Getting to Where I Got - Part I

The following may (or may not) come as a surprise to those of you who know me in the "now" as a post gastric bypass patient (heck, it may come as somewhat of a surprise to those of you who know me from “back in the day” as well) but when I was 16 years of age, our then family doctor, good ol’ Dr. Spindler, diagnosed me as being anorexic. 


Huh?  Come again??

In all fairness ... the term "anorexia" as we have come to know it today ... really wasn’t too well known back in 1980 (at least I'd never heard of it).  Nevertheless, Dr. Spindler threw it out there as his clinical diagnosis for me.  You see, I found myself sitting in his office that fall day of my senior year in high school because I hadn’t had a period in months [and I couldn’t possibly have been pregnant at that time in my life].  I was run down, not to mention lab results showed me to be extremely anemic.  I could only go to the bathroom if I took a laxative and that was rarely working for me anymore.  Weight wise, I had dropped over 30 pounds in about 8 weeks. 

Had I lost weight intentionally that past summer?  Well ... yah!  It didn't start out being something "intentional" ... I was 16 yrs. old and my senior portrait session was coming up in August -- this was June.  I started my 'diet' in June the Monday following the last day of my Junior year - "unintentionally" because I developed a slight case of the 24 hour flu.  

By the time that senior portrait appointment rolled around 8 weeks later ... boom *30 pounds* -- gone!


However -- I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.  Let's go back a bit so I can try to tell you how I ended up in that doctor's room with a diagnosis of "anorexia" in the first place.


Perhaps "my story" is fairly typical for a person who's weight has fluctuated up and down over the years.  But "my story" really isn't that of a person who would say, "I've been overweight since as far back as I can remember." 


Nope.  As a child I was normal in size.  So much so that really – I cannot even remember thinking about my weight when I was a little girl. 


In fact, I felt so good about my appearance in the 7^th grade that I remember specifically praying and asking God to make me more humble – to take away my conceit and make me less "stuck up!" 

Just an aside - I really believe God did hear that prayer & answered it because something in me changed and I stopped feeling so conceited.  Unfortunately - and I don't think it's God's fault - but somewhere along the line I went from feeling super confident to completely lacking confidence by the time I entered the 10th grade.  Had to do with a break up ... lost love, yada yada yada.  That's a Part II in the making!  ;-)


Back to my original story.  When I was seated in Dr. Spindler's office and he was discussing his "findings" as he held my lab results in front of him ... I was thinking ... "What is anorexia and did I 'have' it??"  In hindsight, I really don't think so – at least not in the “emotional” sense of the word.  Was I “anorexic” in the clinical sense of the word?  Technically yes since a symptom of anorexia includes the cessation of menstruation, etc.

So – how did this “condition” come to be? 

I don't know the answer to that anymore than I know the answer to HOW can I could be diagnosed with anorexia in high school and then, some 30 years later, be diagnosed with morbidly obesity?  Somehow – I think the same mindset that caused me not to eat 30 years earlier eventually led me to overeat 30 years later.

To be continued ...