How I Became a Patient

Life happens. I was active duty Air Force, so every year, had weigh ins and measurements and physical fitness tests. I worked out, met standards, and lived my life. However, over time, weight crept up on me. I’d always been a softly rounded kid, even despite gymnastics and dance and cheerleading and rodeo and watching every bite I put in my mouth. That was just how it was for me.

I hit my 30s. Two kids. Deployments. Working full time. Working nights. Leaving the military, moving to our farm, more stress, less sleep, more pounds. In 20 years, I’d put on 30 pounds. It doesn’t seem like much, but I’m only 5 feet tall, so the pants got tighter and tighter.

That time I ended up with a Prius as a rental car

I have a heart condition, which was first discovered before I deployed to Afghanistan. It hasn’t ever caused me any problems, but it’s lurking in the background. I was assigned a job with the Air Force that required me to pass a Class II flying physical, so all of a sudden, my heart was back front and center as a concern.

The Air Force decided that now that I had reached the ancient milestone of 40, I needed an in depth cardiac evaluation. They sent me back to Ohio, to the Air Force Surgeon General’s School of Aerospace Medicine for all sorts of poking and prodding.

I had to do several stress tests. Do you know what a stress test is? The basic idea is to get your heart working really hard, and then see how the electricity moves through it and see if the muscles all move like they should. Sounds simple, right? Here’s where it gets complicated for women. To get your heart working really hard, they put you on a treadmill and have you run up an incline until you reach 80% of your maximum heart rate. It usually takes 10 minutes or so. The catch is that you can’t wear a bra, because you’re hooked up to EKG wires and then they need to ultrasound your heart as fast as possible.

Picture it. There I was: hospital gown, electrodes everywhere, one hand on the rail so I don’t trip, and my other forearm trying desperately to keep boobs from flopping around while I run at top speed. Oh, and there are about 10 people all standing around watching this. You jump off the treadmill, flop down on an exam table, and then they tell you not to breathe hard so they can see your heart on the echo.

Eating at a Waffle House with my Holter monitor in place.

Anyway, lots of testing. Some of it unpleasant. All of it normal. After 5 straight days of testing, I get called in by the Air Force’s head cardiologist to tell me my results. He said that other than the abnormality we already knew about, they had no idea why it had happened. Everything else was normal. Oh, except that I was fat and I should probably do something about that.

Now, at that time, I was at almost my highest weight. My BMI was almost 30. I knew the pounds had crept on, but after that, I was determined. I told myself, I know how to do this. Work out, eat better, lose weight. Simple.

So I went home. I was already working out 4 times a week. I went to at least 5 workouts a week, and started running miles on top of my other workouts. I went strict keto. I measured portions. In 3 months, I gained 3 pounds. GAINED.

At that point, I was so frustrated. I found an obesity medicine boarded physician. I went in and said, “I’m not really that heavy, but I keep gaining and I can’t make it stop.” My physician was so amazing. We talked about my weight history, what I had tried, and what I had done that worked or didn’t. We made plans for tracking activity, food, making sure that my impressions were really accurate for what I was doing.

The results from tracking and wearables came in. I was more active than I thought, eating less than I thought, and still gaining weight. She told me something so freeing. She said, “You’re doing all you can, which is great. Keep doing those things, and let’s fix it so those things actually work.” We started a GLP1 that day.

Over the next 9 months, those 30 pounds melted away. Slowly, steadily, to a point where my physician and I felt good about my muscle mass, bone density, and weight. I felt good, strong, and healthy. She cheered me on for each milestone, reminding me of the lower cancer risk, the heart disease I was protecting myself from, and the knee that would last so much longer now. I’ve now been on the medication at a maintenance dose for over 4 years, holding steady and feeling good.

I realized what a gift it was to finally have someone who understood that it wasn’t just that I wasn’t trying. I was doing all the things, and so much of my life and energy was wrapped up in what I could eat or did I work out enough today. Now, I eat if I’m hungry. I work out because my body feels strong and it helps with stress. I don’t have to spend so much of my mental bandwidth worrying about staying healthy.

After seeing the change in my life, I worked to become board certified in obesity medicine myself, so I can help others on this journey. I still see my obesity physician, and she is still my adultier adult. Her compassion, support, and knowledge has made all the difference for me, and I hope I can share a small amount of what she’s given me with my patients.