ChatCat

Well lets see.... I was born and raised in southern California. I moved to Oregon when I was a teenager. I spent 4 years after high school in the Navy and when I got out of the Navy I came back here to Oregon and was hired to work as a 9-1-1 operator at the local Sheriff's Office. I thought that sounded like a pretty cool job for a while. 23 years later I am still here and now I am the manager of the 9-1-1 center.

I was not overweight growing up. I have always have food issues however. As far back as I can remember I have been attached to food. There were a series of really unfortunate incidents that occured in my life when I was young including my mothers death when I was 12 that sent me reeling emotionally and food was the thing that never let me down. It tasted good, I had control over it etc... You guys know the story probably.

So, in high school, I was on the drill team and was at a very manageable, healthy weight. After school I taught aerobics and when I joined the Navy I was very fit. I used to walk a lot, lift weights, swim, do aerobics. It was the 80's - everyone was dancing for exercise! Around 21 things changed. I met someone and fell madly in love, got my heart broken, blah, blah and unfortunately, started to believe the things I was told vs. believing in myself and getting on with my life. I allowed myself to fall into a funk for a while and just gave up taking care of myself. I mean, I functioned but on a deeper level I allowed myself to just let go and stopped caring about me and how I felt. I just forgot to love myself.

Fast forward to a few years ago. I was married, I got divorced, I met a wonderful man and got re-married and I was happy but I was paying for all the years I did not care about myself. I decided to get this surgery as a gift of love, if you will, to myself. I felt I deserved to be happy again and to be able to love myself and care about what happened to me. I am so glad I did this, I have no regrets and I would do it again in a minute.