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In 2019, Rebecca Poehlmann of Dallas, Texas needed 26 medications to manage health conditions like prediabetes, fatty pancreas disease, fatty liver disease, migraines, epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome, ovarian cysts, blood pressure, anxiety and depression. She needed additional medication to manage the side effects of all the drugs.
“I was in so much physical pain and mental pain. Everything hurt. It hurt to walk. It hurt to sleep,” she tells TODAY.com.
“My brother started getting concerned. He wanted to take walks with me, but I was so heavy I turned him down. I would go back to bed. My dad, who was a doctor, also voiced his concerns. My doctors were worried about me. They warned me I could die of a stroke or heart attack, but I wasn’t listening. I had given up.”
In December 2019, Poehlmann’s brother and father passed away within a week of each other. “After that, I turned to food for comfort and gained another 30 pounds,” she says. Her weight climbed to 285 pounds.
Her husband finally said, ‘Honey, I think your weight is going to kill you. And I can’t live this life without you.’ My brother, my dad and my husband, the three most important people in my life, had all told me they were worried I was going to die. I had to do something,” she says.
Poehlmann, 44, decided to have weight-loss surgery, which turned her life around. She lost 150 pounds and put on muscle weight, reversed prediabetes, fatty liver disease and fatty pancreas, and no longer needs medication for high blood pressure. She’s down to just six medications.
“I can tie my shoes now. I can fit into my shower now. I can sleep without pain and suffering. I don’t fear having a stroke or heart attack at any minute and leaving…
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