Recovery from serious illness (weight loss part two for anyone that remembers me!)

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2008
Posts
511
Location
UK
Hey all,

some of the older folks on here may remember me from quite a good thread on the old gym rats section. It started out as me desperately asking about weight loss tablets because a child, on a very busy commuter-time bus said out loud that I was the farthest person they’d ever seen. It turned into a discussion about my diet, what I should and shouldn’t eat and then more just me posting updates and stuff.

Basically I spent like 3.5 years dieting, gave up cigs and gym going and went from 26st down to 12st10. Congratulations me, once in a lifetime weight loss some might say!

Well it was pretty short lived actually. Within a year of that, I became very ill. Had an operation to remove a gall bladder that was about to burst...spent 3 days in hospital as I starting bleeding out in the op...had a tumour removed...under went a lot of chemo...developed a really rare autoimmune disorder...6 years of steroids...pretty much spent time in every NDAID and DMARD you can name...hit a peak of 96 tablets a week....went through 3 jobs...discovered I have a chromosomal abnormality...broke my foot, which has never healed right...my brother in law killed himself...had a complete mental breakdown. Not necessarily all in that order.

Anyway. it’s all behind me now. I’ve basically been left with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, weakened muscles, leg neuropathy and I’m probably about 23st summat.

I need to start again but I don’t know where or even how. It feels like an immense mountain to climb that’s even bigger than the first! One thing I am pretty sure on is I made mistakes last time - I got silly-thin for my height (6’1) need a bit of beef this time, I need to watch what I’m eating better as I practically got to a point where I wouldn’t eat all day sometimes.

I don’t even know why I’m here really...just wanted to let it know I’m making a stand I guess!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
3 Apr 2003
Posts
15,627
Location
Cambridge
Welcome back and sorry to hear about your recent history... :(

With all that arthritis, make sure your exercises don't cause "bad" pain. Look at swimming and find a decent sports physio to help you workout to get your gains back, because we will be skirting close to medical discussions otherwise... Happy to chat off this thread to help if you want!
 
Associate
OP
Joined
9 Jan 2008
Posts
511
Location
UK
Welcome back and sorry to hear about your recent history... :(

With all that arthritis, make sure your exercises don't cause "bad" pain. Look at swimming and find a decent sports physio to help you workout to get your gains back, because we will be skirting close to medical discussions otherwise... Happy to chat off this thread to help if you want!

Thanks for responding.

I did wonder whether I should try to mostly diet to lose the first few stone as that will make it easier to get physical, although being more physical will help shift the weight. Bit of a chicken and egg situation!
 
Man of Honour
Joined
3 Apr 2003
Posts
15,627
Location
Cambridge
Thanks for responding.

I did wonder whether I should try to mostly diet to lose the first few stone as that will make it easier to get physical, although being more physical will help shift the weight. Bit of a chicken and egg situation!

Definitely get swimming: it is about as low impact as you can get... Combined with a decent diet.

The flip side of all this is exercising with arthritis or other joint pain is made much easier by losing weight: 10% reduction in weight yields 80%reduction in pain, etc.
 
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