In Our Own Words

Since a very young age I have been overweight. With all the dieting I have done, I have been successful twice in losing a significant amount of weight. Of course I gained it back plus some; you know the story, it’s called yo-yo dieting and it makes things worse. I now weight a hefty 378 pounds and I am 5’5”. My hip has arthritis and there are days I can’t even get on a bus to get to work. My ankles, feet and knees are in constant pain and prevent me from doing very little exercise. I am tired all the time because I have been recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea.

The health system won’t pay for the CPAP machine because I have to have another sleep study done. I already had one three years ago and recently the snore test, which showed the mild apnea. My joints are narrowing thus reason for all the pain. The good news is that I don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure. It’s been nothing but an uphill battle trying to get help for myself and all I seem to get is a lot of resistance from the medical community.

I am pretty healthy, other than the joint problems and sleep problems, and would like to keep it that way. So you see the decision for WLS is an easy decision to help myself, and believe you me, has not been taken lightly by me or my family, who are very worried about me. I now have a consult appointment with Dr. Amson in Victoria, B.C. and just to get this far has taken nearly a year. I am slowly coming to the realization that I may be waiting for years yet to come. I could have diabetes by then and high blood pressure and god forbid a heart attack or stroke. I will be 46 in a few months and almost 50 if I am lucky enough to get WLS. I just exist and feel I have very little quality of life. I want to live again, run and walk and be able just to sit in a normal sized chair and buy clothes that are a normal size, buy a plane ticket without worrying about seat belt extensions and hoping that no one sits in the seat beside me.

The Alberta and B.C. doctors who perform these surgeries have waiting lists that go on in some cases until 2007. That’s crazy. They are over-worked and we need to offer this surgery in other cities, such as my home city of Winnipeg. That would help relieve B.C. waiting lists a bit as I am sure I am not the only one from Manitoba going to B.C. for surgery. I would definitely help Alberta, since most from Winnipeg patients go there for surgeries.