My Journey out of Super Morbid Obesity

By Cindy Snyder

Cindy Snyder shares her deepest thoughts, feelings and experiences in this diary/journal in hopes to encourage others and for her to never forget where her God has brought her. Being warned by her physicians that her life was at stake, she knew she did not have the willpower to deliver herself from this bondage. This book is the personal journal of Cindy's journey out of obesity. You will be led through this journey as to what life is like for the super morbidly obese person and is filled with descriptive and explicit hardships that the super morbid obese must daily live with. Cindy has tried to be as open and honest as possible and in some instances very detailed and graphic as to what "life" had become. Cindy not only shares the battles but also lets everyone experience the victories with her. Throughout her journey she shares Biblical teachings, humor and the joy that only God can give during trials in our lives. Her journal covers everything from menus and recipes, surgery and exercise, measurements and weights, personal care, before and after pictures, to her most inner thoughts and feelings. Her documentations will encourage all that read them, from the most slender person with their own struggles to the very obese. Through her journey, faith will be strengthened to believe that with God all things are possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456720438

Cindy Snyder

Cindy Snyder has been married for over 35 years to her high school sweetheart, Les. They have a daughter, a son, daughter-in-law a granddaughter and grandson and they reside in rural Butler, Indiana. Cindy became a Christian in 1985, enjoys studying the Bible, and is active in their church, SeaBreeze Ministries, in which their son is pastor. Cindy is the administrative director at the Filling Station Youth Center in Butler and serves on its board of directors. Cindy was host of the television programs Public Report and Tri-State Alive at WINM Christian TV throughout the 1990's. She was founder and president of the DeKalb County American Family Association in 1986-1990, and was also active in Operation Rescue. Repairing the Breach Marriage Ministry was birthed out of a trial in their marriage in 1990-1991. Their testimony has ministered to thousands of couples all over the world via the Internet. Les and Cindy home schooled their children through Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools. Even after becoming a discussion leader for a national weight loss program in the early 1980's, Cindy's battle with gluttony escalated out of control. She knows what it is like to weigh 118 pounds yet be addicted to food and exercise. She also knows what it is like to weigh 465 pounds and "live" life as a Super Morbid Obese person with eleven co-morbidity's and be on over thirteen medicines a day. She will be the first to tell you that it is a daily walk of God's Grace as to what she has been brought out of and where she hopes to remain.

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DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to thank Him for His Faithfulness, Grace, and Strength, which enabled me to endure. I thank Him for His Word and the guidance that it gives each and every day.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalms 119:105 KJV

And for my family…they faithfully took care of me, prayed for me, and endured with me. I can never thank them enough for believing and standing with me. Even with turning this journal into a book, they have helped me. I pray God’s richest blessings upon them and His Presence in their lives each and every day. Dear Lord, place your desires within their hearts and manifest them in each of their lives. I love you Les, Cathy, Lathan, Layna, Lexi, Mom & Dad, very much!

I also dedicate this book to all those who are battling against this bondage in their lives. I humbly pray that in some way, by me sharing my most intimate and embarrassing moments in my journey, you will find encouragement, strength, determination and a new hope for the plan that God has for your life! I am already praying for you!

INTRODUCTION

Welcome To My Miracle Journey Out of Super Morbid Obesity.

I started documenting my journey in June of 2005 on my profile/blog at ObesityHelp.com. Of course my journey started long before that date. This book is comprised of those documentations from that website. I have tried to be as open and honest as possible and in some instances, very detailed and graphic as to what life is like for a person who is living with super morbid obesity. It was not written with the intentions of being a book. It is written as a diary/journal just as I wrote it at the time, grammar, and all. It covers everything from food and recipes, surgery and exercise, measurements and weights, to my inner most thoughts and feelings.

I believe that the Lord has led you here for a reason. My prayer is that you would find encouragement and hope as you read where the Lord has brought me from, to where I now am blessed to be. Please allow His Spirit to open your heart and mind to what He would speak to you through this book. May you be drawn to Him and feel His Presence in your life. God bless!

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Closing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

2005

6-29-2005 - I am a 45-year-old mother of two (daughter, Cathy-25 & son, Lathan-22) who has been married to Les, my high school sweetheart for 26-1/2 years! We are a Christian family who is very active with volunteering at our local youth center. I have fought obesity since my pregnancies. I go for my consultation for a laparoscopic Roux-en Y (RNY) gastric by-pass surgery on July 20th with Dr. Rosemarie Jones at St. Vincent’s in Carmel, Indiana. My family doctor has already written a letter of medical necessity to my insurance company. I am rounding up all documentations from all my other doctors to take with me to the consultation. I have already had my psychological evaluation & H. Pyloro blood test done (all last month when I thought I would be going through Ft. Wayne instead of Carmel, but Ft. Wayne will only do BMI’s (Body Mass Index) up to 50 since they are just starting). I have been reading and studying up on this surgery for over a year now. The main thing I want is to be in God’s perfect will in all this. Please add me to your prayers! Thanks & God bless each of you!

7-24-05 - My consult went great! I learned that a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass closes off a large amount of the stomach and leaves a small pouch to hold food. This is done to restrict the amount of food that can be eaten at one time. The small intestine is cut below the duodenum and reattached to the new stomach pouch, leaving a shortened path for food to travel through. This is also supposed to cause some malabsorption of food. Sounds pretty drastic to me! I really like Dr. Jones. She said that I’d do fine. I weighed in at 435 pounds - I thought maybe my BMI would be too high and that she wouldn’t want to do the surgery. Thank You Jesus! Now to just patiently wait for her letter and the insurance company’s decision. I am really ready for this!

Some of the co-morbidity’s stated by my doctors:

Diabetes

Hypertension

Hypercholesterolemia

Peripheral edema

Gastro esophageal reflux disease

Hypothyroidism

Sleep Apnea

Lymphedema

Restless Leg Syndrome

COPD

Oxygen Supplements

7-29-05 - Surgeon’s letter, etc, sent to our insurance company.

8-3-05 - I was approved today by our insurance company. I have mixed emotions. I am scared to death, yet a little excited. I prayed that God would speak His will through the insurance company and I have to believe that He has. To give a little insight into what my life has become...

I can’t walk far, I have to use a buggy at Wal-Mart and can only go shopping where they have power buggies because I can’t walk for very long, and I can’t lean anymore on carts because the weight pulls my shoulders out of socket. Of course, I max out the weight limit for the buggies and they can hardly move and some, I cannot even fit into. I can’t fit into a booth, so we have to use a table if we go to a restaurant, and I have to request a chair with no arms or else I can not fit into the chair. I have not been able to drive for several years... I cannot fit behind the wheel. Personal care is very difficult to accomplish...but that’s all the further I will share on that one! If it were not for my son, daughter, and husband I would be home bound. I do no housework, but work at the computer a lot for our youth center. Our precious daughter, Cathy, does all the laundry, housework, grocery shopping, dishes, cooking…all with no complaint! She even says she enjoys it! Now, that is God’s Grace and one special young lady! Thank You, Lord Jesus!

Medicines that I am on and take daily but hope to get off of!

Synthyroid 200 mcg (down to 125 mcg)

Nexium 40 mg (no longer have to take!)

Pravachol 40 mg (no longer have to take!)

Toprol 50mg (no longer have to take!)

Avapro 150mg (no longer have to take!)

Avandamet (no longer have to take!)

Furosemide 80 g (no longer have to take!)

Potassium (no longer have to take!)

Mirapex (no longer have to take!)

Aspirin (no longer have to take!)

Advair (daily x 4) (no longer have to take!)

Clarinex 5mg (no longer have to take!)

C-PAP Machine (no longer use; down from a pressure of 17.5)

Xopenex - Nebulizer (daily x 4) (no longer have to do!)

Lymphedemia Leg Pumps (no longer have to do!)

Compression Stockings (daily) (no longer have to wear!)

8-16-05 - St. Vincent’s Bariatric Unit called today and gave me a surgery date of October 17, 2005, at 8:00 am. They had gotten me confused with someone else and had first scheduled my surgery for September 14, 2005! I was horrified! That was too soon; I wasn’t ready for that--only one month away! Thank God she figured out I was a different person and scheduled me for October 17! She even told me that I could keep the September 14th date if I wouldn’t mind switching surgeons...I said NO! I need to be more prepared for this!

8-17-05 - I started walking! I can only walk for one and one-half minutes at a time but it’s a start! My son took me to Wal-Mart today and I looked at some of the foods that I read about on the message boards on O.H.. I bought some Crystal Lite and protein powder, some cheese sticks and some sugar free candies. It all tasted fine! I guess I had to prove to myself that not EVERYTHING would taste awful after the surgery! I even mixed the orange Crystal Lite with the protein powder. It was delicious! I also went to Catherine’s (a large lady’s store) and bought a nightgown and housecoat for in the hospital (I needed a new nightgown anyway). I am getting prepared and feel a lot better about it now! I really, truly believe that IF GOD leads you to something, HE WILL bring you through it! Thank You, Jesus, for this walk. I have learned many things and know I need to learn much more!

8-18-05 - St. Vincent’s called and set up my pre-op testing today. It is scheduled for September 26, 2005, at 8:15 am. They will do blood work, EKG, chest x-ray, upper GI, gallbladder ultrasound and a pulmonary function test. I already had a nuclear stress test done nine months ago, so I don’t need another one! Thank You, Jesus! Now someone is to call me to set up my nutrition class. I will have to travel the two and one-half hours to Carmel two times before the surgery. I also booked our hotel room because we will go down the night before since I have to be at the hospital by 6:00 am on October 17th. So, I booked a room for three nights for Les, the kids and of course our son’s puppy, Jake. I am so thrilled that I was able to get a hotel only three minutes from the hospital and they gave me a fantastic hospital discount; I just need to show them proof that I will be being admitted when we check in. God is so Good!

8-25-05 - St. Vincent’s called and scheduled my nutrition class for Tuesday, October 4th from 8:30 am - 2:30 p.m. As of today: 53 more days until the surgery! I hope it goes fast...I think! We submitted FMLA papers to Dr. Oo; they are filling them out for us so that Les can have time off to help me with my personal care. He will take his last weeks vacation the week of my surgery and then maybe the next two afterwards, depending on how I am doing. I guess I think I am going to have a rough time of it. I hope I am wrong. I should believe that God can have me fly through this with no problems, right?! I think I will measure myself sometime before the surgery...I mean, I think I’ll HAVE myself measured! I can’t reach to measure myself! Oh…I haven’t been walking. My back, sciatic nerve and knees started to hurt me and I figured, What am I doing? I have waited this long why would I want to get my knees, back and sciatic flared up before the surgery? Because my husband and kids help me so much, they have helped save my knees, hips, ankles, etc. The only pain that I am in is if I stand up very long or walk very far. Then my back feels like it is on fire and I start going down! I have to hurry and find a place to sit! This reminds me of the time when my mom and sister Linda, and I were at Fashion Bug. I was about 400 pounds at the time. Well, I looked around for a place to sit ‘cause I knew I had stood for too long…down I went…right there in the store on a mannequin’s platform! What a sight when my mom and sister had to try to haul me up after I had rested. After that, I bought a padded, portable steel bench that we kept in the van at all times. It will be so nice not to have my husband or son have to carry my bench into stores for me so that I can have a place to sit...otherwise, I cannot go into the store. They have been angels to me! It will be so nice to not have to have them drop me off at the door and then go park. I look forward to walking from the van in the lot to the door! I sometimes sit in the van instead of going in because of not having enough energy. While I sit there, I see all these people just casually walking from their vehicles into the store and vise versa...not even giving it a thought about the walk. I remember it, and long for it. It sounds funny...such a little thing... I look forward to actually walking again! Then, on the other hand…if I sit very long my tailbone feels like it is coming right through the skin! It is probably all the weight pushing down on it. It is so painful that at times I could cry.

8-28-05 - I thought I would write a little bit more of what my life is like and how I am able to get around. I am mainly doing this to document it for myself, because I never want to forget where the Lord is going to bring me from and out of! As I have shared, I can not walk very far... probably 30’ then I need to sit…now! I use a task chair that is made of steel and is on wheels, to push around the house in front of me. I am then able to sit down on it to do things in the kitchen, etc. Whenever I sit somewhere, I have to be able to have a table to rest my arms on or pillows propped under my arms...because my arms are so heavy that the weight of them pulls my shoulders out of socket and tears the sinew in my shoulders, which is very painful and also causes my neck to be pulled and then headaches. My husband, son and daughter take turns washing my hair for me in the kitchen sink. I stand as long as I can then sit in my task chair and rest, then up we go again. Because of the weight of my arms, I am only able to use my arms if they can be propped on something. I am not able to fit into our shower...water runs all over the floor because I am half out of it. I also can not stand long enough to take one, so I take sponge baths. I look so forward to getting back into our garden tub and taking a bubble bath! I am unable to reach myself, so I have to use instruments, tools, to reach to clean myself...I do this every time I use the restroom...I don’t want to smell! I am unable to wear shoes. I haven’t worn shoes in several years. I wear men’s size 10 sandals in the summer and men’s size 10 slippers in the winter. I look so forward to wearing tennie runners again! Because of the lymphedema in my legs, I wanted to cover my legs up. Even wearing slacks would show the outline of my hideous looking legs, so I asked my mother to make me some skirts several years ago... long skirts to cover even my ankles so as to not gross people out more than they would have to be! So I have worn long skirts for years and look forward to being able to wear a pair of slacks again. I don’t go many places. If I do go, it all depends on how close the van can be pulled up to the door and if there are buggies or places to sit. I am able to go to our youth center and volunteer there, but where it use to be that I was able to play games with the kids, I now just sit at the desk and monitor everything from there. But I am so thankful that I can still go...my kids or husband have to drive me there. I have not been going to as many family dinners, because of not wanting to break chairs or toilet seats, and it’s just so much easier to stay at home, in my chair, propped up with pillows. Well, that’s enough for now. I’ll write more later.

8-31-05 - I wanted to write down two Scriptures that have helped me tremendously in this decision to have WLS (Weight Loss Surgery): Proverbs 23:2 - "And put a knife to thy throat (gullet), if thou be a man given to appetite". (KJV) and Matthew 5:29-30 - And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (KJV)

I am hoping and praying that by having this surgery, it will cut off the sinful desire in me to be a glutton. I am having this surgery out of faith in what God can do with it and through it. I have found it a great comfort also to realize that...going somewhere you have never been before is NOT going back to Egypt. Going back to Egypt is returning to what and where you have already been and to what you already know...returning out of fear of the unknown. (Those of you who are reading my profile on O.H. might not understand these comments, but I am documenting them for myself in this journey.)

I have a hunch that I have put on more weight. I can just tell it. I have even less energy than I have had. I thank God that the doctors say that, even with the co-morbidity’s that I have, the medicines that I am on have all worked and that I am in excellent health for my weight. Thank You, Jesus! My blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol are all in normal range and have been for a long while. The doctors said that they thought I should have the surgery while I am in this good of health. The only way that I am in good health is because of the Good Lord!

9-3-05 - I called Carmel Surgical Specialists (my surgeon’s office) and asked (for the third time) about the staples that will be used in the surgery. I have made them aware of my allergy to nickel and how my two-year-old eyeglasses, which are made out of titanium, irritate my temples where they touch my skin. I am afraid that the staples will cause me problems over time and I wanted to do an allergy test on myself before the surgery. Well, they told me that Dr. Jones says that she is aware of the problem and that they have alternative methods to use. I asked what they were and she said to ask that when I come down for my pre-op testing.

9-11-05 - Can I brag on my precious husband a little? Pleeease? Thank You! After church this morning Les, the kids and I, went in town to eat at a restaurant. Being in a small town, there were many people there that we knew. When we got up to leave, my precious husband, like the gentleman that he is, stepped back and allowed me to get in front of him so that he would then follow me. I knew what and why he was doing it. Not just because it was the gentlemanly thing to do, but he knew I wouldn’t want all these people to stare at me as I walked out and he would be blocking their view (or most of it). When we got to the van, I thanked him, and he said, I had your back. I love this man the Good Lord gave me! He will willingly ask if I would like my feet soaked, he brings in the pans