Kathy W.
I am 48yrs old and like most folks on here and have been fighting my weight for many years. My issues with weight mostly started after I had children and was impounded when I quit smoking 24 yrs ago. I think I went from one addiction to another. I believe I eat mostly out of boredom because I have a great life. I have a wonderful husband Tim whom I have been married to for over 12 years. I was however in an unhappy marriage for 16 years because I thought I was "doing what was right for the kids" by staying in the situation. I now realize I didn't do my kids any favors and in a way taught them to stay in situations that are not good for them either.
I was average size in my teenage yrs and pretty fit also. I'm not sure why but unless I am looking at pictures or catch myself (full body) in a mirror I don't really see myself as big as I am. In my mind I'm know I am overweight but it really catches me off guard when I see photos and I see how big I am because that's not how I see myself in my head. Sometimes I think people don't really know the real me because I'm hidden inside all the fat.
I have been trying for many years to get bariatric surgery but I know that now is the right time. The first time I tried it was a miserable situation. The office I was going too kept changing staff every 5 min, never returned my calls, did not help guide me at all in the process. My PCP was not helpful either, she was not supportive at all when it came to the 6 month requirement for my insurance. Her advice was to go to Weight Watchers but that was not going to fufill my insurance requirements. In the end I changed my PCP to Dr. Andrew Burrell. He was my Dr. years ago when my kids were young, I quit going to him due to insurance changes but am very happy to be seeing him again now. He is so supportive and is doing everything he can to assist me in this journey. He refered me to Banner Gateway Bariatric and the experience has been great from day one. My insurance has the requirements outlined in detail and I am close to the end of my 6 month Dr. supervised WL which is the last step before a request will be submitted for my surgery. I am hoping to have my surgery in April or May, the sooner the better!
I have 6 very active grandkids that I am looking forward to keeping up with. My husband and I are geocachers (www.geocaching.com) which is a great activity for all. I look forward to geocaching in areas that were just too hard for me to get to. In addition my long term goal is to walk in the "3 day" walk in 2011. I love my family, this country and I have a strong faith in God and know that the delays for this surgery were part of His plan. I have type 2 diabetes and hope the bypass surgery will allow me to get that under control and off the meds. I am too young to be on 7 prescriptions just to keep my sugar and blood pressure under control and I know these are directly related to my weight. I have had great blood pressure until about a year ago when it started getting high. That's when I knew I needed to get real about this and take the steps towards a solution that would be long term unlike all the "diets" that I have tried.
