Overweight, Underweight, Just Right ??

I am horribly overweight. I had gained a fair bit of weight after going to 30 mg of prednisone a couple of years ago. Then I suddenly lost 50 pounds without any effort. I figured it was from the Methotrexate. Then I found out I had diabetes from the prednisone. Not happy about the diagnosis, but it forced me to eat better which was good. Then a couple of months later, I got pericarditis back and was quickly up to 80 mg of prednisone. My face is so fat I can't eat without biting my cheeks. I said I look like a chipmunk with nuts shoved into the cheeks of my mouth. Funny, but not really. So that's where I am. I'm sure I gained the 50 pounds back and then some. Plus I have neropathy and muscle weakness in my knees and quads, so I can't walk on my own. I can only a short walk with a walker and am in the wheel chair most of the day. The prednisone also makes me eat and eat and eat. I find I don't get full. I'm not necessarily hungry, but I keep eating. I hate that. Now that I'm back down to 20 mg, that feeling will go away.

Sorry, but I guess I'm not in a happy place these days. I'm okay though, because I have a lot of time to work on my music. I've been writing music, recording and playing my guitar a lot. I have a little travel guitar that I can play in wheel chair. The full size guitars are a little awkward!

I am happy for you (honestly). I went off Plaquinel after about a year or so because they said it wasn't doing anything for me. I wonder if they should give it another try sometimes. There has to be a miracle drug out there for me somewhere!

Nutty

HI

I have put on a fair bit of weight and am just tipping onto the overweight category but doc has said it is marginal and I was not to even think about weight loss as a priority. I always used to be a bit underweight (under 10 stone and 5 ft 10 inches tall). I have gone up from a size 10/12 to a 16/18.

I want to get back down to size 14/16 but just started prednisilone again so unless I can burn this fat off I am stuck with it. I don't look fat, I look in proportion but used to be model slim so it was a bit depressing until I adjusted mentally. Only bonus with weight gain is I have boobs for the first time ever, I was flat as Twiggy before!

Biggest problem is that at my height the options for clothes were always less and now they are hopeless unless you like the Dawn French tent style :rotflf dressing, so I am starting a pattern cutting course to get my dressmaking skills matched with a pattern that fits. I also buy a lot of men's clothes and alter them.

I have never ever had weight loss with lupus... is it because people lose appetite or do they eat and still lose weight? Any answer to that would be great.

Sara
x

Sure, I will share my story but let me tell you that after I share it I am sure you will all be happy with your weight, be it over or under weight. I wish I could turn back the clock.

In August 2004 I wore a size 26...weighed in at 354lbs at 5 feet 8" tall and I am very large boned. I was extremely obese and NOT HAPPY with who I was.

I had Gastric Bypass surgery and 2 1/2 years later (January 2007) I was down to 220 lbs and a size 18 clothes. I loved my size, felt proportioned and content. Hey I could bend over and tie my shoes so who wouldn't be happy...however according to the books and the doctors I will still very overweight and they were not happy.

Then I landed in the Emergency Room with the worst pain known to man in January 2007. Very long story short I had a scope down the throat and low and behold severe ulcers in what was left of my stomach and my small intestines..........off to the Gastroenterologist I go.

She put me on all kinds of proton pump inhibitor drugs to supress acid and heal ulcers...............NOTHING WORKED AND I GOT WORSE.

In July 2007 I underwent a 6 hour surgery to have a good portion of my intestines removed and what was left of my stomach was taken out. Now I was left with my esophagus attached to my small intestine and unable to eat. 10 days later I was released from the hospital and sent home.

I came home with a tube up my nose that went down into my intestines and a J tube to be fed through. How do you spell NIGHTMARE??? I lived with this for over 2 months and back into surgery to have it removed.

Now January 2008...only 4 months later I was back in the Emergency Room and guess what.....a 9 centimeter ulcer had formed in 6 short months. I was unable to even keep liquids down and was close to death!!! How can one form a ulcer with no stomach to produce acid??? To this day no one knows the answer.

I went to **** and back again, test after test trying to figure out how this happened and to this day I have zero answers. For the rest of my life I have to take triple doses of Nexium, Zantac and Carafate suspension and pray that this works and keeps this problem at bay.

Today, I am 120 pounds, still very large boned, no one recognizes me and I look anorexic. When I run into people who I know that have not seen me in a while and I say Hello..........clearly they do not know me. When they realize who I am they all say, "Oh my Gosh what happened to you"?

Moral of the story ladies..........BE HAPPY WITH WHO YOU ARE AND HOW YOU LOOK!!! If I could I would share this story with all of the women in the world who judge themselves based on what a scale says, doctors say or a BMI Index.

I would give me eye tooth to be the person I was in 2004....the one who could not tie her shoes.

This is my story..............arent ya glad ya asked!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:



The doc

Someone always comes along and has to be different... and that someone is me

I am grossly underweight I'm 5ft 10", and after years and years of trying managed ti get myself to just over the 9 stone point on the scales. I was over the moon. But when my 2nd and worst ever lupus flare happened about a month ago I've dropped in weight to around 8 1/2 stone

Absolutely gutted as I know I'm going to be on that long hard road to putting the weight back on.

I truly do not understand as I eat sooooo much. In fact, at time I worry as my appetite is so much. I'd eat a proper dinner at 8, and by 10 I'm really hungry again and would need to eat ice cream or cereal just to quench the hunger a little. And then around 3am my stomach would be rumbling again for more food.

I've had a million thyroid checks which have all come out negative (thankfully) and so the dr just puts it down to a very high metabolism.

I'm going to start going to the gym again soon and push those weights again to see if that helps me in my quest for an extra stone!

Karol,

I am glad you shared your story but incredibly sorry to hear that you had to go through that and are still going through it.

You are, of course, quite right and I think it is a good reminder to us all!

I was constantly thinking about my extra weight but no-one else was bothered including hubby. It's easy to blame pred too though I knew I had only gained 2 kilos with pred. Then, while reducing pred, I got those relatively severe breathing problems that some have heard about. Since then my weight seems a lot less important than breathing properly.

Society is also incredibly hard on us for this. I remember not long ago being at an evening with friends and the other women there couldn't stop going on about their weight and dieting and how to reduce. None were obese, they were just "normal". I kept my trap shut and certainly couldn't have joined in as I had just got over my breathing episode and was worshipping the pred that helped me breathe again.

hugs again to you Karol, that is a truly awful experience,
Katharine

Overweight but losing safely

I've been overweight since I became severely depressed and put on lithium, I broke my hip and split my femur in half, two surgeries and two and a half years later I started to walk again. I lost 130 pounds while in the wheel chair. But then depression and symptoms started of lupus and RA, and prednisone so back up the weight went. I am 5 foot 6 inches and got back up to 368 pounds. Now I am at 322 because of the special diet for my gastroparesis and glucose intolerance. Though now I don't have an appetite at all. I force myself to eat healthy foods and not starve the weight off. The gastroparesis limits things I can eat to no fresh fruit or veggies that are not cooked to death. I tried reglin (not sure of spelling) but it gave me severe cramping and I was unable to take it at all. I'm feeling ok where I am, I want to be healthier and eat well and exercise like the doc has suggested. I am gauging my health by how I feel and not pounds, though I am glad to see that number go down for reasons of blood pressure, cholesterol and the blockages in my legs.