Patricia R.
Been heavy my entire life. Even my kindergarten photos show me there with my little belly sticking out amongst a classroom of skinny kids. Oh, how well I remember the taunts..."Fatty Patty ha ha ha Fatty Patty." I remember the cruel comments from classmates, family acquaintances, and relatives as I was growing up, and my mother's attempts to put me on diets. I managed to lose some weight, but always gained it back and then some. At now, at the age of 49, I've hit an all time high of 258 (and I'm only 5'1" !)
I married a not-so-nice man. I thought I couldn't do any better because of my weight. We had two beautiful girls and then divorced 14 years later, after years of counseling and struggling to make it work. It was an amicable divorce at least. However, he died a 2 years later at age 49 due to complications from diabetes and heart disease. (He smoked 2 packs a day, drank a pot of coffee every day, and while not overweight, ate junk food all the time.)
I am remarried to the most wonderful man who takes such good care of us as a family. He is thin, athletic, and into vitamins and healthy eating. We married in 2004 - me at my highest weight ever. (What could this man possibly see in me?) God bless him, he loves me for who I am, not what I look like. He fully supports my decision to enter this journey -- not because he wants me to be skinny -- but because he wants me to be healthy.
And yes, I want to be healthy too. I want to hike up those New Hampshire mountains with Tim and the girls and not be straggling behind, huffing and puffing. I want to ride bikes as family, speeding through the sand dunes of Cape Cod. I want to go on family ski trips and spend time with my girls chasing them up and down the slopes. And most of all, I want my backpain to go away, to dump my blood pressure pills and to have to keep my asthma medication only for rare emergencies.
My surgery date is Nov. 27. See you on the flip side! Patty.
