A little about me...

[dmripah5899 0]

Hi. My name is Ashley. I have always been the largest person in my extended family. I was always shy and introverted because of my weight. It took me a long time to get comfortable being out in public. To this day I avoid large groups of people. I began putting on weight when I was 9 years old. My family doctor told my mom it was just "baby fat" and I would be fine, no reason for concern. As the weight continued to gain and I became the largest person in my grade every year at school, I began seeking out answers. Eventually, I diagnosed myself with "Stein-Leventhal Syndrome" and went to see a gynocologist at age 17. He confirmed the diagnosis, saying it was more commonly referred to as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS. I was told I was in a Catch-22. To lose weight would help control my symptoms, but obesity and weight gain were inevitable. I was also informed that I had a 25% chance of ever conceiving a child. This crushed me. I was about to go to college for a major in Child Development because of my love for children. I first considered Bariatric Surgery when I was about 20 years old. I knew I had to do something because I couldn't even stomach looking in the mirror anymore. I was weighing in around 240ish at this time. I started researching Gastric Bypass because Lap-Band was not as well known. I was quickly informed by anyone and everyone with an opinion that I was taking the easy way out. So once again I turned to dieting. Unsuccessfully, of course. I continued to steadily put on weight over the next few years, I couldn't even find the motivation to lose weight for our wedding in October of 2007. On New Years Day 2010, I was alone at home, feeling sluggish from the holidays. TLC was having a marathon on weight, seeing as how that's most people's New Years' resolutions. I watched these 683 lb women, one ton woman, Big Ben's story, etc...and i thought to myself- that's going to be me. The last one I watched, they gave the woman, who was 28 and had two little girls and was bedridden, Gastric. She died two weeks later. I turned it off and immediately began researching. I vowed if I could ever afford to get it done, I was never going to screw up like some of them. (One of the boys was given free Gastric surgery and two years later was overweight again.) I weighed in the next morning at 301. A normal scale wouldn't have weighed me any longer.To summarize the next few months, I attended a seminar in Reston at the end of January, waited for them to deal with insurance for 2 months (they claimed although calls to insurance proved them liars), then got pissed and moved on. I attended a seminar at RMH in Harrisonburg, VA on April 9th. On April 15th, I started the process. I went through all the steps, even the setbacks like therapy to deal with food/emotions, and was approved for surgery upon first submission to insurance on June 7th, 2010. They scheduled me for surgery on July 6th, 2010. I began my 2 week liquid Pre-Op diet on June 22nd. I still weighed 301. The day of my surgery I was down to 280. I was so proud of myself. Then for a combined total of 4 weeks I did not put one thing that wasn't on list in my mouth. After 4 weeks I was down 38 lbs. Since then I have lost half of my goal. I'm down 79 lbs with 79 to go. My BMI has dropped from 47 to 35 and its only been 4 1/2 months. I've dropped from a size 26 jeans to a size 16, with the 14's in sight!I'm looking for people to share experiences and /or questions with, since most of the people in my life don't even know about my surgery.

[blondeej 111]

Thanks for sharing your story, and SUCCESS! thus far! I can relate with you a TON! (No pun intended...lol). I'm self pay, planning for surgery in January hopefully, and I hope come May (and by birthday! :thumbup:) I will have such an awesome progress story to tell as you!

Did you find the "head hunger" was one of the hardest things to overcome? That's one of my biggest fears post-op. 20 yrs of eating wrong is not easily undone...