Just getting started...

[smallgirlsxthree 23]

It's official now, I'm going to do this surgery!! I have been on a long hard journey since April of 2010, and alot of it was my own fault for it taking so long. I went through a lot of soul searching to figure out if this surgery was really what I wanted to do or not, and I finally told myself I was in it for the long haul.

I have struggled with my weight since I was about 8-9 years old, and I've always been the "thicker" type. I thought that I was alot bigger than I really was, and looking back at pictures of me in high school and my early 20's make me cringe to think that I really thought that I was FAT then. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in 2000 and got all of the fun side effects of that-weight gain, insulin resistance, and facial hair. It's great fun to say the least. Thankfully I was able to have 3 healthy girls and didn't struggle with in fertility with it.

I went from 145 lbs when I got pregnant in 1999 to 200 lbs by the time I had had my 3rd baby in 2003 (yes, I had 3 kids in 4 years). The struggle was on after that. I stayed around 200-225 until last fall, and I started having alot of swelling in my lower legs and hands. I quit smoking in March of this year, and since then I've gained 42 lbs between that and the swelling, I have massive pitting edema in my lower legs and my hands swell really bad as well, and the only reason that the dr's can come up with is due to weight gain.

I was diagnosed with Obstructive sleep Apnea in Dec. 2010, and then with Barrett's Esophagitis in April of 2011, and I've had GERD since 2002. They put me on high-blood pressure medicine to try and help with the leg swelling, along with diuretics. AND, I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel and tennis elbow in both arms this week. So, I wear a CPAP to bed with 2 wrist braces, I have to wear compression stockings all day to keep swelling down, I take 6 pills a day for my stomach problems and I pee absolutely constantly. Yeah, I'm ready to get all of this taken care of.

My sister asked me today if I thought that I really needed this surgery. I told her that I was tired of feeling like I was trapped in this body, like my fat was in control of me. I'm tired of being terrified to go to the dr, because they're going to tell me that something else it wrong with me. I'm scared to death of the first 6 weeks after surgery, but I know that those 35 days will be the best hardest days of it. I'll live, I'll get through it.

I'm ready to feel like me again, to feel like I'm in my skin again. Not this fat person's body who has no control. I'm scared,but I'm finally going to do this!

Let me know all the little details that I need to know...don't hold back!!

[longer-life 139]

Welcome! There is tons of information here. I think you will like it.