cannotwait2beskinny

Hello. I love the idea of this website and the support it offers, but I'm having major difficulty navigating the set up process. Additionally, the chat window literally pops up EVERY TIME I go to a different page. Maybe it's a problem with my little netbook. Anyway, at the moment I'm frustrated. It probably doesn't help that I'm on the pre-op liquid diet.

As with most or all of you on this site, I've been heavy for quite some time. At 5'7", I weighed about 165 when I married my hubby in 1996. The Depo Provera birth control injection I took before the wedding helped me pack on close to 20 lbs. in 6 months. Then, along came pregnancy/baby number 1 in 1997. Together with baby number one came a tornado that leveled our street. Then a couple months later we moved to Rhode Island, from Florida, for my husband's career as a naval officer. Six short months later we moved again and then had another kid. My husband was away more than he was home. Alone with an infant and a toddler, I began a seriously unhealthy relationship with food. It was my partner and my comfort. Four moves and another kid later, I am more than ready to live a healthier lifestyle. At my absolute heaviest I was at 249 (this summer). Today I'm at 241 and am on day 2 of the pre-op liquid diet. Ugh.

I am ashamed that I have allowed myself to get to this point. The heavier I've become, the more difficult it has been to make friends. My feeling is that people automatically view me as lazy, uneducated and poor, of which none of them are true. One of my many reasons for having the gastric sleeve is to help others give me a chance at being a friend. Moving around so much in the military is definitely a challenge. I have found that many people won't even talk to me as a newbie, no matter how nice I am to them. I'm tired of being lonely, overlooked and ignored!

I do not plan or even want to become a "barbie doll". I'm doing this for health reasons. The health of my physical being as well as the health of my mind and the health of my relationships with my children and husband. My decision to have the gastric sleeve vs. lapband or bypass was purely personal. I'm sure that any of the three would have provided me some success but in my mind the sleeve just seems to "fit".

Dr. Kevan Mann will be performing my surgery at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth on Tuesday October 26th. This has been a long time in the making.

I hope to derive support from others who've been through this and I pray that I can be a blessing to others who are behind me on this journey.