amber__lee
My story begins as I'm sure just like others. As a small child I was normal sized then in my early teen years I gained a lot of weight. I do not remember why or even if there was or is an underlying reason. By the time I reached 15 I had slimmed down and looked good to the out side world, to me I was always larger than everyone else.(I was 5'9" and weight in at 125lbs). I was very active I rode horses daily and in rodeos, I was on the cross country team and just because I like to my friends and I would play basketball, volleyball and other active sports. At the age of 19 I met my husband, we dated for a short time before he asked me to marry him, I agreed. We had our first child when I was 20 years old. During that pregnancy I went from weighing 127 to 225 in that short nine months. No my doctor said nothing and to tell the truth I did not notice either. I knew my stomach was getting larger but I did not realize how large the rest of me was getting. At that time I stayed home and only my husband worked. I think that led to some depression on my part, my husband would come home after a long day and just want to rest and I would hound him about his day who he spoke with etc. I wrapped my entire world around his. When my son was born he became my entire focus which I am grateful for now because he is a great kid. But I further lost my identity. I went back to work about 6 months after he was born and time passed. Over the next 3 years I lost both of my grandparents and my mother moved further away so I really felt isolated. My entire existence was my little family and my husbands family. We had our second child a girl during our 3rd year of marriage. During that year we bought our first house so 5 weeks after she was born I went back to work. By this time my weight had soared to around 240. Around this time is when phen/phen came out I took the drug for 2 1/2 months losing 30 pounds. I was quite proud but I was still very overweight. I did not change any habits about myself so of couse the weight piled back on. I regained to about 250. Over the next several years life went on and I pretty much stayed to same weight. When low and behold we were informed we were pregnant again. This time I was not so lucking during my pregnancy i developed gestional diabete and had to take insulin shots. Before the diabetes though I had gained 15 or so pounds an was now around 265ish. After I found out and started eating healthier I did not gain anymore weight but I did not lose any either. So when I had my 3rd(and final) child I weight 263lbs. Well unfortuntely I am kind of head strong person and as soon as I was told my sugar were back to normal ....watch out I had been real sugar free for about 3 months but I made up for that. over the next year I gained 20lbs! Around this time I decided to go to school since we could finally afford to send me. I had alway wanted to be a nurse and finally had the confidence in myself that indeed I was smart enough and financially stable.I went to school at night then finally fulltime. I graduated from LIcensed vocational nursing with a honors. I started working in one of our local hospitals and I absolutely loved it. I enjoy helping people feel better medically as well and spiritually a genuine smile goes a long way when your down. After working as an lvn for a couple of months I decided to go back to school and become and RN. I also started looking into getting gastric bypass surgery. My husband has great insurance and I figured hey this will be something good for me. Well long story short his insurance would pay for the surgery after 1 year of dieting and a lot of other hoops that at the time I felt like I did not have the time or energy to do. I felt that I could lose the weight myself and not go through permanently altering my body. I kept going to school and trying to lose weight I'd lose a little and then gain more back. The same old story as I am sure a lot of people have. While I was in school I met a fellow nurse who had just had gastric bypass and over the next several months she and I spoke a lot about the surgery the ups the downs etc. I watched her progression towards a healthier life and decided that no matter what hoops I needed to jump through this was a good appurtunity for me. I found out that the hospital where I worked pool had good insurance that paid for the surgery . So I decided when I graduated with MY Rn that I would work full-time for them. Well I graduated in December of 2006 and start full-time employment the same month.
