all the weight that the real May has been hiding under.
-May
p.s. Check out my personal blog at: http://newday4may.blogspot.com/
