600 lbs Cedar Rapids woman pleads for help with weight loss

CEDAR RAPIDS - A 36-year-old woman who says health problems have caused her to weigh more than 600 pounds is looking for help as she tries to lose enough of the extra weight to qualify for gastric bypass surgery.

Charity Pierce of Cedar Rapids hasn't left her home since November. She said she's always been heavy, but a string of medical conditions have brought her to a debilitating weight.

“Anyone can see I have lymphedema in my left leg, from the very bottom ankle all the way up my whole entire left side,” she said. “It's like carrying another person around, and it's really hard to exercise that way.”

Also known as lymphatic obstruction, the condition causes fluid to build up in the body after lymph nodes have been damaged. Pierce said that in her case, the swelling in her leg began after a fall down a flight of stairs in 2001.

She said her health history includes another complication as well: She once spent eight months in a hospital fighting the effects of a flesh-eating bacteria infection.

So now, Pierce said, she stays inside her apartment to hide.

“This side of my stomach has lymphedema. This side has been cut away (from the infection). This leg has lymphedema and this leg doesn't,” she said.

Pierce said she has to lose weight to help the swelling go down and improve her health. And she knows some people will criticize her for having been obese before the lymphedema struck.

“‘You need to just do it on your own,'” is how she characterized others' advice. “Well, that's easier said than done.”

Her refrigerator isn't full of junk, but she's living on food stamps, so eating healthfully is a challenge.

Pierce estimates her weight between 610 and 630 pounds; she needs to get down to 500 to be eligible for the weight loss surgery she hopes will give her a fresh start. So she turned to the Internet, posting a video about her plight on KCRG-TV9's Facebook page.

“As long as I stay hidden in the house, nobody is going to know my story,” she said.

She's hoping for drastic measures to save her life so she can see her 16-year-old daughter, Charly, grow up.

“She's my life. She's my rock. She's my world,” Pierce said.