sachsegirl

Hi, I'm Sandy. Happily married and mom of two teens. I have been overweight most of my adult life. We have been married 18 years and my husband has never seen me below 200 lbs, other than in pictures. hmmm... Come to think of it, I've never seen him without a mustache. Maybe I'll have him shave it off when I hit 199 lbs. Hahaha, I'll put that in my Mini-goals list! I must say I have never really "felt" fat for all these years. Denial you say? Possibly. However, I have always been able to do most anything I want without feeling the weight was holding me back. I reached my Ahah moment last month. For the first time, we took a family vacation to the beach. I bought myself two new swimsuits for the trip, yes - I hate shopping for swimsuits like everyone else who wears anything larger than a size 10, but no - that was not my ahah moment. We went to the beautiful Emerald Coast of Florida with my siblings and their families. We had the Best vacation ever! The beaches there are so soft and powdery that your feet just sink into the sand and you just want to bury yourself into it. It was walking across these decadent beaches that made me feel like I was just not going to make it. The water was so inviting, the sun was bright, and the weather was perfect. My family set up camp maybe 50 yrds from the steps that led down to the beach. For me, it might as well have been 500 yrds. By the time I dredged through the deep sandy beach I was short of breath, had back and hip pain, and felt like crying. Nobody knew though. I would not show weakness. I endured it everyday because it was worth it. I had so much fun after I gave myself a while to recover. I stayed in the water for hours! Then came the dreaded hike back across what I could consider the Sahara desert. More pain, more holding back the tears. I only told my family after I survived. And I did, I survived.
After we returned home, my husband and I had a serious talk. His idea. He said he wanted me to consider having weight loss surgery. This meant so much to me you can not believe. This is a man who watches every penny spent and hates wasting any of it. For him to be willing spend this kind of money on me, to help me to not have to feel that way again, was a true show of love for me. Now he had started researching our options before I had. I knew he was really serious. Surgery is a very frightening idea for me, but I decided right then and there that I would do anything I could to get this weight off me.
Now the dilemma. I have to fast track this. This was the first of July and my company insurance will be changing as of September 1st. Plus, I have to go back to work August 11th! At the time of this posting I have already had most of the testing done[font=Arial][size=2], now I'm waiting for the Psyc evaluation results to come in and be sent to insurance for approval next week. Everything has fallen into place to this point. Thank you God! Now I wait. [/size][/font]