MANH

I am 44 years old and have been overweight most of my adult life. I was extremely thin as a child, teen, and young adult, but I started putting on weight after my mother was killed in a car wreck when I was 21. I initially gained about 65 pounds and maintained that weight for about 10 years, when I decided that I needed to lose weight to get pregnant. I joined Weight Watchers and lost almost 50 pounds, getting down to 136 at my lowest. The following year I got pregnant, gained 63 pounds during my pregnancy and ended up about 20 pounds above my starting weight after my son was born. I gradually gained back up to the 50 pounds I had lost and stayed there about 4-5 years, then I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia. Since then I have become increasingly less mobile and have continued to put on additional weight. I've tried to lose weight with diet alone with no success and have been largely unable to do much exercise due to joint pain. I have weighed as much as 290. My rheumatologist recommended Bariatric surgery to me, and I began meeting with a doctor last summer. I am now at my 6-month mark and looking to have the gastric sleeve done very soon!