KRIS319's Story
I'm Kris and this blog is all about me and food and fat and diabetes and addiction and cancer and the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure.
In 2009 I decided to have a gastric bypass to help me lose the excess weight I've been carrying around for what seems like forever. I can barely remember a time when I was not fat in my life. I've seen the pictures of me before I started school and I was pretty average, but starting around first grade everything goes to hell in a handbasket and it's been downhill for a long while since.
I've tried nearly everything to lose weight through the years. Doctor supervised diets. Fad diets. Mayo Clinic diet. Richard Simmons. Optifast. Slimfast. Weight Watchers. Starving. Fasting. Finally, I'd had enough. I was forty and I wanted a family and soon. There was no way I could have a healthy pregnancy or a healthy baby at 370 pounds with uncontrolled diabetes and on as many medications as I was on. I had to the lose the weight and NOW.
I found a great bariatric program at the local hospital and went through the entire process . . . all the medical tests, psychological evaluations, diet and exercise, insurance approvals - - the WORKS. Finally, after about four months and losing about thirty-four pounds pre-surgery I was on the table . . . it was May 14, 2009 and I was getting my gastric bypass. This would be my new beginn. . . NOPE!!! An hour or two later I woke up in the recovery room to my surgeon telling me that they didn't finish the procedure and I had ovarian cancer. My immediate response to her, "I'm so pissed!!!"
It's more than a year later. Yes. I had stage 4 ovarian cancer. I was blessed though in that the cancer I have is psammocarcinoma - a very (stress very) rare type of ovarian cancer that grows very slowly. The oncologist removed all of the tumors he could find throughout my abdomen (a mere month after my failed gastric bypass) as well as my "lady bits" and apendix. I'm doing well after a year and I don't even need chemotherapy or radiation right now. The cancer could come back, but so far so good. Of course I'm now unable to have a biological child and at 40 years old I was thrown into menopause. (I'm not bitter, really.)
It did take a while to gain some perspective. Around May of this year (2010) I realized that I didn't go through everything last year to survive the cancer only to let morbid obesity and diabetes kill me instead. So, I'm working at losing the weight again and getting all of my ducks in a row to finally get my gastric bypass. I decided to write this blog today to get things off my chest and just share my experience. I'm going to do this. I will make this change happen for me.
Namaste,
Kris
In 2009 I decided to have a gastric bypass to help me lose the excess weight I've been carrying around for what seems like forever. I can barely remember a time when I was not fat in my life. I've seen the pictures of me before I started school and I was pretty average, but starting around first grade everything goes to hell in a handbasket and it's been downhill for a long while since.
I've tried nearly everything to lose weight through the years. Doctor supervised diets. Fad diets. Mayo Clinic diet. Richard Simmons. Optifast. Slimfast. Weight Watchers. Starving. Fasting. Finally, I'd had enough. I was forty and I wanted a family and soon. There was no way I could have a healthy pregnancy or a healthy baby at 370 pounds with uncontrolled diabetes and on as many medications as I was on. I had to the lose the weight and NOW.
I found a great bariatric program at the local hospital and went through the entire process . . . all the medical tests, psychological evaluations, diet and exercise, insurance approvals - - the WORKS. Finally, after about four months and losing about thirty-four pounds pre-surgery I was on the table . . . it was May 14, 2009 and I was getting my gastric bypass. This would be my new beginn. . . NOPE!!! An hour or two later I woke up in the recovery room to my surgeon telling me that they didn't finish the procedure and I had ovarian cancer. My immediate response to her, "I'm so pissed!!!"
It's more than a year later. Yes. I had stage 4 ovarian cancer. I was blessed though in that the cancer I have is psammocarcinoma - a very (stress very) rare type of ovarian cancer that grows very slowly. The oncologist removed all of the tumors he could find throughout my abdomen (a mere month after my failed gastric bypass) as well as my "lady bits" and apendix. I'm doing well after a year and I don't even need chemotherapy or radiation right now. The cancer could come back, but so far so good. Of course I'm now unable to have a biological child and at 40 years old I was thrown into menopause. (I'm not bitter, really.)
It did take a while to gain some perspective. Around May of this year (2010) I realized that I didn't go through everything last year to survive the cancer only to let morbid obesity and diabetes kill me instead. So, I'm working at losing the weight again and getting all of my ducks in a row to finally get my gastric bypass. I decided to write this blog today to get things off my chest and just share my experience. I'm going to do this. I will make this change happen for me.
Namaste,
Kris