Weight gain

I hate my body!! hate hate hate it

How do we get around this one when our meds cause weight gain,

we are in so much pain we can't move or get out of bed, we

hardly eat and we still gain.

It is a sensitive subject with any woman.

We all want to look our best but chronic pain hits us from

all directions. Is it fair??? Do we not already have enough

to deal with!!!!!

Is there anyone else that feels like I do???

Let's talk about this subject.

Same from the peanut gallery...
I'm 5'5, 250 lbs. everyone tells me your pain will be less if you loose some weight. Yeah, true, but I can't find the strength some days to do my daily things let alone exercise.
After a full day of walking around the classroom and bending over small desk I'm exahusted and my back is hurting. I don't want to do anything but sit down when I get home.
I don't eat that much, but it clings to me.

I  have gained 22 pounds since July after deciding to go off Lexapro and valium for fibro.  I have a monster Benzo Belly and yesterday tore the crotch out of the only pair of jeans that still fit me.  I keep thinking it will come off...all this extra 'blubber'...so have put off buying clothes that fit.  I could not even go to a funeral a few weeks ago...tried everything on in the closet and couldn't even 'fake it' with some loose fitting outfit...then decided I could hide the gaps with my long winter coat and that wouldn't come close to buttoning.  I gained a bit of weight on these drugs but nothing like when I started tapering.  Sometimes the 'cure' is worse than the disease...at least in my case.  Oh, and my belly is so huge the adhesions from several surgeries are tearing.  Owie.

Donna

I'm right there with you!!!!!! I hate, hate, hate it!!!!! I hate people looking at me and some idiot saying...you sure have gained a lot of weight. I dread going to the Dr next week (that hasn't seen me for three months) because he'll freak when he sees the extra lbs. I hate holiday pictures and I hate having to hide behind my family in photos so that my slim and trim husband and daughter don't make it even more obvious that I'm a tub of lard. I hate it!!!!!

It seems like I could jsut rewrite bits and pieces of all the posts to make my own! I stuggle with this so much, it is an everyday battle. It doesn't make sense when doctor's tell me to lose weight, but don't exercise, just walk until I feel tired without causing more pain. Hello people! Walking causes pain as does stretching, reaching, jolting movements, etc. Then when I began to lose weight without really trying the doctors freaked and tested me for everything under the sun! Make up your mind please? Should I lose weight or not?

All 3 of my men are thin, and I cook for them, watching them shovel it in at dinner everyday and just end up putting my head on the table. If I ate a third of what they eat I would not be able to walk I would be so big! I dread going to parties, baby showers, and my wedding day is coming. I am going to feel like the Stay-Puff marshmallow man walking down the aisle! Why didn't we decide to elope?
Compared to some who posted their numbers on here, I am a whale. Fat no longer describes me. It doesn't help the depression knowing I could be a side show in an old fashioned circus!

Mindy

I am in the same boat as everyone else it seems! I was thinking of hiring a cleaning lady because cleaning the house (I have a two story house- stairs yikes!). Because I used to be really particular but I have had to live with lower standards since I just don't have the energy after working for 13 hours a day at work to clean the house when I get home and it takes all of my days off to re-energize to handle the next work week. I would love to find a Dr. that would give me the pain meds I need to be more active, but I only have limited scripts of Vicodin and Robaxin (muscle relaxers) and I have to space them out and use them to make it through the work week and allow myself to do the absolutely necessary stuff- like before I go to bed so that I can get some semblance of sleep. And since I get extreme amounts of pain after I exercise even a little (short walk of a couple of blocks) the pain meds aren't going to cover exercise too. It is a catch 22. I was 130 (I'm 4'11") when I started on Zoloft for migraines and other pain. By the end of the year I was 180. I also gained weight with Lyrica and Neurontin. By the time I said enough is enough of the off label pain meds I was at 226. I am now stuck at 207, but would love to have a life other than that of a shut in. But since I can't sleep through the night because of pain, I am tired all day. I can't sleep, I am in pain all of the time and I am like 100 lbs overweight. I actually had a PM doctor look at an old pic of me before I got sick (it was on my work ID on my keyring) and the a** said,
"Is that you? You used to be beautiful. I can see why the weight gain bothers you." Yikes! I don't even get the "Your beautiful at any weight" from my parents and relatives. Which makes me want to stay a shut in!
I think its people like all of us that makes me so angry at those people that abuse pain meds to the point that it is all but impossible for us to get what we need. Those meds for us could be life changing, but its almost impossible for us to get what we need. So I just pray every night. I pray.

Oh Pete, I'm so sorry for how you feel. This one really bothers me. I'm heavy, that's a given and have gained weight since starting the CP roller coaster, but my husband is very trim. It really bothers me too, especially in the intimacy department. He's very kind about it, but I know it bothers him too.

I don't see it the same way with men though, and I don't know why. A man with extra weight doesn't bother me at all. I see them like a strong tree stump. A woman, well that's me and I see all of us differently. My best friend had gastric bypass and is thin now. She hated being fat so badly that she couldn't live with herself and she couldn't do it on her own. I've even thought about that, but don't think I'd have the luck she did. I can see myself dying from elective surgery....no thanks....I don't heal too well.

I was just sitting here (as usual) thinking about how to change my life for the better....not my family, but me. That means taking time to change what I eat and how much. Trying to learn when I'm full and not stuffing myself like a pig. I eat strangely healthy, but WAY too much! Perhaps this will be my "session" for the week rather than famly drama.....I've had enough of that to last a lifetime.

Pete, noboby sees you as horribly as you do and relationships are about how you feel when you are around the other person. Perhaps it's time to make your wife feel like something special when she is with you. Honestly for me that is a hug, a small gesture in public or private like holding my hand, or something simple like changing a routine. I love my husband, but I miss those things too and it does make you feel special when somebody does something for you that is totally unexpected and just plain nice.

This is one thread I have been kind of avoid reading. But this morning I have read it through each and every post, sadly I can relate to just about everyones post in one way or the other!  I am glad to see the other men also posting on this thread.  You woman do not have the exclusive rights to being over weight! We men are also right there with you! But unfortunately I think Beckey (antbuggey) is right!  Most,  not all, but most, over weight men are looked at differently than most overweight women. And to be honest, that is not right! Women are again, not being treated fairly! I do think men ( outwardly at least) do not let the weight gain bother them as much, but again that is outwardly! Inside, I think most men are as bothered by it, as much  as most women are! 

 

 I know that I have a serious problem with the weight gain, I am 5'8" and as of this morning I weigh about 234. which is a huge weight gain for me! My days in the military if I got up to 185 I would be busting my but to get the extra weight off, because, of fear of being put on the fat boy program, an being labeled unfit for re-enlistment! In my sqadron we had to weigh in twice a year, and had to do arrobics testin once a year. ( run a mile and a half in a certain time, depending on your age) Anyway those days are long gone.  But in some ways I really miss them, because there was a constant incentive to keep ones weight under control! But now,  with being on disability and in chronic pain, I do not have that incentive, and the pounds have slowly piled on, and my clothing size has increased as well! Along with that is depression, it is depressing, when you go to put on a pair of pants and they nolonger fit, or a shirt that is so tight that you are afraid to move your arms in fear that the buttons will pop off!  Oh!  it is so easy to gain the pounds and so very, very, very difficult to lose them! Lately I have also been having problems with fluid retention, and have been put on Lasix and Potasium, I have had extensive test done and they say my heart is OK, and my lungs, ( I am not at all sure I agree) but anyway I have had some major problems with shortness of breath, and the doctor thinks it is because I am so out of shape, and with the weight  gain, so they are suppose to schedule me for respirtory rehab???, to build up my stamina and exercise tollerance??? I have not been scheduled for it yet, but I do hope that this will help me, maybe lose some pounds?????

 

Anyway hang in there everyone, I think ( along with chronic pain) we can all relate to this topic, and it seems that we also have this  affliction in common!

 

White Beard