I hope someone may be able to advise and/or help. We have very little money and no medical insurance. I'll try to make this as brief and concise as possible. I am a small-boned but fairly tall woman ~ used to be 5'8" but due to the vertebrae "cushions" in my spine disintegrating, I am now 5'7". I am 55 years old. I have osteoperosis as determined by a dexascan. Until about 2005, I weighed approx. 140-150 lbs, which is a good weight for me. After it was determined in 2006 I had Graves Disease and my thyroid was radioactively destroyed and I had diverticulitis with approx. 2 feet of colon removed, I lost more weight ~ was down to about 120 but didn't look very good (too old to be so thin!) and I was very, very ill. Once I began to recover, weight began to pile back on ~ especially since I had no thyroid and my meds weren't stabilized yet. In addition, I contracted mono, for which I was put on prednisone which also packed the weight on at an alarming rate. Next thing I knew, I now weigh 250 ~ horrible and shocking, I know ~ so I am at least 100 lbs. overweight.
My biggest problem, aside from my weight, is my back. Being small-framed, my body is not at all accustomed to lugging around this kind of weight. I can walk at a normal pace for maybe 3-5 minutes, but then my lower back totally stiffens right up and becomes excrutiatingly painful, forcing me to sit for a couple minutes IMMEDIATELY. When my back gets like that, I can't stand, walk, or sit very well ... but sitting is helpful. Once I sit for just a minute or two, I am then able to walk another 3 or 4 minutes but then have to sit back down again due to the terrible stiffness and pain.
Has anyone experienced such a situation before, and what have you done about it? I used to be able to walk miles and miles without thinking twice about it, but my whole life radically changed during the years of 2006-2008. Now I'm obese but cannot figure out how to walk/exercise with my lower back being in such horrible shape. OF COURSE I know losing weight would help tremendously .... and I know I need to exercise, but HOW and doing WHAT?
As stated earlier, at present we are quite poor with no medical insurance. I need to limit my doctor visits as they are over $200 each .... that doesn't even include any sort of X-ray or MRI or whatever I may need. ANY HELP OR ADVICE WOULD BE GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED!