I Started Living The Day I Had This Surgery
March 17, 2014A Before And After Celebration
Featuring: Bobbie Carter
OH Username: tgrlnh
Surgery Type: RNY
Weight lost: 205 pounds (In 18 months!)
Surgeon: John Gens, MD
I was 28 and on the brink of death. I started living the day I had this surgery.
I had wanted weight loss surgery for most of my life but I was never really committed. In the spring of 2007, I started a program to have the Lap-Band surgery done. I was not successful because I could not lose the weight. I wanted the surgery badly but I didn't want it for the right reasons. Fast forward to fall 2011. I was 28 and I weighed 351 pounds. I had sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, diabetes, and borderline high blood pressure. The doctors were watching my cholesterol and I was dealing with the many aches and pains that come with carrying around 351 pounds. Basically, I was going to die.
My life had changed from spring 2007 to 2011. I adopted two children from foster care. My thought was that I could offer them a better life. The truth is, I wasn't. I was parenting from the couch. I got home from work, winded, and I didn't want to move. My oldest daughter was my waitress as well as the main caregiver for my younger special needs child. This was not a better life. I wasn't abusing them, but I wasn't a mother either.
My parents really pushed me into pursuing weight loss surgery again. They said how they didn't want to bury their daughter and spoke of how I was going to die, yadda yadda. My response to them was, "You are overreacting, I'm not THAT big!" To quiet them down, I went to a seminar. It was interesting and I thought "Wow, to be thin. But there is no way I can lose the weight. I've tried before and failed."
Fast forward to winter 2012. Winter in New Hampshire and that means snow. My kids got new snow tubes for Christmas and were dying to go sledding. Three things happened that day that changed my mind about surgery and made it not an option, but a necessity.
1) There were no winter clothes that would fit me. I had to put sweatpants on top of sweatpants just to be able to be warm enough to join in on the sledding activities.
2) Walking to the top of the hill almost killed me.
3) I sat on my daughters brand new sled and popped it.
I started the program wholeheartedly the day after the Superbowl in 2012. I was mandated to loose 21 pounds on my own. I went to all of my therapy classes, my support groups, nutrition appointments, and physical therapy appointments. I lost 37 pounds before surgery. I had to be an overachiever or I wouldn't have been able to look at myself if I was turned away the day of surgery.
June 6, 2012 changed my life. I had the laparoscopic RNY as well as my gallbladder removed with no complications... except that I became allergic to milk. I was off diabetic medication by the time I left the hospital and I had no sleep apnea either. My weight loss was rapid at first and then slowly tapered off. I followed my diet to a T!
If you log onto my OH profile, you can really see the emotional struggle as well as pictures taken each month and a record of my weight loss as it progressed.
For everything that I thought I would lose, I gained so much. I am now 30 and I am going to live! My kids have their mother and I have a life with endless possibilities.
If anyone ever needs to reach out, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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