Today I am feeling pretty dark so I chose the black background to this blog. I have spent the past 20 years of my life clinically obese. Like so many others I have yo-yoed up and down - the number on the scale telling me how I feel about myself. Over the past 20 years I have ranged from 190-266 although right now I think I am over that but I am afraid to check. Last year I had at age 46 & 47 two total knee replacements. I had done so much dieting - Weight Watchers, TOPS, several other diet clinic-type places, Overeaters Anonymous, worked with a dietician twice, more diet books than I can count - and if I did manage to lose weight I could never keep it off. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that I would be obese for the rest of my life. One day I came across a website called Obesity Help. On this website there were dozens of before and after pictures of people who had gastric bypass. Some of them were much larger than me in their before pictures and all of them were much smaller than me in the after pictures. This gave me hope - hope that perhaps I didn't have to be obese forever. I went to my GP and asked for a referral to Dr. Amson in Victoria who does the gastric bypass. I had heard differing things about the wait times. One friend of mine who had the surgery told me the waits were 4-5 years. The endocrinologist told me it was more likely 1 year. I was thrilled when I got a call that I would have an appointment on May 12th, 6 months after my referral. I had pictures in my head that this time next year I could be on my way to a normal weight. I went to Dr Amson's website and read it from one end to the other. One of the things he strongly suggests is belonging to a support group. I checked them out and found one in the town where I live. I emailed the contact name, still very excited about the prospects. After a few emails back and forth she told me that she was likely going to have her surgery this summer and it would be three years after her first appointment with Dr Amson. I was crushed! Three more years! I don't know if I and my knees could wait that long! Next Tuesday I have to have tests in the hospital and then the following week I see Dr. Amson. Next Tuesday is also the next support group meeting. I am going to try to get to that. I hope I come away with a more positive feeling than I have now. BTW, the picture up above is me at about 255.
