Amber N.
Hi Ya'll (Since I moved from Arizona to Virginia I am trying to improve my southern accent!)
I have been struggling with my weight for the past 8 or 9 years. I used to be one of those skinny people who thought they were fat; now I'm a woman of substance longing for the days of her past. Besides the typical weight one gains while away at college, I started have problems in April 1998 when I had a horrible fall skiing. I tore my ACL, LCL, and my MCL. Recovery took well over a year before I had full motion in my let. I had really stated to pack on the pounds then. With my first pregnancy I gained 100 pounds! I ate and ate and ate! I wish my husband would have said..."Honey, I think 5 hot dogs a bag of chips and a gallon of punch is enough." But apparently I had a reputation of not being very nice while I was pregos so everyone let me eat just to avoid me turning into the devil What me, not be nice, surly they weren't really talking about me...I don't remember being mean. Then to make matters worse, I fell in my house and retore my knee. Another surgery to fix things. We were also getting ready to move cross country from Arizona to Virginia (hence my new accent!). I didn't gain any weight, but it was damn near impossible to lose anything either. Back in my glory days I was about 155-165 pounds which is pretty good since I was 5’11”. At this point in my sob story I am close to 300 pounds which is double from my "normal". So now that we've settled in Virginia, we decide that it's time to have another baby. This time I am determined not to eat myself to death. I only gained 40 pounds with my second daughter. Now I have joined a gym and I am going to get things in order. Now I had to do it for my girls. Then in May of 2004, I slipped of my back deck and broke and dislocated my ankle. OUCH! Well needless to say I will never have normal motion back in my leg again. Walking with out a limp was a major accomplishment! So I decided that shy of divine intervention I had to look for something other then good ol' diet and exercise. That is when my very long search of WLS began. I started jumping through all the hoops to have a bypass done and then out of no where, my husband's insurance changes and they now don't have an obesity rider. Nice. Since paying for it at the time was out of the question, I continued trying all sorts of diets. Now I just became frustrated, depressed and defeated. I got myself a part time job to start saving up pay for the WLS out of pocket. And to my surprise, my new company covered the surgery. WHAT COULD MY LUCK BE CHANGING? Apparently it hadn't. I filed for the surgery. I had my numerous letters from the doctors saying that I need it. The only thing I didn't have was a qualifying comorbidity. Now my Hyperlipidemia, PCOS, Arthritis, Hypothyroidism, Degenerative Bone Disease, Depression, 2 ACL repairs and a broken/dislocated ankle wasn’t enough.
