[Pinkybuttonz]

Hi All,

I'm Pinky and and new to this site. I live in London England. I am 41 years old, I'm a single parent to my 19 year old daughter.

I have struggled with my weight since I was a teen. I did manage to lose 126lb a few years ago using the Cambridge Diet. Unfortunatly 2 years later I regain it all plus more and was at my highest weight of 288lb.

I have comorbidities and in March this year my DR referred me for Gastric Bypass surgery.

I will be having my surgery on the 10/27/09 and I can't wait. I am currently on the pre op diet.

I look forward to getting to know you all .

[katress]

i am fairly new here also.....today is my two month surgiversary.....i have lost about 63 lbs to date.....i am very happy with the results so far. i am 31 and live in Fargo ND.....no not like the movie....HAHAHAHA...i have one dog, no kids and like 60+ tattoos that i have done mostly myself...i am a tattoo artist..... my big concern isnt the floppy skin, its the art work and what the hell its gonna look like when this journey is over....? ????? i guess it is something that i am willing to deal with.....my surgeon found quit a bit of humor in that topic at my consult for the WLS......all the nurses were laughing and though that i was soooooooooooo funny........(i wasnt laughing) but other than that i am just working the tool and.....oh yeah it is also my 2 month anniversary for no smoking, no soda, and no chocolate......i have struggled with weight issues my whole life......the fact that i was a soda hound did help matters much either.........the last time that i weighed under 150 lbs, which is close to my goal weight....i was in like 4th grade....that is heavy for a kid..........but this is my time to shine now.......thanks to all of you awesome people for the support to help me through the toughest part so far..........

[bela]

My name is Ana. I'm 31. I was born in Brazil but I am Portuguese (got nationality through my father) and I currently live in the Netherlands.

I was never thin but I was normal up to my 16 years old. I always loved sports and this balanced the amount of food I ate. My grandma though complained I was fat (1.58m and 63kg - sorry, not in the mood for finding an online calculator), I am glad she didn't live to see me today with 108 kg.

So, the moment I stopped with sports for different reasons or I had a family problem or a money issue or... I would gain weight. Not forever though. It seems that at one point my body got used to it. But then I would step on a scale and see I got weight and then I would go on a diet and/or exercise lose some kgs and in a few months got double back (well, I guess most of you know how it works).

Well now I've had enough. I don't want to wait until I can't stand up anymore to try to fix this. And when anything else didn't work, I chose the hard way, the surgery that I will be doing in January next year.

I love meeting new people and talking, sharing experiences, feel fre to add me as a contact or send a PM. I will start working on my blog as soon as I confirm the date of the surgery (it is pre-confirmed atm).

[luvmykitties]

Hi everyone, I'm Sarah. I'm 27 years old, and I live in West Virginia. I'm a single mom to my daughter, Lola who's 8. I just got engaged this past summer to a wonderful man, Sam. We're planning a wedding for next summer.

I've been overweight my entire life. My doctor just confirmed recently that I'm a borderline diabetic. I knew that was coming someday since my mother, both grandmothers, and one grandfather are diabetic. I've been considering WLS for a long time now, and I've been doing extensive research about the different procedure and the benifits and risks associated with all of them. I finally decided it is the best option for me, as everything else has failed. I took my first steps yesterday and talked with my doctor about it, and today is "Day 1" of my 3 month supervised diet and exercise that she is requiring me to do before she will refer me to a surgeon. She wants me to bring down my insulin levels and try to lose at least 5% of my weight.

I've enjoyed reading about other people's journey in this forum, and I hope to get to know lots of you!

[AverysMom]

Hi,
I'm Lisa and I live just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. I had my RNY gastric bypass on January 11, 2004. That was the day I was reborn. I was always a chubby kid, obese teen, and a fat adult. After being married for about 4 years, I just gave up on weightloss. I figured I'd be fat forever. Then my biological clock started ticking. It was LOUD! We tried so long to get pregnant. The diagnosis was always "unexplained infertility" but in my heart I knew it was because I was so overweight. We did all that was allowed for an obese patient with no results. One day, I was contemplating doing the fertility drugs again when my SIL (an OB RN) called me crying. She had had a patient the night before that was so much like me. Overweight and she had done everything to get pregnant. She was successful. She had a tiny little boy that died. The mother had a stroke while in labor and ended up passing away too. My SIL did what no one had ever done. Told me to check into WLS. If anyone else had said that to me I would have shut them out of my life forever but I could tell that it was only because she loved me. She went with me to all the seminars, checking different doctors out, and even stayed with me at the hospital. I was a model patient. I weighed in at 362 on the day of surgery. Within 15-18 months I was in the 150's and ready to start the baby making process again. Again, NOTHING worked. We had 3 successful IVF's but none of the babies made it past 6 weeks of pregnancy. Then we got pregnant. I carried our little girl Tessa till March 9, 2007. She passed away in utero and DH and I were broken. I have always thought that my previous obesity contributed to all the losses. I knew we were supposed to be parents and where there is a will there is a way, right? We had one failed domestic adoption because the birth mother changed her mind. It was like another miscarriage for me. Depression is a horrible thing. My old ways started to come back because I was so sad. A miracle happened and we met a family that had 2 daughters adopted in China. Fastforward to November 3, 2008 and that was the day that we met our 5 year old daughter Avery. Now, this weekend, I just filled out paperwork to adopt again.

Tomorrow I start paying back for my depression. I gain about 30 lbs and I am resetting my pouch. I am not worried because I know that I can do anything...ANYTHING. I can lose 230 lbs, have 7 babies, and go around the world to meet my child. I married the love of my life and I am the strongest person I know.
Lisa

[Tigerfly]

I've been here for a while but I have never done this... so here goes...

I am 34 years old, married with an adopted daughter who is 18 years old. My husband and I have been together for 8 years, this is my second marriage. I live in Allentown, PA and I am the Sr. Director of Analytics and Insights for Telerx Marketing a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co. I have been with Telerx for almost 6 years and I have been in the industry for 12 years. My career is very important to me and to a large degree defines me as a person, although not completely.

I have been overweight my entire adult life and most of my teen years although looking back now I realize that I wasn't as much overweight as I was just bigger than the average girl. I am 6 feet in stature and my brother and I both have what has been medically diagnosed as XXL body frames. My brother is 6'8" tall. When I was 14 years old, I wore a size 18 and when I look back a pictures I am amazed at how thin I was, I was really not overweight... but when I compared my size 18 to all of my friends size 2's... I felt like I was bigger than a house. As it always does, feeling like I was bigger than a house well... led to me being bigger than a house!

Throughout my life I once successfully lost 160 lbs through diet and exercise, you might say that is GREAT well it was, while it lasted... while I was losing the weight I had been laid off form work and had made fitness my life... I spent as much time training as I would have working. While when I went back to work, I maintained a pretty intense work out schedule, with the absence of 3 hours of cardio a day I ended up gaining all of the weight back plus some.

At the end of 2008 I was at what I believed to be a cross roads, I knew that I could no longer go on living as an obese person and succeed in the areas in which I planned to. I have always been an active person, and that didn't really change ever but what did change is my will to work hard at it... It became tiring... I committed to myself and my husband that when the new year happened and open enrollment was complete that I would research the possibility of having WLS. Once February rolled around and we were on our new insurance, I called them to get the qualifications and began the process.

By March 2009 I was in the insurance required 3 month program and completed it in June 2009. I had my surgery on July 20, 2009.

After my surgery while in recovery I had a pulmunary edema that resulted in being on life support and in ICU for the next 4-5 days. All told my hospital stay was 7 days and I was miserable... When I woke up on day 3 of my medically induced comma, I was sure that I had made the worst possible mistake of my life. How could I have elected to have surgery that could have and almost killed me?? I thought my life was over, I was convinced that death was imminent and that I would be leaving my husband and daughter to fend for themselves and it was all because I "wanted to be skinny".

After my release from the hospital I spent several weeks in therapy, I was angry and it was not a good time in my life. Within a week of being released from the hospital though, I began to see the results of the surgery and it gave me hope.

Almost 4 months later, I can say with complete conviction that if I had it to do over again I would DO IT AGAIN, pulmunary edema, ICU, pain, inability to breathe for weeks... I would put up with all of it again if I knew today that it was just "part of the process".

The results are incredible... following the rules and being physically active, working out and being aware of everything I eat has resulted in 105 lbs lost in less than 4 months. If someone had told me that this would have happened I would have told them they were insane.

Today my life is pretty much the same as before the surgery except I can work out harder and longer. The most amazing change if I had to note one that I am cognizant of the fact that I am NOT the largest person in the room anymore - almost never... it is WILD!

[KarenC]

Hi I'm Karen I'm 38 yrs old and have been married to my husband Mike for 12 years. We have 2 sons (Anthony9 and Aidan 3), 2 Labs (Seamus McGillicuddy and Remington O'Callahan) and 2 cats (Chloe & Zoe).

I had my open RNY on 9/18 of this year. I'm feeling fantastic and knock on wood have not had any post op challenges. I come to the board often to read and see what everyone is up to and experiencing. I find a lot of comfort in the fact that so many have gone through what I experience.

Thanks to you all

[shasha]

Hi..I am new to this site. I have been thinking about having WLS for 3 years and finally decided after failing so many times with sooo many diets. I have a great husband that is my support. I also have an aunt that had it done last year. I've decided NOT to tell ANYONE. I have seen how people (even my own family)have treated my aunt. Noone understands unless they have been there. I decided to do this to be healthy and I want to be there for my 3 kids. I started gaining weight after my 1st child and just kept getting bigger and bigger. I also want to do this to be ME again. I don't regonize that person in the mirror. The only time I relized how big I am is when I see pictures (which is rare). You know what they say "If mommas happy...everyones happy". I feel this is my shot to be healthy and happy for me and my family. Thanks for listening!!

[Blaque_Cherry]

Hi My name is Dee...I'm female...45yrs old from kentucky...Two daughters 22 and 24...two grand~babies..Micah 3 months and Jourdyn 3 yrs...I recently had my surgery 1/11/10..I'm scared and unsure of what to do with myself..lol..I love to write poetry...faithful Church member...and spending time with my grand~babies...I've been over weight all my life and decided to have gastric bypass surgery in hope to lose weight and rid of diabetes and high blood pressure...its nice to meet all of you all and Im hoping we grow and learn as much as possible together..I wanna live a long healthy life.....God Bless

[Joeinboise]

My name is Joe, I am from Boise Idaho, my surgery is next Wednesday the 19th. I am married to a VERY wonder-full and supportive wife. between us we have have 5 kids and 5 grand kids.

I have considered this surgery for many years, and now we are finally moving forward. I must admit, I am very excited, and scared to death at the same time. Is that typical?