vchristy
I was the "big girl" growing up. I am built big...I am 5'10" and have a very large bone structure. (Good Norweigen Stock!) I grew up always feeling like I was the biggest girl in the room, and most of the time I was. Despite that, I don't think I truly looked in the mirror and felt disgusted with myself until after I had kids. I could always do just about anything I wanted to do/and did in spite of my size. I have always been a very outgoing person however over the past 5-6 years I went from being outgoing to feeling very uncomfortable in my own skin. I just turned 40 this year and it has been a turning point for me. I have spent my entire life fighting being obese. I come from an obese family and although I know (without a doubt) that my lifestyle choices did not help the matter any, there are definitely some genetics involved.
So here I am 40, married for 17 years with 3 kids (Max 17, Sam 12, and Ami 9) and I haven't been able to do ANYTHING about my weight...it has just continued to creep up. I graduated high school at 185 and remember hitting 200 when I was 19...and now that's looking pretty good to me! 
My highest weight (including pregnancy) was 276 and here I am hovering just below that at 273. So I decided it was time to do something and I needed help!
Enter my fabulous PCP who doesn't just look at me and think that being obese is the reason for all things. He treats me like a normal human being who just happens to be overweight. He is VERY supportive of WLS and basically told me that my timing is perfect since based on my last blood tests I am heading toward diabetes pretty quickly.
So now I am pre-op. I haven't had the bumps along the way, and I haven't had to jump through hoops for my insurance to cover anything so I guess this is what God wants me to do. Even people I thought would be negative are supportive of me! Who knew....I guess they all want me to be healthy too....
Lap Band Surgery is scheduled on 8/26/08 and I'm thinking of it as a new birthday...the birth of a whole new me!!!
