I have noticed that there are alot of nurses on this site - not a big surprise since we are very good at taking care of other people, just not so good at taking care of ourselves. I thought it would be fun to start at thread for nurses telling where you are from, what kind of nursing you do, how much you have to lose and when you are/were sleeved, how much you have lost, etc. I will go first lol (I'm not pushy or anything :thumbup:)

I am from Kansas

I am 42 years old

I am an ER nurse

I weigh 295 and my goal is 150-160ish

I will be sleeved July 15th in Mexico - yippeee!!!

I am from Minnesota. My clinical nursing background was in Labor & Delivery but for the last 10 years I have been building, designing, implementing an electronic medical record for a large health system here. I am 50 years old, have not been overweight my entire life - just the last few years - I think it is the slowing metabolism along with the awful Minnesota winters with too much eating. I had my VSG done in Mexico on 3/22/10 [my health insurance didn't cover the sleeve and I didn't meet their BMI requirements] and I am down 53 lbs with only 15 more to go to goal! I have taken care of 100's of post-op patients over the years but this was the first time I ever had surgery. I must say the spinal duramorph is the way to go for post-op pain free recovery.

Frankie

Yaaay Frankie - can't wait to be where you are!!

I am from British Columbia, Canada, My specialty is geri-psych and I work as a community nurse on a Geriatric Outreach Team. I have been overweight since age 10. I am now 49 years old. I am my last box of smaller sized clothes stored from a number of ups and downs over the past 10 years. I don't think I'll make it through the rest of the summer before I need to start to buy new clothes. Hello NEW fall wardrobe!

Hi! I am 35 and live in Alabama. I am an ER nurse. I was sleeved June 15 in Mexico with Dr Aceves and have lost 18.6 lbs so far. My goal is 160!

I am an OR nurse in houston, Tx. I haven't been sleeved yet but Hopefully I will be soon. I have a 130 lbs to lose. I cant wait! I know I will enjoy being a nurse much more with the weight off. My feet are happy that I am getting this done.

I'm 56 yrs old, from southeast Michigan. I've been an RN since 1974 and done lots of things - addiction medicine, hospice, and most recently, home dialysis. I work full time at a large teaching hospital. I saw my surgeon today and got my surgery date- Aug 3rd! Preceeded by an EGD this Tuesday 7/13.

My highest weight was 320, current weight 308 and goal weight -somewhere less than 200 (to be determined).

Starting this thread was a great idea Kathy - Thanks.

I'm 33 years old from Oklahoma City, OK. I graduated nursing school this past December and I work nights at a wonderful hospital on the oncology floor. Alot of people wonder how I can work in such a "sad" environment, but I don't see it that way. I get so close to my patients because they're in so much for chemo, illness, etc., and I see it as a privilege to help usher them out of this world when their time comes. I've been overweight pretty much my entire life and have lost and gained with diet pills twice. My main problem is portion control, and since my portions have now been drastically reduced, I think things will be looking up for me. I weighed 280 when I made the decision to get sleeved, and my goal weight is 160. I was sleeved July 1 with Dr. Aceves in Mexicali and had a WONDERFUL experience.

Thanks, Kathy, for starting this interesting thread...

Ally -

I lost one sister to acute myelogenous leukemia and two sisters to myelodysplastic syndrome. One of them was actually hospitalized in a hospital in OKC until she passed and to this day her nurse holds a special place in my heart. The love, compassion and dignity she showed my sister is something I will never forget and I came away from there a better nurse myself. You will no doubt leave the same impression on the hearts of many patients and families in your career.

Hi everyone

I'm Amy, and I'm 29. I am an ICU nurse in Kansas. I have been fat ever since I can remember. When I was in 4th grade, I started my first organized weight-loss program (it was called ShapeDown, and I will never forget it for some reason). In high school I played sports and was always overweight, but not obese until I hit college and quit working out, and started eating out. My current weight is around 310, with my high somewhere around 335 (which is something I hate to even admit). I'm currently in my 2 week pre-op diet phase, and surgery is on July 22nd with Dr. Rodriguez in Mexico. I set my goal at about 180 because that's what I weighed in high school. My ideal would be 164 because then I would be a "normal" BMI.

Edited July 10, 201016 yr by a.walker
random comma where it didn't belong

I am a registered nurse with background in ICU, home health and now oncology in Oklahoma City. As you can tell by my username, I am ?nurse_ally?s mom.? What a fortunate person I am. :biggrin0:

I have fought the weight battle my whole life, literally. I cannot remember a time when weight and food did not control my life. My lowest weight as an adult was 128 (I was underweight for 2 days!!!!) and my highest was 303 (sometime within the last year and a half). I have a cousin who had RNY several years ago, and he is still overweight...I don't know why because we have never really discussed it. Being a nurse I have taken care of several patients with complications from RNY and banding, and I knew that would never be a option for me. I am miserable and just supposed that is the way the rest of my life would be with hypertension, knee pain, diabetes (newly diagnosed), c-pap, etc, etc, etc. And Allison was heading that same direction.

Here we go...I guess Allison must have been researching this for some time, but one day she told me she was getting sleeved. I had already heard of this from a coworker who was thrilled with the results, but that is as far as it went. I questioned her about the procedure, talked about the expense and that is when she told me she was going to Mexico to have it done. My response...HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!

We spent many hours discussing her research and I went through the process with her of deciding which surgeon, location and so forth. With the feeling that she had done her research well, I jumped on board for her to go ahead. She was sleeved by Dr. Aceves on 7-1-10, is back home and doing well at this point, and I am scheduled to be sleeved by Dr. Aceves on 8-12-10. So there you go!!!

For her my thoughts are that I don't want her to live the life I have lived if there is any possible way to avoid it. My weight has controlled everything I have ever done, and I have missed out on a lot of fun times because I was too big to participate or just flat didn't feel like it. She is a remarkable young woman with the responsibility of two awesome children, and she needs to be released from Fat Prison.

For me my thoughts are if there is even a chance that I may get rid of the extra person I have been carrying around on my back for the last 20 years, I'm there!!!

That's my story in a nutshell. I could go on and on, but those of us in this boat don't need all the details...you have already lived it.

Thanks for starting this thread, Kathy. It is good to have others who relate to us in more ways that just getting sleeved. My parting thought for now?LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!! :thumbup:

Kathe

I am a student nurse but couldn't resist posting in this thread! I graduate Dec 2011 (hopefully) and I plan to go into Labor & Delivery or Neonatal. Clinicals are kicking my butt! I've noticed that when I take pictures with my different clinical groups I seem to be the only overweight person and it is quite depressing. I have to squeeze around tight spaces and end up knocking things over in pt rooms and honestly I think that makes me look less competent than my peers. Anyway, I can't wait to be a RN!!!

Skye

You were more than welcome to post here!! Clinicals can be hard, but just try to keep your eye on the prize and it will all be worth it when you are done! Nursing is a physically and emotionally demanding job but also can be soooo rewarding!! Just think when you are sleeved and the weight comes off - nothing will be able to stop you!!

Kathy

Another RN :001_tongue:

I work in ICU, cardiac stuff.

I'm 35 (just typed 33, must still be in denial!!) and live in Pittsburgh.

Sleeve scheduled for 7/28.

Hello all:) I just joined this forum just so I could post in this thread:)

I am 24 years old and a new RN just graduated in May and got my dream job in Neuro ICU at a level one trauma center:) I'm from Georgia and have decided to have weight loss surgery and after many hours of research I think this may be the way I am going to go. I was going to choose lap band but the idea of a foreign object in my body for the rest of my life makes me more than a little nervous! I am 5'4 have hung around 200 most of my life but after the birth of my daughter I shot up to 260 and have yo-yo'd for the past two and a half years due to my newly diagnosed hypothyroidism-and now cannot lose ANY weight :'( (and my tsh levels are under control)

I have three main reasons for doing this-

Of course I consider the idea of cute clothes and nice shoes but my number one reason for doing it is I dont want to be sick when my daughter is my age. I dont want to be on dialysis or having my foot amputated or getting infections in skin folds. I just want to be 'normal'... whatever normal is:)

My final reason is that I feel like a hipocrite... being a fat nurse... its like a doctor who smokes... or a cop who does drugs. It just dosent seem right. And I cant help but feel like co-workers judge me, or the doctors judge me... because Its 'so easy' to lose weight right :svengo:

oh and one more reason!

I want to get family pictures made:) ones that I can actually be proud of

Hi all!

I'm an ICU nurse in California. I remember well, LapGirl, the 'fun' of my tight (and ever-growing tighter) clinical uniforms, the unforgiving polyester straining... and being SO goddamned uncomfortable. (In fact, I remember a bunch of us wanting to burn our student uniforms at the end of the last clinical, but telling my classmates that they would probably just melt and send off toxic fumes!) As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome on this thread!

Being a nurse is incredibly physically demanding (as we all know) with all of the reaching, bending, squatting, lifting, standing, crouching (is there a single hospital architect who has EVER become aquainted with the word, "ergonomics???"). Having to do all of this for 12-13hrs is getting increasingly debilitating. Everything hurts! My angel of a huz stretches me and gives me a massage just so I can sleep after a work day (I swear I come home 2 inches shorter!). I just don't know how many more years I have left at the bedside before my body just can't take it orthopedically.

I'm 40 now, and my body just cannot handle this much weight. It never liked being this heavy, but now it's starting to go on red alert with high cholesterol, high A1C, my feet, knees and hips in agony, and a nice episode of going in and out of ventricular trigeminy (now controlled with a beta blocker). Short of having an actual MI, CVA or official diagnosis of diabetes, my body is screaming at me to get this weight off (oh, and thanks also to my pre-op testing, I now know I have an ulcer and GERD!). To further underscore the urgency of my situation, we want to start a family, and my husband REFUSES to knock me up while I'm this overweight. He's done his research, and he's absolutely right. Frankly, I doubt my own ablility to conceive at this weight. He doesn't want to risk either my health or that of the baby. Frankly, I can barely haul myself around as it is, much less a pregnancy and all of that physical stress on top of it. As I mentioned, I'm 40. The time on my biological clock is about 11:50PM.

So, my sleeve is re-scheduled (first date was cancelled due to a small area of erosion discovered in my EGD- now on Prilosec) for the 3rd week of August. I started at 257lbs, and am now 248. I'm working out intensly with a trainer 3 days a week to get myself in optimal shape before surgery. My goal is 145-150. I can't wait to get the VSG, but also to recover and get back to the gym and lift weights again. I'm sure I'll sag, but I'm going to have crazy muscles underneath! Good luck to all!

Edited July 12, 201016 yr by pcindy