My Story

May 30, 2011

I have always been overweight. I cant even think of a time where I was equal with my peers. I have always been the sweet, funny fat girl. All throughout high school I was bigger than my girlfriends and I tried to loose weight, but was never able to do it. When I turned 16 I found myself never home and always eating out with friends and making bad decisions. As soon as high school was over I decided to go away to school and start over- and I did just that. I went to school in the mountains of North Carolina not knowing a soul. I can remember my dad telling me about the Freshman 15 and thinking that's not going to be me. In fact it wasn't me for the first 3 or 4 months of school. My campus was small so I walked everywhere; which I wasn't used to and I lost about 20lbs. I felt great, but then I started going out with friends to dinner and drinking and I gained all of it back plus some! The freshman 15 was for most people, but it was like the freshman 30 for me. I joined a sorority and all of the girls were outgoing, pretty and of course small. I didn't know why they wanted me to be a part of their social group. At this time I was about 220lbs and 5'8. I can remember sitting in a chapter meeting as a pledge and being asked if I could fit into a Large t-shirt b/c no one wore a XL. I smiled and made some joke, but inside I was totally embarrassed. If you know anything about sororities you know there are a lot of t-shirts with letters on them. I swear we had a t-shirt for everything! I remember them placing the order for t-shirts and of course only 1 XL shirt was ordered; which was mine. After school and gaining over 100 lbs in 4 years I married the love of my life. He was also big and knew what it was like. He made me feel beautiful (and still does). We have been married now for 4 years and we want to start a family.
That is not an option right now b/c we are both so unhealthily. I have PCOS and weigh about 380 so a child would be a terrible decision at this point. A few months ago my husband and I were talking and really started discussing WLS. I called our insurance company (Humana) and although they are not covering a lot of the WLS (only $5,000 each) it was something we could consider doing. We think it is going to cost us about $20,000 and it is going to be financially VERY difficult, but worth it. I spoke to a friend who had RNY 6 years ago and she directed us to OH. This is just the beginning...

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