Monday, November 9, 2020

Genetic Testing for Severe Obesity

I plan to pursue genetic testing for severe obesity. I have been thinking over the years, that something more is wrong, especially when I have read that the loss of senses, hearing and vision often goes with genetic conditions of severe obesity.

 Some may say why bother? You are still fat. There's some free programs out there being done by researchers. I have been losing more hearing, they have told me my word recognition is down to 12 percent. It has been very hard. It's added to my isolation. I've spent hours doing things like figuring out how to caption Zoom. Zoom doesn't care about accessibility. It's so bad, at this point I've tried 4 captioning online programs and nothing has worked. With the masks, I am functionally and completely deaf at this point even with hearing aids, because the masks block all lip reading.

Some folks told me I can take my Ancestry DNA and have it tested too for genetic problems on various websites. I am hoping to do this, to find out more. Could I have Fragile X or other genetic mutations? There's odd things about my make up, my mouth is extremely small, my ears are extremely large compared to my head and low set. I am not normal looking either. Don't forget the autism. Fragile X and autism walk hand in hand.

I spent years being blamed for not losing weight and being treated like a horrible person for it. Weight loss always failed me and I have extreme hunger problems. I have tried to talk to the doctors for years about the physical effects of dieting and my struggles with hunger. There's other stage 4 Lipedema women in stratosphere weights like me, I know others who even hit the 600s and 700lbs, but something seems to be more wrong in my case. While many of them share severe autoimmune problems, other physical problems I've noticed don't make any sense.

The other day, I got a severe migraine headache just from being late in eating by a few hours with my heart racing. I had overslept. My blood sugar was 87.  Orange spots swam in front of my eyes and my vision even seemed to dim for a time during the aura.  I was hungry for hours last night, but my blood sugar has been too high recently and I couldn't dare eat at night. 99 percent of the time I don't but there's been times I've given in. That's not normal either. 

One thing bothering me is why do my blood sugars go up when I eat less food? Is this related to my anemia and malnutrition? Recent blood tests say both are still a problem. Budget wise, groceries are vaporizing money and this week I did not want to spend much money on food.  This scaled the meals back. I was eating some vegan meals too. This is NOT how it is supposed to work. 

 When I lost down from the 700lb, I put myself on an eating schedule and made endless food rules to maintain the weight in the high 400s to low 500s.  Yes I have to fight not to gain. No one would believe it.  Can you imagine my weight gain fears from Covid and being trapped in here all the time?  I did exercise yesterday for 20 minutes, doing this boxing work out, and arm lifts. Balance is always hard, doing this stuff while next to the walker. At least I can stand up and balance myself enough to "box" though it's not easy.  I kept the weight within the same 5-6lbs but I fear what winter will bring.

Other human beings who have CFS can sleep in bed and give in to the exhaustion, with me, the fear of weight gain pushes me out of bed even if I feel like I can fall asleep while walking around.

Walking around in parks knowing I have to dodge people like germ vectors is scary too. I HAVE to go walking somewhere today. Private space is hard to come by for poor people. I know richer people who escaped to the woods in their RV campers and seemed to find endless parks or national parks to take long walks in. 

While thin and average people can eat food and enjoy it, for me there's always the haunting voice, "will it make you gain weight?".

I get to have the fun of asking my doctor to sign off on the genetic tests with one company. I hope this doctor understands. For years I asked to be put in hospitals and more to be given help to lose weight, kind of like Dr Now does but without the weight loss surgery, or to be put under observation. I know this body is not normal. I know these hunger levels are not normal. I know being in the low 500s, on the food I eat is definitely not normal at all. I want all the answers I can get.  May as well help those on the research train, so no one has to suffer these these things in the future and will have answers. 

 




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