Patient Stories Project
Becoming the Exception: My Journey to Health and Strength
Written by: Deb Baranec
Hi, I’m Deb Baranec and I would like to share my journey to a healthier life and knees.
I was always considered “robust,” through my youth and early adulthood despite having an active lifestyle. Around 1980, I weighed about 200 pounds and had my first of many knee injuries.
Several surgeries later, I was told I had torn my left ACL and had a partial tear of my MCL and most of my meniscus. I was advised to lose some weight, exercise more and start wearing a brace. I went on my first of many diets, lost 50 pounds, wore a brace, and worked out each lunch hour at my company gym. I continued skiing and taking up other sports and staying active. However, my weight yo-yoed, and the brace didn’t fit properly. I continued to be active, but I re-injured my knee several times over the following few years requiring more surgery and leaving me with no cartilage in my left knee. I was 48 years old, and life took over; I was less physical and weighed 354 plus pounds. I injured my right knee just by stepping up into a bus, tearing my meniscus and partially tearing my ACL.
MY MOTTO: I AM GOING TO BE THE FREAKING EXCEPTION!
Lose, gain, repeat! It was a never-ending cycle of seeing a new orthopedic doctor and being told to lose weight and get more active. Just to walk was painful. I was totally out of control, not healthy or active – on 15 different medications and used a C-pap machine for sleep apnea. I had lots of ‘ah ha-oh crap’ moments but I found ways to rationalize or compensate for my weight and the continuing pain in my knees.
In 2006, I decided I needed to get healthier, and I retired. I convinced my husband to join a gym with me and that became my new 3-day a week job. It was intimidating walking into the facility and having my photo taken. With guidance from the personal trainers, I set daily goals for a certain amount of cardio and lifting weights to target specific muscles. It wasn’t always sunshine and unicorns.
One day a gentleman came into the gym, and he sat down to strap on prosthetic legs and walk around the track until his legs bled. And I thought to myself, I am not giving up, if he can do it, so can I. Here is where I found real inspiration. After about 3 years, I had lost 54 pounds. But I was still unhealthy, on all my meds and using a C-pap machine. My cardio workouts were limited because of joint pain.
In 2008, I consulted with my family physician for a referral for bariatric surgery. She nixed all my ‘drastic’ choices to lose weight and suggested there were better programs out there – Weight Watchers (WW) being one of them. I begged her for a referral to a surgeon for my knees. She didn’t hold out much hope that anyone would see me, as she felt my weight would be an issue. She was mostly correct, as only 1 of the 12 physicians she reached out to agree to see me.
October 1st, 2010, I had my left knee replaced, expecting to also replace my right knee the following year. I weighed 284 pounds for that surgery. I had an epiphany when I woke up. I acknowledged to myself that I had been given a second chance and I better not screw this up. So, one month after surgery, and armed with precise exercises from the physiotherapist, I was back in the gym 5 days a week. I had weekly acupuncture for the swelling and pain. I started talking to my family about joining WW. My daughter encouraged me to join WW with her and picked me up on a Saturday, April 11, 2011, at 6:30 a.m. for our first WW meeting.
At the first weigh-in I was 280.4 pounds. My daughter reached her goal in 4 months and for a nanosecond I thought about quitting, but I didn’t want to disappoint my family or myself. I decided I was worth it. I continued working on myself and reached my goal weight by April 2014, losing a total of 117.5 pounds and over 70 inches off my waist, bust, thighs and arms. I was able to come off all my blood pressure meds and I no longer needed the C-pap machine. I was able to put off having my right knee replaced until 2015. I was ten pounds under my goal weight; I weighed 154 pounds.
After having my second knee replaced, I was back to the gym within a month of surgery, this time 6 days a week, and continuing with WW. The meetings and the friends that I have made during my fitness journey kept me on track. WW taught me a lifestyle, not a diet. I learned about healthy choices, portion control, and that each meal was not my last meal. The most important thing I learned is that I am accountable and responsible for my choices, and I should not be so hard on myself.
My knees and other joints love my choices. For each pound I lost, it was 5 pounds of pressure off the joint. Currently, I continue to manage my weight with WW and staying active. My husband and I work out in our gym 6 days a week doing a mix of cardio and weights and using the information learned from personal trainers and physiotherapists.