mom3khg
Where to begin? Well I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean called Oahu. Born and raised in Hawaii has been wonderful!! I think I have been exposed to it all here.
My father (San Antonio, TX) left the Navy as fast as he could once he arrived here! Swore that he would marry a "local" girl and never leave! My mother (Kauai, HI) a local Asian thought she had met the craziest "haole" she has ever met. I guess he won!! Because my father was in the military he had a soft spot for all military personnel, especially during the holiday seasons. My house was a constant flow of people coming and going and what is the main thing that people all have in common. Well in our house it was FOOD. There was never a shortage of it ever and because of the amount of people around it was normally in very large portions so you get the picture.
I didn't really start to pick up weight until the summer before I started the 5Th grade. I had an operation for bone spurs on both of my feet and had to be in a wheelchair for the summer (3 months). Learning to walk again was difficult but I did it. My physical activity was very low due to the pain in my feet and because of the operation I was given Dr's notes to excuse me from PE until about the 7Th grade if i recall correctly. You can see the recipe for disaster cant you? Well either way goodbye physical activity hello eight gain.
Fast forward to the end of high school, I remember being 19 years old and 200lbs. It never really bothered me because I was always "chubby" that's what we called it. I was a very social person and "outspoken" oh that's a nice way of saying a big mouth!! Either way I had friends and met guys and was okay with the way I looked physically because I was consistently told I was beautiful! Did I mention I was an only birth child? I say it like that because my mother and father adopted my older cousin. We grew up knowing that we were more like brother and sister than cousins. I was however "Daddy's girl" so needless to say yes I was spoiled. Being that I was the only girl on both sides of the family, it was even a sweeter deal!! Back to being 19, at this point I had met my future husband. We were friends for a long time before we started dating and he is such a wonderful person. He never made me feel fat or overweight or anything other than loved. So much like my father I am spoiled by him.
We married in 2000 and at that point I still was about the same weight, maybe give or take about 15-20lbs either way. I had lost some weight for the wedding typical right? I was always able to maintain the same weight for years until the pregnancies. My husband and I had a loss early on in our relationship we were pregnant before we were married back in 1997. Unfortunately we loss our son Cody when I was about 6months pregnant. It was a tough loss but eventually brought us closer together. Because of the loss we decided that we wanted to enjoy being together first before we decided to have any children.
Our first daughter Kiley was born in 2003. After that pregnancy I never really went back to my old size. I started in a XL (16/18). After my daughter I was in a 20/22. I continued that size until my third pregnancy (we had a miscarriage in 2005) in 2006, the year my daughter Hailey was born. At that point I was a 22/24. I started to really notice how physically things hurt and being that size was just not OK!! I was intending on loosing weight and thought we were done having children, but then my son Gavyn came along in 2008. So now after being 30 years old and having a baby I was officially the largest I have ever been in my lifetime, a size 26 and weighing in at 280lbs.
Thinking that my metabolism was the same as it was in my twenty's I thought that I would be able to loose the weight as long as I put my mind to it. Never did I realize along with children came a lot of other "extra pounds". The rushing between dropping off kids at daycare and shopping trips and all those other excuses came fast food! My arch enemy is what I call it now! A quick meal turned into a very unhealthy lifestyle. Not to mention the addition of finishing off plates the kids didn't eat or additional snacks throughout the day. So all excuses aside I needed to loose weight because everything hurt!!
I started looking into WLS a year after I had my last child. I knew that the weight was not going to magically disappear but I needed something that would assist me in the weight loss. I researched on line and looked at various institutions but initially was very interested in going to a seminar at the Surgical Weight Loss Institute located at Castle Medical Center in Hawaii. The seminar was a wealth of information on how, when and where the procedures are done not to mention by who, Dr. Steven Fowler of Aloha Surgery. The staff at the seminar was very helpful with the insurance aspect of it also. Explaining what is covered and what is not and what the out of pocket costs were going to be.
I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Fowler that October. After meeting with him I was extremely excited to get started with their program. Unfortunately I was presented with a more urgent medical situation that I needed to correct first. After my last child I had issues with my menstrual cycle and it caused elongated bleeding. My OBGYN suggested a procedure called Novasure, which burns the inner lining of your uterus. Well it is a surgery procedure that had to get done sooner than later. The procedure was also very permanent, meaning if I ever wanted to have kids again I could not do it. Lucky for me we were soooooo done having children!! 3 is my limit!! So I did my procedure in November of 2009.
I wanted to get through the holidays first before going back to WLS, so in January of this year I called to let them know I was okay to move forward. Now after completing all the Dr. apts with the psychologist, nutritionist and trainer, I am ready to go. I am currently on my first day of my liquid week before my surgery. Dr. Fowler wants his patients to shrink their livers before surgery, I say anything that will make it safer the better. Besides it helps me get used to the idea of liquids after the surgery. So bad habits aside and good habits here I come. My official surgery date is July 20, 2010. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. How can you put into words the feeling of knowing that you will be thinner soon. Ever pound loss will be one less on my back or my feet, one less pound that will hinder me from running with my children, one less pound that will stop me from riding the rides at a carnival or Disneyland because I cant fit in the seats, one less pound that will allow me have my children sit in my lap to give me a hug!! I know there will be bad days and good days ahead but my ideas of what one less pound will benefit for me out weight the bad days by far!!
Wish me luck on my journey and I wish you all luck with yours. If you took the time to read my life thank you for your time. I am looking forward to my "NEW LIFE"!! I hope you have a blessed one as well! I know I will!!
