my news paper artical (Hanover woman looking for new lease on life with surgery)

[cheeky]

'I've tried everything'

Michelle McLead has had problems with her weight all her life.

McLead underwent gastric bypass surgery on May 27, "There are other people out there like me, and I want them to see that they don't have to live like this. That's why I am doing the story."

"It really started in my late teens," she says. Sitting on the porch of her Hanover home, she takes a deep breath. "Now, I weigh 323 pounds."

Her days were filled with no eating, and her nights were filled with eating. The regime of regular meals was not on her daily schedule, and the effect was obesity.

"At night I would really eat. My body stored the fat," she says. She takes a breath and adjusts herself on her front porch step. "There are other people out there like me, and I want them to see that they don't have to live like this. That's why I am doing the story."

McLead underwent gastric bypass surgery on May 27, by doctor's orders.

"The doctor told me I would only live for another 10 years if I didn't do something about my weight," said McLead in an interview prior to the surgery. She is 38 and has three kids, two sons and a daughter. She said she the surgery is for her children.

MICHELLE MCLEAD

"I have tried everything out there to lose weight, and it just didn't do anything," says McLead. She says that most people's last resort is gastric bypass surgery, and this last resort is now the only way she is going to get help.

An abusive relationship and two miscarriages left McLead searching for a form of comfort. It came in the form of food.

"He made me feel that I was never skinny enough," says McLead. She said at the time she was about 140 pounds. "So, I didn't eat during the day, and then I ate too much at night. So when I didn't eat during the day, when I did eat, my body stored the fat. I ate like that for four years."

Eventually, her body suffered, as did her health.

"My lower back, it feels like there is a vice across my back . . . my legs, thighs and knees hurt," she says.

She stopped walking her children to school, partly because of the emotional feelings she and her children went through when she did.

"It's like carrying bags of soil," says Lynn Cooke, a friend of McLead. Cooke is going to help her friend through recovery time, and has been a great support and friend to McLead.

"People would make fun of my children for having a fat mom," says McLead. She stopped walking her children to school so that they wouldn't be bullied anymore. "I don't want to be bullied anymore either. People call me names. They call me horrible names. I'm ashamed of what I look like. I think people are ashamed to go out with me."

After she felt that way, she "barricaded" herself inside her house for two years.

"It's like being in a prison. I feel like a hermit," says McLead. "I know that I have pushed my family away and I turned to food. But I just felt too self-conscious to go anywhere."

Because of her weight, she hasn't been able to work, and therefore has been on Ontario Disability Services. She says after her surgery, she is looking forward to working in the public and carry on like normal.

"I'm looking forward to being able to do things," says McLead. "I'm looking forward to being able to walk my kids to school and being able to leave my house. I don't want to feel like a prisoner anymore."

In preparation, McLead was on a strict OPTIFAST diet. This diet consists of shakes that McLead is suppose to consume as meals. These shakes are doctor-prescribed and cost almost $400. This was not paid by her disability services money.

"The doctor says that I will be 140 to 150 pounds this time next year," says McLead. A smile forms across her face at the thought of not just weighing less, but being healthy.

"I want people to know that they can get help. I want them to see that they don't have to live this way. They don't have to get trapped like this. I want them to know that there is help out there and it's OK to get the help," says McLead.

Gastric bypass is a procedure used to treat obesity. The surgery divides the stomach into a very small pouch and a very large pouch. The small pouch of stomach is where your food goes. The small pouch doesn't allow you to consume much food. The food also is bypassed by a portion of the small intestine, therefore giving lesser opportunity for the body to retain calories.

Recovery will be simple, as long as the patient sticks to the strict guidelines prescribed.

"Pureed Hamburgers I guess," jokes McLead.

"I'll help her with whatever she needs," says Cooke.

"My husband, Ross, will help too," says McLead. "I know for the first little while I won't be able to do much. It won't be easy. But I am looking forward to going out and not feeling self-conscious. I just want people to know that they don't have to hide behind food."

McLead has undergone surgery and The Post will follow up on her recovery in the fall.



LAURA MACDUFF, POST NEWS
Source

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass A type of gastric bypass procedure which combines restrictive and malabsorption techniques - meaning, it reduces the amount of food a patient can comfortably eat (restriction), and also reduces the amount of calories that can be digested in the small intestine (malabsorption). This combination of bariatric methods leads to greater weight loss and the roux-en-y procedure is seen as one of the best ways to treat clinically severe obesity. See WLS Videos for animated surgery technique.

Obesity Obesity results from the excessive accumulation of fat that exceeds the body's skeletal and physical standards. Obesity has been defined as a weight more than 20% above what is considered normal according to standard age, height, and weight tables, or by a complex formula known as the body mass index. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase in 20 percent or more above your ideal body weight is the point at which excess weight becomes a health risk. CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE JOURNEY BMI CALCULATOR!

Pouch Most bariatric surgeries restricts the amount of food a patient can eat by reducing the size of the stomach by gastric banding, stapling or removal. What results is known as the gastric pouch.

[MsJacquiiC]

I read this earlier Michelle - didn't think to post lol
Better late than never though - so - Let me just briefly say that this is just so inspirational - you must be so proud! I know I'd be, because some who perhaps have been stuck in the rut of yo-yo dieting or just at their ropes end, don't know how or what to do to solve their morbid obesity issue... Perhaps they'd read about you and make the decision that WLS might be for them too.

Very inspirational piece. Thanks for sharing it with us

Jacquii.

Morbid Obesity A condition in which the Body Mass Index is 40.0–49.9, which is roughly equal to 100 pounds or more over ideal body weight; a weight level that is life-threatening. A BMI greater than 50 is termed as "super obese." CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE JOURNEY BMI CALCULATOR!

Weight Cycling Yo-yo dieting, also known as weight cycling, is a repeated loss and gain of body weight due to excessive dieting. The term "yo-yo dieting" was coined by Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., at Yale University, in reference to the cyclical up-down motion of a yo-yo. In this process, the dieter is initially successful in the pursuit of weight loss but is unsuccessful in maintaining the loss long-term and begins to gain the weight back. The dieter then seeks to lose the regained weight, and the cycle begins again.