My Story

This is my story. The story is not finished, but I'd like to share it so far..... I have been over weight my entire life. I was picked on as a child by my own family members for being the fat sister. As I got older (teenager) I was confident with my body, even though I was over weight. Throughout high school I did envy my skinny, pretty friends, but overall I was content with myself. I met my husband in high school, we graduated in 1997 and got married in 1999. The day of our wedding I weighed about 175 pounds and I was happy at that size. Right after we got married I quit working and quickly gained weight. In 2000 I got pregnant with our only daughter. At that point I was almost 200 pounds. The day I had her I weighed 255 pounds. I thought that wasn't that bad, I had only gained 55 pounds. Since that day in April of 2001 I haven't weighed less than that. Skip ahead 5 years......the Husband and I separated. We were separated for an entire year and were days away from our final divorce hearing. ***SPOILER ALERT*** We didn't divorce! He moved back home December of 2007. In February of 2008 I started having vision problems. I went to a few eye doctors and specialist, turns out it wasn't my eyes it was a tumor on my pituitary gland that was pressing on my optic nerve. Long story short, I have brain surgery on April 9, 2008. I didn't go back to work after the brain surgery, more weight gain. Then the fall of that year the dentist found that I had oral cancer. On December 4, 2008 I had surgery for that. In 2009 I still wasn't working and had gained even more weight. I went back to work in November of 2009, but continued gaining weight throughout the next 2 years. In July 2011 the neurosurgeon found that the tumor was growing again. 2nd brain surgery on July 27, 2011. It was an ordeal this time. He still couldn't get all of the tumor out and I developed a spinal fluid leak the night of the surgery, so he had to go back in and do it over the next day. It was tough on me. I was out of work for about a month and a half. At this point I'm on up in the 200's.

In late 2011 a friend told me about her lapband surgery journey. She had amazing results, but I was unsure if I could do it, but I wanted to give it a shot. I talked with the doctor and in January of 2012 I started my own journey

That story begins here..... January 19, 2012 I had my first medically supervised weight loss appointment, I had to go once a week for 6 weeks and weigh in and talk to the doctor about diet and exercise. On my first appointment I wanted to cry or die one. I got on the scale and it said 292 pounds. I was humiliated!!! How does somebody get to that? I had no idea, but I had let myself do it. At that point I was serious, I was losing weight if it killed me. I did my 6 weeks and then had to do a 2 week liquid diet before the actual surgery. So I had lost a few pounds during this process. On surgery day I weighed 281 pounds. I was losing weight but not as fast as I would have liked. I still had the mindset that the band was going to do it for me. In October of 2012 my tumor had grown again (at this point I was about tired of this dang tumor) my neurosurgeon said he can't get it all with surgery so he opted for radiation. I had 25 treatments. The oncologist told me I absolutely could not lose any weight during this time. I saw this as a huge set back, but I did what the doctor told me. After that I just kind of gave up on losing weight. I still worked out, but I ate crap. From September to June of this year I had only lost 6 pounds. I had just made up my mind that I was defeated, I was going to be 230ish pounds the rest of my life. I got over that pretty quick. June 27, 2013 I went to my lapband surgeon and had a sit down. I told him I was concerned that I couldn't do this. He adjusted my band. Since that day I have lost 16 pounds. As of today I weigh 213 pounds. My journey is far from over, but I am proud of every single I have lost. I still want to lose about 60 more pounds and I know that I can do it. It has been a long hard road, and I'm not off that road yet, but the road is getting a little less bumpy. During this journey I have ran (I use this term very loosely) in two 5K races and I just signed up for my first mudrun. Never in my life did I think I could do any of that, but I do and I love it.

Thank you for reading my story. I hope someone, somewhere can find some encouragement in it. ~Brandy A. brandy.arm@hotmail.com