Gina F.
OK this is my story...
I am a 37 yo female, married for 13.5 years to my hubby Sean. We have 3 children. A 2.5 yo little girl named Bethany, a 5.5 yo girl named Juliana, and a 13 yo girl named Valerie. My husband and I did not have children for about 7 yr. into our marriage due to my health issues, including a severe back injury and they fact that I had PCOS and probably couldn't get pregnant even if I could have handled the pregnancy physically. My health issues are all wrapped up together in that I had a injury which caused me to be inactive, become severely depressed, and gained even more wt. I have been over wt. my entire life. I have always been the chubby girl or the fat girl, but despite all of that, I remained pretty active and happy until I hurt my back. After about 8 years of putting off back surgery I finally decided to have anterior/posterior spinal fusion in 2000. The surgeon said I had to loose 50 lb to have the surgery and help it be successful. I went to Jenny Craig and then WW in 1999 and in one year I lost 60lb (I always try to beat my goals)!
I have lost and gained wt. all of my life but this was a big loss for me, and I really thought I would keep it off forever this time! I was around 246 when I started and lost 60 lb. I kept it off for awhile, but my wt. slowly crept up. Then I got pregnant and had my first daughter, Juliana in 2003. She was born with a very rare syndrome, and despite keeping my wt. off during my pregnancy; after she was born is when things really started going down hill for me. I think I kind of gave up, having a child with a serious medical condition and being a new Mom was tough, not only did I not have time to take care of myself, I decided it was not important any more. Well, my wt. my depression and then my pain became even more of an issue after my second daughter was born. I still did not hit my max until sometime after she was born. My pain issues increased with the wt. my energy level was so bad, I was not taking care of the kids like I felt I should have, and the symptoms of the PCOS came back with a vengeance! At this point I had after gained all of my wt I had lost plus gaining a little extra.
So, I have been on every diet you could probably name. I started dieting at around age 10 and the yo-yo has been happening ever since.
I started the WLS process with Kaiser over a year ago. I wt. 246 at my first wt in. I am currently 220 and I am ready to start the rest of my life! I have had an emotional struggle about which surgery to have LB or GB. I decided on LB in the beginning becasue I felt that it was the least risky and because the amount of wt I wanted to loose was about 96 lb. I thought it was not enough to have GB. I also hear from people all of the time "you do not need WLS, you are not big enough"! So, I felt like I could justify the lesser surgery to everyone. Well, once I got my surgery date I have done a lot of research, soul searching, and chatting with others. I am pretty sure if my surgeon still feels good about me as a GB candidate... that is the surgery I am going to do! I will keep you all posted.
I need to grow a thicker skin becasue the skinny people in my life tell me I do not need WLS, becasue they have no clue what I have been through in my life, or what it feels like to carry around an extra 100 lb! Everyone is used to seeing me as "heavy" and for some reason are comfortable with that. They do not know me as anything else, so they can't fathom me at my goal wt of around 150! The bigger people in my life (even on this website) have told me I do not need WLS because I am not heavy enough! Well, let me set the record straight for anyone who is curious... I am 5'8" and I was 250 at one point (and probably could easily get back there fast with my wt history of yo-yoing). That is 100 lb of being over wt.! Even though I have lost 30lb pre-op 70 lb is a lot of wt. to loose and keep off with my chronic pain. I think with a tool like WLS it will help me get to where I can feel better. Then I can really start working on getting my trunk muscles (all of the other too) strengthened up. I know I will feel better, be a better more active mother, and be able to lift and carry my disabled daughter (she can't walk yet).
So, that is my story in a nut shell. I am sure now that I have explained my story I will never have to justify how or why I got approved for WLS in the first place to anyone else on this forum who may read this. But, if there is ever someone else in a similar situation that reads my story and would like some guidance with Kaiser's system... I may be able to help you with that.
I know I have made the right decision for me, and it is a joke to me when people tell me well "why don't you just keep doing what you have been and loose the wt. yourself". Like choosing WLS is taking the easy way out! HAHHA! I would say to those people stay tuned because the hard part of a life long change is about to begin... and I know it!!! Take care and stay tuned for my future blogs!
