Lindsay R.
Well... I have never really written my story down before. The above picture is me at my heaviest, a couple of months before surgery. I had my surgery exactly a year to the day after my son was born. Unlike a lot of people who have had surgery, I never had a weight problem as a child or teenager. My parents are wonderful, very loving, and very well-balanced. They have been married for 49 years, and offered me the chance to get a good education and travel when I was younger. I was a dancer and very athletic. I gained a little weight in college. But never found myself to be clinically overweight until 1998 when I finished college and started working. I was married in 1998. I found out I was pregnant in 2000. I gained a lot of weight, and had serious health problems for the first time in my life.My pregnancy was difficult, and after nearly dying in childbirth ( my son, thankfully was born perfectly healthy) and scaring the CRAP out of my doctors, my family and myself, I decided to have surgery to save my life. When I look at my before picture, all I remember is how absolutely terrified I was that I was going to die. The possibility of leaving my son without a mother was the only motivation I needed. 
This is me 104 pounds lighter, at my ideal weight, the weight I was most of my life. All I can say is that I have had a life FULL of wonderful people, and I am so grateful for all that I have. I didn't really have any traumatic experiences as an overweight person, but now I have learned a quiet new patience with life. I am lucky to LOVE my job, and all the people I work with. I am politically active and I LOVE to fight for the little guy. I am working on my master's in history which is my lifelong dream. I don't get mad in traffic, I don't care how long I wait in line and I am NEVER bored. Although my relationships have not always been successful, there is not one that I regret, and I have always left them on good terms. (Karma is very important to me).
There is too much to see and do, and life is far too sweet to go by unappreciated.
