Allow myself to introduce... myself...

[Daydra 345]

Greetings!

My name is Daydra (feel free to just use my initals "dd"). I'm 36 (well, close enough for government work anyway). I live west of Seattle, WA. I am extremely pleased to have found this community and am looking forward to meeting all of you.

A little (or a lot) about my weight loss background... I've been overweight my entire life and have no clue what it's going to be like to finally reach a normal weight. The first effort I made to lose weight was when my mom signed us up for Weight Watchers when I was 11. I've tried most types of diet plans, including Phen-fen when I was about 18, and most recently the HCG diet through my naturopath a couple years ago. Although I have been wildly successful at times, I never found any lasting success. The most weight I ever lost was 115 pounds from 2009-2011, but have gained about 60 of that back. My highest weight was 345, which was utterly miserable for me. About 7 years ago or so, I started the process of getting approval through the military medical system (my husband is in the Navy) to have gastric bypass done. I completed nearly all of the steps, but I really didn't like the surgeon I was assigned, didn't have a high level of trust for the hospital I would be at, and frankly, the whole process, potential complications, high potential for later nutritional deficiency, dumping syndrome, and the nature of bypass itself really scared the crap out of me. Ultimately, I balked and decided not to continue the process. Although I would really have loved to have been at a reasonable weight over the last years, but I am really glad that I didn't go through with it back then. I don't believe that I was ready at the time and could have been looking for a revision now.

Over the last four years, I have been involved with a group of really great women that train for triathlon together. We are all shapes, sizes, and ages and focus on the completion instead of the competition. It's been one of the best things I have ever done in my life. I am a different person than I was the last time I researched bariatric surgery, and feel that with increased life experience, athleticism, and determination that I can be successful with this for the rest of my life.

I have decided on the VSG, and am working toward fulfilling all of my insurance requirements for approval, but feel extremely settled this time with my decision.

An now... I'm just plain getting tired of typing (as I'm sure you are getting tired of reading), so I'll let it go at this. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity to discuss all of our shared and individual experiences in the future.

Best of luck to you all and I thank you for being here and making this space informative and supportive.

dd