What Motivated Me to Lose 100 Pounds?

I want to share with you why I decided to lose weight and what motivated me to make it work this time. I’ve had my ups and downs.
Here’s where I started.

When I turned 60 everything seemed like it just fell apart. I had a torn meniscus. The doctor told me that I needed to get into a warm water exercise program to strengthen the knee. I checked around and found out that the Mercy HealthPlex had a warm water pool and that is when my husband and I joined. I worked out for a few weeks and then went in for surgery to repair the meniscus. That didn’t do any good so he gave me shots in the knee. That also didn’t help so after I told him that my 80 yr. old father got around better than I did. He decided to do a knee replacement and he did the left knee first. I don’t do very well with surgeries. Usually a person stays in the hospital for four days for a knee replacement but I was in for three weeks. The knee surgery went fine but everything else popped up. I was very sick after the surgery and they took all kinds of tests to find out what was wrong with me. They found out that I had an infection in my colon, my carotid artery was 90% blocked on my left side, I had diabetes, had sleep apnea, I had the tremors caused form some medications that they gave me in recovery, I had diabetes and on top of all of that my mom died and I was too sick to go to the funeral. The only thing that kept me from having a nervous breakdown was my husband Clarence. He was there every day form the time I woke up till bedtime. He’s my rock and always has been. After I got out of the hospital I went to the sleep clinic and stayed overnight for a sleep study, of course I was in a wheel chair and had a cast on. They determined that I had sleep apnea and sent me home with a cpap machine.

Then a few weeks later I went in to the hospital again and had surgery on the carotid artery. I didn’t have ay problems with that one, thank goodness. I had physical therapy at home for a few weeks for my knee and then finished my therapy at the Mercy HealthPlex. I was so weak from all of the surgeries that I had a hard time doing the physical therapy so when I got done with it the therapist recommended that I go into the cardiac rehab to get my strength back and I did. I was in cardiac rehab for a couple months. When I finished cardiac rehab I started back in the pool.

The main reason that I’m telling you this is it is one for the reasons that I gained the weight to begin with. I wasn’t able to do very much exercise at all. My husband would bring me into the HealthPlex in a wheelchair.

About six months later I had the other knee replaced. The hospital stay was a little bit less but it was still eight days. I had an infection in my stomach again. I also had a detached retina while I was in there.

When I got out of the hospital I went back into another hospital to have surgery to repair the detached retina. They replaced the fluid in the eye and I had to sleep in my recliner in a sitting position for a couple of weeks.

This was my main motivation to lose weight:

Last year I went to the doctor for a check up and she told me I needed to lose weight. I weighed more than 340lbs and she said I could die. She gave me a referral the Christ Hosptial weight management clinic. My husband and I decided that since we belonged to the Mercy HealthPlex why spend more money for another program.
There's so much more to my story.  Check back to find out how I began my 100 pound weight loss journey.
I'd love to hear your story!