Dawna
Well, my story is the same as most. Fat as far back as I can remember. I can remember a childhood friend offering me a Dorrito for doing 10 jumping jacks (I was in the second grade). I did it by the way (you know they put some sort of addictive drug on those, right?) Anyway, I finally had enough and had a RNY 3+ years ago. It has not been easy. Yes the weight fell off. I didn't really have to work at that. The had part has been the head part and I really don't have that down yet.
I have been an RN for 10 years. For the last 2 years (almost) I have been the bariatric coordinator for a local hospital. I am resigning my position soon. I am really tired of it all. I know that I am in a position to help many people, but... I am also the one that has to tell people "sorry but your insurance has an exclusion that I can't fight" or "sorry but we can't do medicare patient's because we aren't a center of excellence". It's really hard for me to give up as this has been my program. MINE. I grew it from the ground up. I wrote the policy, I wrote the clinic forms, I educated the entire staff on bariatric sensitivity. I did it. But I couldn't grow the program. It's not that we don't have qualified patient's, we don't have payers in our area. It sucks. The one thing that is great is that I have effected a change throughout the hospital in attitude. Every department ordered special equipment this year for the bariatric patient. I don't know if that would have happened if I hadn't pointed attention to this growing issue.
My weight loss journey went as follows: 280 starting weight 5/21/03. Current weight 150 pounds. My goal was always 135 pounds. I don't have any idea why I think I can get there. I weighed more than that in 8th grade. I need to realize that I look great at my current weight and maintain it. I had an abdominoplasty and breast reduction in 7/06. My results truly disgust me. I am having a revision in December. I can't wait. I don't know what is going to be done, but anything is an improvement. With the breast reduction, 350 grams had to be removed bilaterally for insurance to cover it. I told the surgeon that I didn't want to be less than a B cup. If removing that much would make me less than that, I didn't want it. He reassured me that no, I would be no less than a B cup. I am going to have an actual measurement today to see what size I actually am, but I tried 3 bras on last week, 34 A's, 2 fit perfect and 1 was too big. I asked the doctor the day he did the surgery to make sure I was a B cup or lets not do it. I don't know what is going to happen. With the abdominoplasty, I had the anchor cut because the upper abdomen was what bothered me the most. Well He did it, but the upper abdomen is worse than pre-op. It is still VERY saggy with a incsion scar in the middle. I don't get it, but...
I was going to transfer my profile but it didn't go well. There really isn't much about my immediate post op journey in there anyway. It is mostly my head journey after 2 years out. So I'll just start from here.
Dawna
