As an FYI, during this whole process of getting accepted for surgery, this blog is going get into the down and dirty, nitty gritty, everything you may never have wanted to know about me. I feel that I need to help anyone that I can through the process, along with myself, and the only way to do that is to be completely honest about everything. You have been given your fair warning.

So lets go over my stats that I sort of listed in the previous post, and the history that accompanies each of them. The Kaiser requirements are in bold.

1. 100 lbs over ideal weight: I have been fat all my life, from the moment that puberty decided to rear its ugly head. The weight has wavered over the years, of course, but it has always been slowly but steadily going up. I'm currently at 326lbs. Ouch.
2. BMI over 40: My weight, height and age, 45, have my BMI at 52-55, depending on who's height measurement you believe. My last measurement, a couple of months ago, was 5ft 6in and that's the one Kaiser is currently basing my BMI on. Odd, I have never been 5ft 6in before. I think the nurse misread the scale. 5ft 4.5in to 5ft 5in would be more accurate. So, if I'm shorter, that means my BMI is that much higher.
3. High blood pressure: It's been a little high for years but has started going up to the danger zone for the last year. It makes sense because I've gained 30lbs in the last two years.
4. Sleep apnea: I've been using a CPAP for about six years. My husband told me that I was starting to stop breathing while I slept, on average 25 times an hour. He died right before I had my first appointment with the sleep center... like two days before. If he had died a week earlier, I would never have known that I had been putting my heart under so much strain. My sleep still isn't very good (rolling around trying to get comfortable) but my CPAP is like my security blanket; I can't sleep at all without it.
5. Arthritis: When I was very young, I think a fell from a tree or something and screwed up my left knee something fierce. At the time, my parents didn't believe that it hurt as much as it did and I remember crying because I could not bend it at all. I guess fat kids are supposed to bounce? After many years of it randomly going out on me and causing immense pain at times, I finally had it checked out. Advanced osteoarthritis. Joy.
6. GERD or other acid reflux issues: My stomach started trying to dissolve itself about 10ish years ago. I've been on Prilosec since then.
7. Low back and joint pain: After carrying around all the weight for so many years, everything hurts... all the time. Sometimes less, mostly more but it never ends. A couple of doctors have tried to convince me that it's fibromyalgia. It's not. I have no trigger points. I have all the other symptoms of fibro but without the trigger points its not fibro. I figure once I get the weight off, all the other symptoms will disappear. I'm willing to bet my life on it. Hence, the bariatric surgery.
8. Diabetes:My glucose levels have always been pretty good which is odd considering my insane addiction to all things sweet and delicious. I've never had the big glucose tests but it would be hard to believe that my levels aren't heading into the danger zone by now. I imagine that the test will be required at some point in the near future.
9. Genetically linked to cancer: Cancer in the family? Uh, yeah. My mom died last year after a decade and a half battle with breast-to-sternum-to-lung cancer. My dad died when I was ten from esophageal cancer. Both of his parents died from cancer: ovarian and colon. There are probably more in my ancestry but we don't have the records. If my weight doesn't kill me, I'm pretty sure cancer will. So far, weight is winning the race and I'm not prepared to let that happen. Cancer seems more dignified.

Now for some issues that are going on that most people don't like to talk about. The things that happen when you have far too much weight on your frame.

Boils. I hate boils. They seriously suck and I get them all the time, sometimes several at once. They are almost always anywhere around my groin, sometimes on my girly parts. Most of the time, they never come to a head but slowly and painfully get reabsorbed. And there is nothing I can do about them, according to the doctors. I'm hoping they will stop when I get thinner and the whole area can start getting a little more air.

Another thing that happens when skin can't breath: rashes. Itchy, nasty rashes. I can keep mine in control with powdering all my folds after each shower.... and sometimes twice a day when it's hot. This summer has been a real itchy pain. If they get bad, they can get painful and very stinky. Ever wonder why that morbidly obese person next to you smells... odd? It's the rashes. I'm obsessive about it and rarely have that kind of trouble but if I get any bigger, the rashes will take over like they do for every super obese person.

And then there are the toilet issues. If I get even a few pounds heavier I will not be able to keep myself clean with toilet paper. It's very difficult now because it hurts my body to bend that way, let alone be able to reach easily. I have IBS and a couple of years ago I installed a bidet attachment to my toilet because toilet paper itself was getting too painful. What the hell is wrong with America and not having bidets in every home? They are WONDERFUL! Not to mention, I now use toilet paper just to dry myself so I use a whole lot less then I was and when you have IBS, you only buy the good stuff. After watching so many episodes of BBC's Fat Doctor, it is agonizing to see how people suffer with not being able to keep up their own hygiene. Yes, you can buy tools (things that hold little wads of tp and have long handles for reaching) to help but I can't imagine them working very well. It's a good thing that I have a Mirena  (and no real period to speak of) because tampons are difficult to use too.

Sometimes my feet swell. I'm assuming it's water that gets trapped when I sit for too long. It hurts sometimes but most of the time it feels like I somehow got someone else's feet switched with mine. It feels like foreign objects stuck there. The water is probably pooling in my legs too but I can't tell through the fat.

So those are my physical issues... the mental ones will have to have their own post.