obesity — Bariatric Surgery Journey

If you’re a Seahawks fan, then you’re in the know about the “Day before the day before” reference. #GoHawks

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Seriously, before you embark on ANY type of journey that you are physically changing yourself, you NEED to take a before photo. When my clients start a new skincare regimen, I tell them to take a photo for a baseline so they can see the progress, good or bad. This is a non-negotiable when it comes to weight loss, weight gain, blah blah and more blah.

Why is it so important? Because the scale’s an asshole and if that number isn’t moving in the direction that you want, you become discouraged. It may even cause you to quit altogether.

For me, as I begin this new chapter of my life, I NEEDED TO DOCUMENT WHERE I STARTED FROM. This wasn’t necessarily for me to post on social, but for me to know where I started from to where I’m going and continue to head. So I had my husband take these monumental photos. After I saw them, I was in disbelief - was I really that big? Is this the body that others have seen and called “big boned?” Is this the body that resulted from all of the years of self sabotage, emotionally eating, and continual result of making poor health choices?

This was the body of someone dying for something to change. The body of someone who has felt hopeless, unworthy, and overall sadness. Dying from years of struggling with the number on the scale, size of clothing, and avoided taking photos unless it was the selfie from up high (you know what I’m talking about.)

I had to then dig even deeper within myself to stop the negative self-talk, taking ownership of what has occurred and coming to terms with the decision that I have made. Did this make me feel better? A little bit.

Two more sleeps until I went under the knife and walk out a brand new person or at least an updated version of my old self.

On October 1st, 2019 - I had a whole gamut of blood work done to see where I’m at currently which was part of my ongoing process to getting approved for bariatric surgery. This was a full panel test showing that my body inside and out was begging for change.

Here goes..

I didn’t make my Asian parents proud by becoming a Doctor (so don’t take medical advice from me) but I worked with a really good one to tell me that I was pre-diabetic, vitamin D and calcium deficient, with a cholesterol problem.

On top of that, I learned that I was in Stage 3 Diastolic Heart Failure. The Cliff Note version is that my left ventricle was hardening up and working harder to pump the blood in/out of my heart. My then 39-year old heart was acting like a 65 year old person’s heart.

Read: I could have had a heart attack at any time and DIED. Stage 3 is reversible but once it hits Stage 4, then it’s the point of no return.

The solution: Losing a crap ton of weight, watch my salt, and take blood pressure medication STAT. Learning about the Diastolic heart failure made everything make more sense about my chest pains, anxiety attacks, and labored breathing that I had been experiencing.

From here, my cardiologist, PCP, and surgeon agreed that I HAD to get the surgery. Any hesitation or doubt that I may have had about getting the surgery was out the window and running into the distance.

If I continued to live my life the way I did and not made any changes, I would surely have died an earlier death and why would I want to leave my family and this world sooner rather than later?