Gastric Bypass Surgery: From the Fear of Dying Young to Learning to Live

You don't know me, but that is okay. I'll fill you in by giving you a little bit of background about me. I am only five foot and a half inch tall. My husband lovingly refers to me as "Stumpy" as I can barely reach the second shelves in the kitchen unless I have a step stool. I stretch up to remove hangers from the bar in my closet. I'm short and that is just a fact of life. I was also morbidly obese. At my heaviest I tipped the scale at two hundred and sixty-six pounds. The torn ligament in each knee was the least of my problems. From early childhood I had chronic asthma and severe allergies. I was slightly pudgy as a child and was overweight as a teen. I dieted all through my teens, skipping breakfast and living on rice cakes and diet cola at lunch in school then gorging out at dinner since I starved myself. I managed to keep my weight from creeping over one hundred and seventy-five pounds. By my early twenties I had ballooned to two hundred and twenty five pounds. I went on the popular diet pill combo Phen-Fen and lost over thirty pounds keeping my weight around one hundred and eighty pounds. I entered the nursing field and that is when I lost the battle of the bulge. My weight was back up to two hundred pounds and soon my body fought back at the weight and my job. I tore the ligament in my right knee first, then dislocated my shoulder and pulled muscles that had too much stress of carrying my weight and those of my patients. I had a mounting list of medical problems that was two pages long. I gave up my nursing career because I could no longer fulfill my duties. I took a desk job as my right leg became worse and soon my weight was over two hundred and thirty pounds because I could barely walk without crutches.