redward

I have been morbidly obese since age 1 1/2.  I lost 50 lbs. at age twelve through exercise but bad eating habits soon overtook those efforts.  I lost weight again through TOPS but gained it back + when an extremely stressful job environment came with numerous temptations.  Any real weight loss after TOPS came from a combined effort between cognitive behavioral therapy plus a physician taking me seriously and trying me on thyroid and phentermine along with Overeaters Anonymous.  I lost over 200 lbs with that extreme help and kept it off for quite a while.  But I limited my food choices so severely that when I became pregnant and had food aversions, I chose to eat things that went down and stayed down ok but were high in fat and sugar.  All those months added up to 96 lbs. gained back.  But worse were the facts that I left OA, left therapy, and could not return to the phentermine.  I was feeling pretty hopeless and gained back another 55 lbs. after having my son.  I felt that I couldn't go on forever unable to do big things (like vacations with my family) without a wheelchair.    I haven't been able to work for many years.  My step father died, my mother had a heart attack and I couldn't fit in an airplane seat nor could I afford to buy two or more to go to Arizona.  Still I avoided surgery like the plague.  The pain in my body was getting so bad that I couldn't even keep house.  A friend has bypass and disappeared off the radar.  Another friend had bypass and was delighted in the outcome.  Then her husband had it.  Then his son.  Then I kept running into people who had one bariatric surgery after another and evryone was happy they had had it done.  Then came my doctor's physician's assistant suggesting I check into it further.  I resented that until he told me that his wife had it done.  She was another happy customer.  So I agreed to go to the initial informative meeting.  It answered some questions but I still wasn't sold.  I went through the motions until my lap band surgery last Thursday.  I hope to also become a happy customer, to visit my Mom, to go to Florida and walk the parks and actually get on the rides.  I look forward to a clean house and to being able to earn money.