{"id":67798,"date":"2023-01-17T08:30:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=67798"},"modified":"2023-01-24T10:18:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T17:18:38","slug":"900-pounds-and-hopeless-weight-loss-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/900-pounds-and-hopeless-weight-loss-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"900 pounds and hopeless: Katie’s weight-loss story"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"Katie's
Katie’s daughter, Elyse Richards, 18, is a high school senior. She and her brother, Dmitri, (not pictured) are Katie’s motivation in life. They inspire her to not give up and to share her weight-loss story to bring others hope. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Katie Peterson, 44, weighed nearly 900 pounds.<\/p>\n

Living in Lusk, Wyoming, a two-stoplight town with fewer than 2,000 people, she had been confined to her home for almost two years. Each morning she moved from her bedroom to the living room couch and then back at night with help from her then fianc\u00e9 and her 17-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Like many people with a food addiction, eating made Peterson forget about life, so she\u2019d have half of a pizza rather than a few slices. Chips and dip, cookies, candy \u2014 she didn\u2019t care what it was. Eating dulled the pain she felt in her hips, back and legs from years of carrying the weight.<\/p>\n

Food smothered her emotions, fueled by a series of traumatic events in her life.<\/p>\n

Peterson tried to get help before, calling medical facilities nearby and in neighboring states. But it was always the same answer: she was too heavy \u2014 she needed to lose 200 pounds before they would see her.<\/p>\n

Desperate, Peterson decided to scour the internet one last time, and a form popped up. She filled it out \u2013 name, address, telephone number \u2014 and hit the send button. Why not?<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was already on my way to dying,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

A few days later, her phone rang. The woman on the other end gave Peterson a feeling she hadn\u2019t had in years: hope.<\/p>\n

Within days, her life began to change.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial
Aerial view of Katie’s town, Lusk, population 1,497 (in 2021), on the high plains of Eastern Wyoming. It’s the county seat of Niobrara County. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large child from the start<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Peterson struggled with food addiction since childhood, exacerbated in adulthood by feelings of failing as a wife, mother and a daughter.<\/p>\n

She was born in a small town about an hour southwest of Lusk to a teenage mother who put her up for adoption. Her adoptive parents, Steve and Jeanne, lived about 50 miles northwest of Lusk. Their family had homesteaded the area, and Steve ran his cattle and sheep ranch, along with breeding and training Border Collies.<\/p>\n

Peterson was a chubby baby; by age 5, she was heavier than her peers. But she loved riding horses, and her father, who seemed to understand her better than anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I got older, I knew I was different from others because of my size,\u201d said Peterson, a 5-foot, 10-inch fiery redhead. \u201cI was born in the late 70s. At that point, it was something you were doing wrong. Obesity was your fault. It wasn\u2019t hereditary. You ate too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katie,
Katie, far right, as a young adult, with her parents, Steve and Jeanne, center, and sister, Rosemary. Photo courtesy of Katie Peterson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve and Jeanne had one daughter before adopting Katie. Being adopted was never a secret, but it wasn\u2019t until Peterson was older that she discovered she was genetically prone to obesity and heart disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be the first to say I have a food addiction. But at (a young) age, you don\u2019t want to hear that. I started at age 12 seeing a therapist, my parents telling me there must be some tragic thing that happened for me to eat the way I ate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food addiction and obesity continue to adulthood<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Peterson remained heavy into adulthood.<\/p>\n

In 2001, she married her first husband and had a son that July. Her marriage wasn\u2019t happy, and her health continued to decline to the point that she weighed 646 pounds when she found out she was pregnant with her second child. In 2004, Peterson traveled to a Denver hospital for the high-risk delivery of her daughter.<\/p>\n

By 2006, Peterson decided it was time to address her weight. The Food and Drug Administration had approved the lap band for weight loss just a few years earlier. Peterson traveled to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, for the procedure. Over the next year, she lost 250 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept trying to get into the 300s (pounds) but could never break that 400 mark,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cThen I plateaued for a few years. Yes, I was still 400 pounds, but I felt good and could get around. There were a few things, like if I went to a carnival, I was too big for the rides. But I felt pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the marriage wasn’t good. In 2008, Peterson got a divorce. Her ex-husband soon remarried and vanished from her young children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

With her kids in school, Peterson decided to attend college. She’d always wanted to follow a career in health care and thought she could pursue radiology. She then met her second husband.<\/p>\n

That marriage turned out to be worse than the first. Peterson said she endured physical and mental abuse while they lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Peterson again started to gain weight.<\/p>\n

\"Katie
Katie Peterson gets online for an appointment with her therapist (who’s not a UCHealth provider). Technology connects her to the world beyond rural eastern Wyoming. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2013, she found her biological father living not far from her. They had just built a relationship when he died of leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings were not going well,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cHe (husband) convinced me I was this white girl from Wyoming that didn\u2019t know the country. I like to travel, so we decided to move to Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson left her two children with her parents for the summer and headed east to get settled before moving the kids out there for the new school year. But the plan caved almost as soon as she got there. She spent two weeks sleeping in her car in the East Coast humidity before she left her husband and headed back to Wyoming.<\/p>\n

Her parents helped her get back on her feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started working again, and things started leveling out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then tragedy struck.<\/p>\n

A sense of failure leads to continued weight gain<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Peterson was running a daycare in Lusk when she got a call from her father. He wasn\u2019t feeling good. She told him she\u2019d head out to the ranch once the parents could pick up their children.<\/p>\n

By the time emergency personnel and Peterson arrived, Steve was dead. He’d suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors told Peterson there was nothing she could have done because the heart attack was too severe. But Peterson still felt guilty for not getting there sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI beat myself up for years thinking if I\u2019d called 911 quicker, maybe they could have saved him,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI dove into food like it wouldn\u2019t be there anymore. I kept eating large amounts of things. It was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Peterson, Katie’s father, ran a cattle and sheep ranch, along with breeding and training Border Collies, while Katie grew up on a large ranch outside of Lusk, Wyoming. Photo courtesy of Katie Peterson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, Peterson\u2019s then fianc\u00e9, who\u2019d also been her caregiver since her dad died, moved in with her and the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife was getting back to normal, at least that\u2019s what I thought,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While Peterson was struggling with her food addiction and emotions from her father\u2019s death, she missed the emotional turmoil her son was experiencing. He was 15 when his grandfather–the only positive male and father figure he had in his life– suddenly died. Being on the ranch with his grandfather was everything to him, but Jeanne couldn\u2019t manage it alone and had to sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was hard. You have those memories, but the new owners bulldozed everything. My son didn\u2019t take it well,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI was so wrapped up in my own emotions that I didn\u2019t realize my son was getting in so much trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news of her 17-year-old son\u2019s arrest was too much to handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to take my own life by swallowing a bottle of pills,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cMy mom and friend got me to the hospital, but no place would take me because I was too big to be transferred to any mental health facility to get me through my situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lusk has critical care services because it’s home to the Wyoming Women\u2019s Center, the state\u2019s main female correctional facility, as well as having a railroad depot. Its Niobrara Community Hospital<\/a> offers a 24-hour emergency room and services like infusion therapy, radiology and lab. The adjacent Rawhide Rural Health Clinic<\/a> provides primary care services. But Lusk lacks access to in-home physical therapy, home care, and in-patient mental health services.<\/p>\n

\"A
A cattle ranch in Niobrara County. Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, is three-and-a-half-hour drive southwest. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peterson remained at the hospital until a judge agreed to let her return home to her kids. She had to continue talking with a therapist. While her son adhered to his legal punishment, he refused to talk to his mother for over a year. Peterson\u2019s guilt was immense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI again stress ate. I was eating this whole time. From when I woke up to when I went to bed, I was eating something.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was then that she reached 700 pounds and struggled to walk. But her Casper doctor told her she must lose at least 200 pounds before he\u2019d perform a weight loss surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was depressed. I felt terrible. I was a terrible parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her son rebounded from his legal challenges, and in 2020, he graduated from high school. They began mending their relationship, and her son\u2019s accomplishments inspired Peterson. She again started her search for help, and that\u2019s when she found UCHealth.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Rohn, Katie Peterson’s former caregiver and fianc\u00e9, helps her stand up to resettle herself on the chair where she spends most of her day. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bariatric surgery challenges overcome<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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General guidelines to qualify for weight loss surgery<\/strong><\/h3>\n