In my brain, I was simply “full figured” and fabulous – but when I saw pictures of myself, I was mortified at what I REALLY looked like. I attended a health fair at my office and my blood tests indicated that I was MORBIDLY OBESE. That label hit me like a ton of bricks.
But in all actuality, the extreme amount of excess body fat was ruining my life day after day after day. I had been missing quite a bit of work because I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) get myself together every day…I had no energy, and every part of my body constantly ached. Just prior to my health fair I had diagnosed myself as having Fibromyalgia and had made an appointment with an Endocrinologist. This Doctor was a much older man, very gentle and soft spoken who listened to my ramblings about what I thought was wrong with me. When I was finished, he stood up, walked over, and handed me a packet and said “before I do any testing….and any time or money wasting………….. I need you lose a lot of weight. You are clearly morbidly obese (there were those words again) and my guess is – that most, if not all, of your problems have to do with how overweight you are.” That man changed my life right then and there. His complete and total honesty and that packet he handed me, led me directly to Dr. Marvin.
I have had the band on for almost 22 months and I have dropped from 250 the day of my surgery to 160…..10 more lbs and I will be down a full 100 lbs from where I started! I couldn’t be more excited! My life is COMPLETELY different. I finally look as good as I feel….and I feel better than I can ever remember feeling. AND I am HEALTHY…. not only in my body, but in my brain. I am up early, at work every day (and up for my 2nd promotion)! My confidence at work and in public is through the roof! You have no idea how invisible you are in all areas of your life when you are fat. A sad fact – but a fact all the same. My family is thrilled, my kids are proud to have me around their friends and out in public with them, my friends can’t believe how young I look and how much my personality has changed for the better. And my husband….well he is just sitting back and watching me Go and enjoying every minute of it. He isn’t real pleased with all the male attention I am now getting……but I’m loving it!
It is great to be able (and to want) to fully participate in life. Getting the LapBand was the best thing I could have ever done for myself and the person I knew I could – and will – be.
To Dr. Robert Marvin – thank you for being so approachable and informative at that Methodist Medical Weight Loss Seminar. You had me at “Hello.” 😉 And thank you for a completely uneventful surgical procedure…it went perfectly. Early that morning I was being rolled into surgery and the next thing I know I was doing a lap around the nurse’s station and heading home in the early afternoon. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and how quickly I was back in the game. Surgery on Thursday morning, I showed property Thursday night (not recommended but was in good enough shape to do it), and was back to work full time the following Monday. Incredible!
