Joshua F.
My story? Ok. I have been fat my whole life...ever since I can remember. We drank soda like it was water in my house when I was growing up. My parents would constantly put me on diets, but nothing ever really worked...and then I would just gain more. I was very active however...I played baseball, football, and was very active in scouting. Even through my early 20's, I was still very active, I had even played hockey and paintball on a regular basis. As I got older, and I had more responsibilites and had to work longer hours and such, the weight started pouring on. With a lessened activity level, and continued poor eating and drinking habits, I continually got bigger. I tried diet after diet. At one point a doctor that I was seeing put me on a Vegi/Fruit Shake diet. I had 2 fruit/vegi shakes..morning and night, with a salad at lunch...with no protien. I did this for almost 2 months...I lost a lot of weight..butg I was hungry all the time and finally got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore..so I fell off, and I feel hard. I gained back all the weight I had lost, (almost 40 lbs) plus some. Later, I met a former professional wrestler he even put me on his program and was helping me personally..but we had a falling out, and I gained back all the weight I had lost with him..plus some.
Well, lets jump to this last May. I had gotten a cold. The cold went away, but I was still coughing. I was coughing so hard at one point that I broke a rib. My doctor treated the cough, but it really didnt go away. So, in July I went back to him as I was still coughing. He asked me a bunch of questions...ordered an EKG, a chest x-ray, urinalisys and blood work. Based on my edema (swelling) in my feet and ankles, and other questions I had answred, the EKG (which showd an enlarged right and left ventricle) and the chest x-ray (which showed that vessels had shifted up in my lungs), he proceeded to tell me that I was in Congestive Heart Failure and that I had to lose weight and that based on my history, my only real choice for signifigant, permenant weight loss would be WLS. He also said that the diagnosis would be confirmed by the blood test that would contain an enzyme that is released during heart failure, so he put me on some major meds to treat the heart failure. He also ordered me to see a neurologist that specializes in sleep disorders.
Well, we got the blood test back. He had good news and bad news for me. The good news: I wasn't in congetstive heart failure. The enzyme was not present. The bad news: he wasn't sure what was wrong with me. So, fast forward a few weeks to my sleep study. I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. My sleep apnea is so severe that I am in the top 2% of sleep apnea sufferers. As it turns out, my sleep apnea is commonly misdiagnosed as congestive heart failure. The nuerologist also confirmed that I needed to have WLS. I was also seen by a cardiologist and a pulmonologist and both of them also confirmed that I need to have WLS...so here I am. My surgery is scheduled, and is only a little more than a week away and I am getting ready for my life to change forever.
