oreo4972

I am a 38 year old divorced mother of two sons ages 9 and 14.  I've been divorced for 5 years and have since found the love of my life and am now engaged.  I have one brother and my parents are divorced, but both are still alive.  I didn't grow up with weight issues.  I was always very petite and very physically active.  However, I was raised to clean my plate (whether I was full or not), as many people were.  After all, there were starving kids in Africa that would kill for my plate of food. So, I learned to eat until I was stuffed.  When I met my ex-husband, I was 22 and weighed 135 lbs.  By 24, I was married and had my first son.  My weight started slowly creeping on after my son was born.  During the next 10 years, I'd had another child and my marriage became very unstable.  I found myself alone at home with the boys often, and when my (then) husband was home, he had become very distant.  So, during that time, I turned to a very good friend - FOOD.  My friend, food, was always there.  It tasted good (I mean, who purposely eats nasty food???), and it made me FEEL good.  Food filled the void in my life. Temporarily. So, in the last fifteen years of my life, I've been married, had two kids, gotten divorced (I did squeeze going to nursing school in there), and gained 100 lbs.  Now, at 38 years old, I have hypertension (on meds for that), sleep apnea (have CPAP for that), am borderline diabetic (just turned down meds for that, but do monitor my blood glucose levels),asthma (meds for that) and have GERD (meds for that, too). In 2009, I began researching gastric banding and armed myself with TONS of information, especially from banded patients, and made a decision this January that I would go for it. I didn't tell anyone other than my fiance'.  My PCP wrote my letter of recommendation in February 2010, I had my 1st visit with my surgeon in February 2010, completed my 12 week nutrition classes and had my psch eval in May, got my approval in June (9th) and am scheduled for surgery July 20, 2010.  My surgeon ordered a 2 week pre-op diet (lean chicken and fish, non-starchy veggies, SF Jell-O,SF popsicles, SF non-carbonated drinks, and protein drinks). I had my pre-op tests July 12th and I'm all set to go!  I look forward to living a healthier, longer(and lighter) life with my sons and soon-to-be husband.