Before having children I weighed 135 pounds. I remember weighing 180 pounds on delivery day with my oldest daughter and I was horrified! After I had her my weight went down to 150, but I never really lost the extra baby weight. Well after my daughter, I went on to have 6 more children and none of them were twins. With each pregnancy I'd put on a little bit more weight and I'd never be able to lose those last few pounds. When my youngest son turned a year old in March 2007, that is when I seriously looked into getting weight loss surgery. He had been breastfed but now he was weaned, so I would be able to have this done without interfering with his breastfeeding.

I had seen the commercial for the lapband and I got excited- this was MADE for me! I had dieted so many times in the past and the thing that always got me was my hunger. Gastric bypass had been around for years, but the thought of having my stomach cut and rearranged scared me to death.So I made an appointment with my Dr and got an appointment with the surgeon at the military hospital to see about having lapband surgery done. My appointment was in June 2007 and I almost cried when the I heard say the words "Tricare does not cover the lapband yet." My heart sank. I had finally taken the steps to start on this journey and it wasn't covered. He told me that gastric bypass was covered and that he hoped that lapband surgery would be covered in the next year. At this point I was so disgusted by my weight that I thought that maybe I could do the gastric bypass surgery and so I started on that journey.

~The Gastric Bypass Diet Class~

So, I was already at the point where I was ready to have my body cut in some shape or form so that I could finally lose the weight that I had gained over my childbearing years. Lapband was not covered yet, so I actually started the process of getting gastric bypass done.

The class consisted of about 7 women, sitting at a table in a classroom setting and was taught by the dietitian. I knew I was not going to be able to eat the same foods anymore, but I had no idea that after you have gastric bypass done, that you will be fighting to get the nutrition you need. Sure, you lose the weight, but you can also lose your hair, become anemic, and you have to fight to eat enough protein every single day. And if you ever decide that you want to have something sweet, EVER again, you may have dumping syndrome.

I walked out of the class and literally had to digest all of the information. "Non-reversible" stood out in my head. What if when I got older this was something that could seriousily affect my health in a negative way? The amount of vitamins that I had to put in my system was alarming. If gastric bypass went wrong, then this was a life long mistake that I would have to live with. At 37 yrs of age, that scared me enough to hold off.

Fast forward to Feb 2008....Tricare APPROVES THE LAPBAND!!! :biggrin: I jumped on the phone and called my Dr for an appointment for a referral, and that is where my lapband journey really took off!