Why I had WLS.

I have been asked a few times lately why I had weight loss surgery, because to look at me I don’t look that overweight.

I am only in the obese category according to my BMI and my Doctor was a little reluctant to refer me to my Surgeon, but after a heap of blood tests and going through my dieting history it was decided that gastric banding was the best option. My blood tests revealed some very interesting results. It was found that I was borderline diabetic, I have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, and with my family having a history of heart disease I was heading down a very dangerous path. It was also found that the hormone (not sure of the technicalities here) that tells the brain that you are full was almost non-existant so I was having extreme difficulty loosing weight on my own, due to constant grazing and overeating.

I had tried many, many conventional methods to lose weight over the past 15 years. Some including, weight watchers, shakes, Jenny Craig, just to name a few.

I had tried prescription drugs, Reductil and Duromine. I had great success with Duromine and took it on and off (mostly on) for about 9 years right up until I found out I was pregnant with my twins 4 years ago. My Doctor offered to put me back on this but I flatly refused. I hated the side effects and was not keen to go back on them with two small kids around. When I was on them I got very moody and snappy and I just didn’t want that to affect my boys.

Then we found out that I had a huge Hiatus Hernia. I got this through my pregnancy with the twins. My Doctor said this is very common in multiple pregnancies. The surgery required to fix the hernia was almost the same as the WLS so my doctor said I could have them both at the same time, I thought “Yeah Why Not?” I am one of those rare cases that can have WLS for other reasons than being over a BMI of 40.

I am so very happy to have had the surgery and there were times during recovery when I thought, “What have I done? Surely I could have lost this excess weight on my own?” But I’ve come to realize that no I couldn’t. I still have a long way to go to get down to a healthy weight. I am looking forward to that time so I can get my blood work done again and compare to were I am now.

I needed to do this so I can watch my boys grow up and to enjoy a long and loving marriage with my wonderful husband. He is my rock and has stood by me through all of my crazy diets and drug taking. It was time that I finally took control of my health. For me the “Way I Look” is just a positive side effect to getting healthy on the inside, my main goal.