"Beauty from Ashes"
(no pun intended)



March 2017

Little did I realize it but 2017 was "the" year for me I was in the best physical shape of my life and probably the healthiest I had ever been.  I worked hard and we were playing even harder.  I was getting up ever morning an at the ummm, well it was a parking lot, but anyway I was working out with a great group of ladies and an amazing instructor 4 days a week by 5 am.  It was hard but I loved it.  Donnie and I and even sometimes the kids were hiking in the evening and especially on the weekends.  We did a big camping trip that Summer with the boys in places we had never been and hiked our way across Oklahoma, kinda.  It was amazing!

40th Birthday in September 2017

  That following winter I began to have some weird aches and pains but pushed through.  I had began to gain weight despite everything I had been doing.  This was hard. Which made moving hard and eventually I got to I couldn’t get up and work out every morning it hurt so bad. Skip forward to May 2018 we had a big vacation planned with the boys 3 days in San Antonio and 4 days in Galveston. We had so much planned and were so excited. When got there it was everything I could do to  walk from our hotel to the bus stop. Donnie and I realized something was really wrong on day one of this trip but we were on vacation and I am Mom so I pushed through the best I could. I was so swollen it was ridiculous. 

May 2018 (San Antonio)

San Antonio was so hard but my boys had so much fun. I was thankful when we move onto Galveston. Sitting on the Beach, by the the pool, on the balcony watching my family enjoy the things we were all supposed to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong there were moment and there were things but for the most part there was pain. 

Galveston May 2018

In June I was able to get in with my now RA doctor  and over the course of the next 9 months I was handed the following Rheumatoid Arthritis, Seronegative Arthritis, Inflammatory Arthritis, Elevated Sed Rate, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Sacroiliitus, Fibromyalgia, Polyarthralgia, tachycardia, Hypertension Rheumatoid Arthritis, Seronegative Arthritis, possible lupus, depression and anxiety.  My body was literally attacking itself. There were also several hospital stays.  The amount of medication that I went through in this time period was exhausting in itself but the side effects were awful and with that I put on 80 Pounds.  I had never weighed so much in my entire life.

 March 2019-New York City

It's weird how our lives twist and turn and what brings us to our bitter end.  I had gone in to the doctor for some blood work and when I got the results well I now had diabetes.  You seen all those other things up there right, this, this is the one that got me.  I could deal with everything else but not this one. All I could thing was this one is going to be the one that kills me.  I am not even 42 years old and I can barely walk from point A to point B and I am huge, sorry but it's true. It was time for a change.  I have in my life been on ever diet known to man and they all worked for a little bit and then they didn't.  I always swore I would never have surgery for weight loss but I also didn't want to die before my 50th birthday.  I began to seriously look into bariatric surgery and I decided that it was time for life to change.  It was August 19, 2019.  It was also the first time I had stepped on the bathroom scale in I have no idea how long.  My weight that day was 291 pounds. I found a facilitator and scheduled surgery in Mexico for October 9th.  Of course there were a few things that had to be done in preparation.  

1. Passport- I had never been out of the country

I think this picture probably is the picture that shows my weight best before I had began to loose anything. It's awful and embarrassing but it is what it is.

2. Pre-Op Diet- This of course was technically only 2 weeks but my theory was if we are going to do this we are going to do this so I began eating like I was suppose to up until my 2 week pre-op diet and lost 29 pounds when I stepped on the scale the morning of my surgery.

Obesity Good Bye Center in Tijuana, Mexico

October 9, 2019 Weight 262 Pounds 
Morning of my surgery!
I had lost 29 pounds, I was shooting for 30 but I just almost made it.

Yikes!

My New Stomach

My Travel Partner, My Best Friend, My Momma!

Isn't she beautiful?
I don't what I would have done without her. Our views were beautiful and I was very grateful for Dr. Verboonen and his team but I was ever so thankful to be back home as well.

A lot of people have this foolish idea that people that have bariatric surgery take the easy way out or something like that.  I will be the first to tell you I promise you it is anything but.  There were days, probably weeks where if I could have undone what I did I would have. Am I glad I am didn't you bet I am.  I contracted a stomach but somewhere along the way and was extremely sick probably a good month so my recovery was so much harder and longer than lot of people's but I would do it again in a heart beat.  I am not going to die before I am 50 and I do not have a wheelchair in the back or my car anymore.  Yes I do still have issues with Arthritis and Fibromyalgia but it's better every day.  Better decisions make it better.  I thank God for the diagnosis of Diabetes, it saved my life.  BTW, I am no longer diabetic, nor do I have hypertension or hyperlipidemia.  My life is better and my health is better.  My confidence is better most of the time, I am still human.  
My beginning weight was 291 Pounds 
This morning 193 Pounds
98 Pounds in 7 Months, 5 Months since my surgery
I believe in miracles and I believe that God held the hand of every person involved in mine. 


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