MoreganK

I started noticing an issue with my weight when I was in Junior High School. It wasn't because I ate a lot and was lazy. I was an active kid, whose role model was her brother who was an avid health nut. I worked hard to eat healthy and make great choices even when I was that young. In high school, I was in Marching Band, color guard to be exact, and if you've never been or seen what the training is like for that, let me just tell you its rigorous. We'd have practice for 4-5 hours a day in the heat and rain. Color guard was full body movement, toss and pulling and pushing a heavy flag pole, all while sprinting across a football field. For lunch in HS, I had usually one of two things. An orange and a dinner roll, or one slice of pizza from the cafeteria and milk. I didn't eat much... somehow I wasn't even hungry during practice either. You'd think I'd have been thin and toned, right? Nope. Something I didn't know about myself back then. I was developing PCOS (Polyscystic Ovarian Syndrome). Its an endocrine disorder that can screw up how your whole body functions. It means that chemically I don't work like a normal person. I went undiagnosed for years. And for years my weight went up despite my active nature, and healthy eating. At age 27 was my first mention of PCOS. I disregarded it really. At 29, my Oby-Gyn said to me, "Aren't you a walking poster girl for PCOS." At this point, my weight is a problem. I'm pre-diabetic, developing hypertension, and its just gotten worse from there. I'm 35 now. I feel like I'm 80. I'm tired all the time. I struggle to be active some days. I'm a hoop dancer, and when I started hooping, I watched over the next couple years the friends I made start losing weight with hooping, but not me. I'd had it. I gave up. I stopped caring about myself. I started eating whatever I wanted, and rewarded myself with food on good days. Food equals love, right? So, here I am.
In August of 2011, my Oby-gyn said to me, "If you want to have a child, right now you can't. You would endanger your life and the baby's because of your weight." I was, and still am, devastated when I heard those words. She was answering my question on if she thought I could still have a child, see PCOS also has potentially made me unable to have a baby. I'll find out in a few years, I hope. She also told me, that if I continued to have some of the complications of my PCOS, I was walking down a road as a prime candidate for uterine cancer. Ok. Time to make a drastic decision.
So, in August, I began researching what she and another doctor had said to me before. "Have you ever considered weight loss surgery?" I scoffed at both doctors the first time they said that to me. My first reaction is, "Yeah, right. I'm not going to do this the easy way. I'm better than that." Wooo... look at me being all high and mighty. I pushed one more time to lose weight on my own, gave up being vegetarian after 16 years so I could have pure proteins and consume less carbs. No dice. The scale inched 5 pounds in 2 months of depriving myself. I researched and researched weight loss surgery. Talked to my boss who had sleeve surgery. I was teetering on making the decision, and then a high school friend of mine had it done. 4 months after her surgery we met for lunch, and she let me quiz her on anything I wanted to ask. I watched a slew of Youtube videos, and read blogs. Ok, I feel ready. I told my boyfriend. He was 100% supportive. Eventually I told some other close friends, and my boss, and then my siblings, and finally my parents. Everyone I've told that I'm getting sleeved has been supportive. I love my family.
So, hopefully the end of my sleeve story is that I'm happy and thin... and healthy.