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What a roller coaster ride my life has been but I now feel that I’ve reached a point where I can get off the endless loop of diet successes and failures, thanks to you and your team, and start to concentrate on the important things I want to do with the rest of my life.
I was born in 1953 coming in at a very hefty 11lbs2oz (Poor mum)! I was a fat child who was taught to eat everything on my plate and think of the poor starving children in India who had nothing. This resulted in my attending the obesity clinic at 11; I was mortified! Teased all throughout my school years I found that being the class clown was the only way to survive but that didn’t take away the pain. My rewards for good behaviour were food and my rewards to myself for being miserable were, you guessed it, food but you must have heard this a million times so lets push on ahead.
Do you remember when I came and saw you in 1998? I know that when I came back for a second appointment 10 years later, in 2008, you said that I’d taken a bloody long time to make up my mind! This was due to ill informed advice from friends and relatives that it was dangerous surgery and I looked ok as I was. I was 146kg! What were they thinking; I looked like a barrage balloon with legs! My health was atrocious with arthritis in my knees and spine, high blood pressure, severe depression, looming diabetes etc and then to top it off a brain tumour which left me paralysed down one side until I learned to walk again. It was a nightmare at that weight and twice as hard as it should have been.
When I got well again I decided to take a good long look at myself and realised that I had almost died. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life like this, I wanted to live a full and active life with my kids, I wanted to swim, play sport, run and dance the night away. I was sick of hiding my personal problems behind my weight. I was staying in a broken marriage because of my insecurity and lack of confidence in myself and this was unfair to all of my family especially my kids.
The first thing I did was to go back to work, it was the best decision I ever made as my confidence started to return and I wanted to improve my health and looks to improve my work image. I lost 15kg by dieting but it was a hard slog and the minute I slipped it came rushing back so I knew that I had to make a serious effort to resolve this problem once and for all. That’s when I came and saw you and you changed my life forever.
My lap band was fitted on the 27th of September 2008 and we fell in love! That band has been the truest friend I’ve ever had and I love it more now than EVER. Oh we’ve had our ups and downs and I’ve cursed it when I’ve been on my knees in front of the toilet because I just wouldn’t listen when it tried to tell me that the next spoonful would be a disaster and wasn’t worth it! We are on each others wavelength now and I know that if I listen to my darling band it will let me eat sensibly any time I want as long as I follow the rules. What could be better than that, it’s a match made in heaven and I’ve lost 61kgs to prove it.
I go to gym 3 times a week and love that too. I no longer take any form of medication and my arthritis has improved beyond all expectations. My blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol is 4.2 and diabetes is no longer a forgone conclusion. My kids are proud to be seen with me at last and I‘m active and enjoy life with them now. I can shop in any store I want, although I still look in the larger sizes first, old habits die hard when you go from a size 28 to a 14! I still don’t recognise myself in the mirror sometimes and when I went back to the UK for a family wedding in September last year, no one knew who I was. I have to admit that I was proud of myself and maybe I did show off a bit!
I want all overweight people to realise that there is a solution that’s achievable and whilst it does take guts and determination to work with the band, it will be the best friend you ever had and will never let you down if you treat it with respect.
I did it, Ian, and you gave me a chance to get my life back and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely
Sheila Waterman
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