(CAUTION: Heaps of smileys in use below....I think they're cute! )
How many times have I tried to lose the weight, once and for all? About elevnty thousand.
G'Day all!
I'm hotfoot (my old CB "handle"!--I drove 18 wheelers for a few years).
I'm 36 years old, married for just over 5 and I'm fat. I can just hear you saying, Noooo! Really??
Well, yes. Really. But not for long. Because back in March I
finally really and for truly found my 'enough' point, and made a decision that I'd been hemming and hawing over for a while: lap band surgery.
I had a band put in place laproscopically on 19 May 2008 and I have never looked back. I have only had very minor set backs--not the least of which was gaining back 1/2 the weight I lost in the first 2 weeks after banding (hadn't had a fill and the stomach swelling had subsided).
I had a fill on 5 July--4.1mls. It was the strangest sensation--kind of a tickly pressure thing, but it didn't hurt. The needle was tiny. I didn't even need local numbing. He filled up the syringe, flicked out the air bubbles, and "ploink" he stuck the needle in and filled her up! (I say 'ploink' because that was the sound it made!) I am going to ask for some more fill, but it has been just fabulous so far.
So you probably want to know what my breaking point was. well, there were several points, but the final straw that broke the camels back was the nearly 2cm long black hair that I pulled out of a "blemish" near my chin. I KNOW!!! Isn't that just disgusting?!?!
I have PCOS, which is just a lovely LOVELY thing to have, and apparently it is aggravated by excess weight, which is just hilarious
since PCOS often
causes the weight gain in the first place.
Anyway, I saw that and right then and there I made the decision. I didn't even consult my husband, I made up my mind that come he!! or high water, I was getting banded, even if I had to sell a kidney on eBay to do it. I made the initial appointment with my GP, got the referrel, booked that appoitment, and THEN told my husband. I was expecting a lot of
about how I should just pull up my boot straps and just stick to a diet, or 'get a tube of harden-up', or 'build a bridge and get over it'. But he was suprisingly supportive and never said he didn't think I should do it. I think after watching me struggle with every diet and plan under the sun for the last 5 years, knowing that I'd struggled with my weight my whole life, he knew better than to argue. AND he was tired of seeing me sabotage myself and subsequently fail.
So anyway, here I am, about 2 months post op. I have lost 10kgs so far. It has been slow going, but it's a marathon not a sprint. I know that now.
When I was younger I would try to convince myself that I could lose like 20 pounds in 2 weeks, and then when I hadn't even lost 2 pounds I'd beat myself up
have a tantrum
then do some emotional eating
then some emotional snacking
and that's how I came to look like this:
(me dancing naked in the moonlight!)
But those days are gone, because now, even though I am still an emotional eater, there is not nearly as much room to stuff those emotions down with food. It simply comes back up. I have no choice and that's the way I like it. I like not having the option of killing myself by eating myself to death.
It's not for everyone. It's a life altering decision. I wasn't ready to go to a more extreme length, but if the band doesn't workout for me in the long run, then I've got no qualms about sacrificing some of my small intestine to a RNY. After that, I don't think there would be much hope.
However, I'm confident that I've found my solution. I still need to deal with my emotional and stress eating; after all--the band IS only a tool. But it seems to be a very effective tool, and I can not recommend the procedure or my surgeon enough.
So anyway, sorry to burn your eyes out of your head, if you're reading this. But that's the introduction to hotfoot.
Cheers!
just keep swimming, just keep swimming......
How many tries does it take?
. . . glad you found us, Chickie . . . and good luck for your continued success. 
day !
