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Hi, my name is Rose. I am a single mom of 2 boys, each from a different marriage, and I take care of my disabled, elderly parents: mom Kat, 68 and dad Donny, 73. This is a 24 hour a day job sense my dad is almost 400 pounds and has only one leg, is diabetic and a huge grouch. I home school my youngest son, Thomas 11 and my oldest son, Richard 20, just graduated from basic training in the Marines.
So I am writing this blog to keep track of everything I do to loose weight and let you into the life of a fat, single mom. Maybe to tell you my life story as well, so you know how I got from 135 pounds to 336 pounds.
I started this journey long ago. I have lost and I have gained. I have taken diet pills, tried herbs, weight loss programs and I am finely at my wits end. I need to do something drastic.
WARNING!! THIS WILL GET GRAPHIC!!
THE HUMAN BODY AND ALL IT'S FUNCTIONS!
Back in November of 2011 I went to my doctor. We will call him DR. Kirt. I got on the office scale and it read 336 pounds. WOW! I was stunned, I couldn't believe how fat I had gotten. I was depressed about my weight and so I ate, I got fatter from eating so I gained more weight, then the depressed eating again. It is a vicious cycle!! I lost my 2nd husband to a younger, skinnier girl and that was depressing too. More weight!
Anyways, back to the doctor.
I waited in his office to talk to him about the problems I have been having with my period, 2 a month, very painful, clotting, very painful. So he ordered all the blood tests and did his exam. I got the whole work up from top to bottom, inside and out, even a mammogram, even though I am UNDER 40. I went back the next week for the results and he told me I am fat. "Well, I know that!" was my reply. He then proceeded to tell me why I am fat, why I am having such messed up periods(2 A MONTH ), and what I need to start to do so I might live long enough to see my 11 year old graduate high school. He put me on a medication called Metformin and gave me a blood sugar tester and told me to check my blood sugar 3 times a day. Well my blood sugars were always in the normal range,between 90 and 120, so that was not the problem and that was not how to fix what seemed to be broken. Well he decided I needed to see someone else about my female problems and maybe this other doctor can help straighten me out.
He sent me to a gynecologist that is a specialists for over weight woman. He will be called Dr. Sean, I made the appointment and got in to see him within 4 days. WOW, unheard of now a days,right?
So I went in for that appointment and he reviewed all the tests that were done. The mammogram was clear, no worries there, but I have elevated blood sugars. He explained that I have 1.Metabolic syndrome 2. Poly cystic ovary syndrome 3. high blood pressure 4. high stress levels.
Ok, so what does that mean?
Well he explained that this has been building up for a long time as I have gained weight over the years. Some is heredity but most of the problems are coming from my weight. So to help with the heavy periods, sometimes I will have 2 a month and they can last 10 to 15 days, during the winter I sometimes will bleed for 1 to 2 months. yuck!!, he suggested I either get my tubes tied, not a big deal I really don't want any more children, or get something called a Mirena. I checked out both options and weighed the pros and cons of both. I decided on the Mirena. I went in on December 5, 2011 and got that put in. He told me it would lessen my periods and hopefully stop them all together. Well, that was the 2nd most painful thing I ever experienced,child birth being the 1st. Dr. Sean said it would be uncomfortable for a few weeks then I wouldn't notice it any more. Well, I was in pain all the time. It was like having menstrual cramps on steroids. I would call and talk to his nurse and she would tell me this was normal and it will go away. Well the beginning of February was the worst, I couldn't stand up straight and I was hurting from my belly button down to my thighs, front and back. OH, and I had not stopped bleeding from the day it got put in!
I called Dr, Sean and explained how I have been feeling and how my body was reacting and how I can actually feel the thing inside me. He had me come in the next day and he removed it. With in minutes of the horrid thing being gone I started to feel better. The pain started to go away and with in an hour, ALL the pain was gone!
Dr. Sean said it is rare that a body rejects it like that. As he was walking out the door he turned to me and said"By the way, did you know your insurance just today approved the Lap Band or gastric bypass surgery coverage. You might want to look into that." I was stunned, again. My brother was 460 pounds and he got the gastric bypass done and now he is 260 pounds. I started to cry, I said "really?" and he confirmed the e-mail he was sent that morning and referred me to Dr. Davis (real name!! Check out link). Dr. Sean referred me to Dr. Davis and I made my first appointment.
I attended a seminar explaining the lap band system and Gastric Bypass, asked a bunch of questions and decided, this I will do. I went to my first appointment and met Dr. Davis in person. He is a very nice,handsome, soft spoken and kind man. Young too.
He explained the surgery and everything I need to do to make this happen. First I need to get a sleep study done, and I need to loose 30 pounds. I have 6 months to accomplish these tasks.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!
Okay, so here is a pic of me in January 2011.
Huge, I know. But there is hope me! I have been seeing my regular doctor, Dr kirt, every month. He is helping loose the 30 pounds and I have to have documentation that I have been trying to loose the weight. Dr. Kirt put me on Phentermine and told me to eat less and exercise more. The Phentermine is very effective for me. Before I started taking it I felt as though I was starving all the time. I would eat then and hour later I was hungry again. Not just hungry, but hungry like I hadn't eaten in a week. I was always eating something, chips, popcorn, candy, cake, cookies. I love to cook, baking deserts is my favorite. I love to share my creations with my family and part of that enjoyment is eating it too. We have a local gas station that sells these hot dogs, they aren't just hot dogs, one is called a Bahama Mama. mmmm!! They have jalapenos in side the huge sausage. mmmm!! I would put sauerkraut and cheese on them. I could 2 to 3 a day if I had a choice. I am also addicted to potato chips. Yes, I am an addict. I would by 4 or 5 family size bags and at night I would play on my computer or watch a movie and eat a whole bag all by my self. The entire bag. If I ran out before the movie was over I would start in on another bag.
Not many know this, but I am letting it all out!!
I would also buy 6-8, 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew
I would drink one or two a day depending on what I was doing that day. bad, bad, bad.
For regular meals I would eat hamburgers (2), spaghetti, lasagna, stir fry, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, french fries anything I could cook I would, then I would eat it. The list would go on and on if I were to try to tell you all the things in my diet, but to save space I won't. :)
Well, I still love those things but I no longer eat like I use to. Instead of chips and pop corn I eat carrots, celery, cucumbers, Cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, grapes, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, melons al sorts of alternatives. I just decided one day that these things taste better. It was a conscious choice!! I eat less portions, I try to eat as much as my 11 year old does. (I know that wont last much longer) He doesn't eat much because of the medication he is on for his ADHD. (Later topic)
Instead for drinking the nectar of the gods, Mountain Dew, I drink a lot of water and flavored water. I found I like the MIO the best, no aspartame.
Lots of different flavors and I can control what it tastes like. this helps a lot!! I still drink a lot of ice water though, and it seems to make me feel better and my skin is clearer and more healthy looking.
All this helps, a lot of little things make a big difference! Hey that should be my title, yeah "A lot of little things make a big difference!" I wonder if I can get that trade marked? Hhuuumm?
Anyways, so I changed my eating habits and I had one last thing to do, I needed a sleep study done to prove to the insurance there is a bigger under lying problem that I can't fix on my own.
I had to get an order from Dr, Kirt to get it so it was off to see him again. he checked my weight and I had only lost 13 pounds. It had been 3 months and I only lost 13 pounds. That was disheartening. But I had to keep going. I made the appointment to get the sleep study done on May 19,2012. It was at 10"00 PM.
I went in to The Sleep Instatute with my little overnight bag not knowing what to expect. I was directed to a very small bedroom and put on my pajamas, a girl came in and took me into an office where she proceeded to GLUE electrodes to my head, face upper body and my legs. I have really long hair so this was not easy to do. She then glues a piece of brown plastic that was shaped like a small pair of sunglasses, under my nose. Ok so this is hard to picture, so the part of sunglasses that goes over your nose was under my nose and the part you would look through was glues to my cheeks. It was awful! Uncomfortable with all these wires streaming off me and through my PJs I took my sleeping pill and crawled into the bed. That was a very hard night sleep. I kept waking up, the girl was in and out of the room fixing the sunglasses looking thing under my nose and, well it was just hard to stay asleep. In the morning, 6AM, I got to go home with all these glue spots all over me and in my hair. Yuck! 2 weeks later I had my appointment with Christina Finnerty NP, absolutely an amazing person. She is tiny, beautiful, smart, fantastic sense of humor and a hilarious laugh!! I loved how she explained everything in terms I could understand, instead of doctor speak! She made me feel comfortable being in the office, very warm and welcoming.
Christina explained that I stop breathing in my sleep and I have uncontrolled muscle movements and snore, loudly. qawwwwww (my dog stepped on the keyboard, I guess she wanted to put in what I sound like lol)
Anyways, she explained a lot of stuff and what I got out of it was this. There are 4 levels of sleep, REM, n1, n2 and n3. N3 being the deep sleep that you need at least 4 hours of a night to maintain a good healthy sleep. I got 19 minutes of REM sleep,this was 5.1% of total sleep time ; normal is 20%. N1 20.1%, N2 63.9%, N3 10.9%. I had 4 obstructive apneas and 135 hypopneas. My oxygen went down to 86%, my normal is 96%. Periodic limb movement was 23.5 an hour.(mild)
All this adds up to me not getting the sleep I need to stay healthy. It is a major contributor to my weight gain.
I remember when I started snoring, I started having weight problems around the same time. Weird, I had no idea they were related.
So now I have a c-pap, I put this mask on at night that has air and a humidifier gently blowing in my mouth and nose all night. It takes some time to get use to but I am sleeping better, I don't wake up with head aches anymore and I am loosing weight faster. I am already down to 310 pounds. YEAH!!!
I know I have a long road ahead of me, but at least I am on the right path!
On August 22,2012 I go back in to Dr. Davis's office for my pre-surgery blood tests and to make sure I am on the right path to loose the weight. I am sure it will be a very successful tool to help me in my weight loss, but it is a tool not a solution. I have chosen to do this for Thomas, Richard and my self. I want to live to see my grand kids some day and be able to play with them.
I will try to post something every day to let you into my life. Some will be about the weight loss journey and some will be about my life and how I got to the point I am today.
As for now, I am going to go get some carrots and cucumbers and have a snack. Have a great day and remember : A lot of little things make a big difference!
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