Cassy

Hello World!What am I here for...oh yes, my story...In a nutshell, grew up the oldest of 6 in an emotionally and physically unstable home. Became an emotional eater and hoarder of food and found myself over 200 pounds at the age of 10 years old (might have actually been before that)... My dad would always have me get on the scale and read off the numbers to him...all I remember was it was over 200 evtery time.Fast forward to age 29, I was getting married, wore a size 22 and was happy enough but always unhappy with being overweight. Had horrible Poly-Cystic Ovaries that were completely out of control. Anyone with PCOS will know what I mean when I say it was the worst possible case you can imagine.(infertility, hair issues, bleeding, depression, etc)  I saw others who had the gastric bypass and I quickly decided that was not for me.  They had excess skin and looked sick and they were throwing up all the time or were in the bathroom a lot.  I put it on the backburner and went back to my diets.  Anything and everything I could find.Cabbage soup, liquid, Atkins, Zone, Starvation, etc...In 2006, I got a new job (less stress) and started thinking about really getting healthy at all costs.  My PCOS problems had gotten to the point where I could no longer control outcomes.  I was rushing from place to place to handle hemorraghing and I couldn't do anything for fear of having an accident.  I decided enough was enough and I had to do something.  My doctor told me I needed to go on the pill (tried that and it didn't work once before), or lose 10-15% of my body weight and it should stop.  That hadn't been successful before so I knew I had to look into other options.I knew my insurance wouldn't cover any weight loss surgeries so I started looking into surgeons who did lap band.  Way too expensive for me.  I had no savings at all and my husband was a full time student so the idea was very daunting.  It took around 3-4 months for me to figure out that I had to start saving if I wanted to get it done.  Plus, I'd probably have to go to Mexico and I knew my family would freak if I told them I was going to do that...I went to Lap Band Talk.com to do research and check with others who had been in my same position. I found quite a few people who went to Mexico and it seemed really risky to me to find someone local who would do your fills or help you if you were in an emergency.  That was scary so I kept looking.  A month or so later I stumbled onto some people talking about Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver, Colorado.  He was really experienced, low complication rate and all inclusive cost of under $10K.Now I just had to figure out how to come up with the money.  I started putting a ton into my 401K account as a temporary savings.  I also maxed out my flexible spending account for that year.  I also saved up my "going out to lunch and dinner" money and my Starbucks money and sent payments into Dr. K.  His staff (Natalie) was great and always helped me with anything I needed.  I set my date for September of 2009 and kept making my payments. My family was really scared because my grandma had the bypass when it was new and she had a near death experience.  They were not supportive for the most part although my mom did volunteer to come with me for surgery.  My husband would come too.I met with Dr. K via phone for a consult and he passed me thru to the next step, then I met with the nutritionist and started my 10 day pre-surgery liver shrinking diet. Low carb with no sugar. I lost close to 20 pounds in 10 days. I arranged for a meet and greet of all of his patients who were having surgery the same week as me and we had a great time talking about what we were doing and really looking forward to the surgery.The day of the surgery, the surgery center was very kind and well organized. I woke up to a kind nurse and to my husband and mom waiting for me.  I was in and out of there in 4 hours and back to the hotel where I slept on and off for 3 days. I only got up for walking, drinking, and pain meds and GasX strips.  I had absolutely no pain, just tenderness from my abdominal muscles and the port.Getting used to not eating was the hardest part...you tend to underestimate the impact on your brain of having to only drink for several weeks.  I chewed up pizza and spit it into the trash because I wanted to satisfy the screaming for real food that was coming from my head.  It worked!My surgery experience was very good.  Fills were a little harder so far because every doctor wants to fill you differently and both of my docs were very conservative which made it take longer than usual for me to find the sweet spot. 8 months out...I finally found it.  Now, I have to get used to exersizing every day.  I'll save that saga for another day...I'm half way there at 9 months out.