My name is Caroline Ann Martin. I am 5'5" tall, have a small to medium sized frame and currently weigh 120 lbs (my weight fluctuates). From the age of 19 to 34 years, I lived my life as a super morbidly obese person. During these years, I dieted my way up to 370 lbs losing and regaining over 100 lbs several times. In May 2003, with a starting BMI of 61.1, my life changed when I underwent gastric bypass surgery. This, along with sticking to a healthy diet and developing an active lifestyle allowed me to lose 225 pounds in just 16 months and gain a healthy weight and life. At the onset of my weight loss, my hips measured 71 inches around and I wore a Women's Plus Size 40 (6X to 7X). At 5 1/2 years post RNY, I now wear a Misses Size 2/4 (XXS). More important than size, I love that I can physically do pretty much anything I want to now, without the restrictions that my weight once imposed.  (Though I am currently way to thin and trying to gain back weight - see my blog.)

I am 39 years old, married for 11+ years and live near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania with my husband, Alan, and our 4 cats, dog (Ms Molly McBabe) and lovebird. I was born and raised in Long Island, New York (East Rockaway) and moved to Arizona when I turned 18 to attend ASU. It was my first year at ASU when I started gaining my weight. After earning my BS in psychology, I moved back to NY to attend NYU for my MSW and later my MA in Deafness Rehabilitation. I met my hubby online via a poetry message board that I'd started on AOL way back in 1996, and moved to CA in August 1997. In 1999, I attended SDSU in CA for post-grad training (21 credits towards my Ph.D.) in Organizational Development.

In January 2003, Alan's mom passed away and left us her house here in PA. A week after she passed, while we were staying at the house and preparing for her memorial service, I woke to find myself on fire. Alan and I got out safely though the house had over 40K worth of damage to it. Three things came from this - we found his mom's will granting us the house, we had motivation to restore the house and move to PA and I became motivated to find out about WLS.

In May 2003, I had my RNY. I lost 210 lbs and reached goal within 15 months, then continued to lose an additional 15 lbs. In January '05, I started with my reconstructive surgeries to remove an amazing amount of excess skin that I was left with. So far, I've gone through 3 rounds of back-to-back reconstructive surgeries including a belt lipectomy (LBL), breast lift, breast implants, extended brachioplasty, buttock lift, circumferential thigh lift and vertical thigh reduction. I'll need one more surgery consisting of a 2nd thigh lift and some minor revisions and one major revision to my original reconstructive surgeries, though this is on hold at the time given ongoing pain that I've been experiencing from the first three rounds.

Alan moved here to PA in February '05, and I moved here in mid-March '05 though I was back in CA from mid-April to mid-May having and recovering from my 3rd round of PS. We moved into the house in early July 2005. The house is absolutely beautiful and cozy to say the least. I absolutely love it here in PA. The area is just so pretty and offers great hiking and walking opportunities. I've enjoy gardening though whether I can keep any of the plants/flowers alive that I've been planting is yet to be seen! LOL

I belong to Bally's and go to the one in King of Prussia, PA near the mall. In Dec. '05, I started working as a personal trainer at this Bally's on a part-time basis. I completed my WITS certification in February '06. I had to stop working at Bally's in July '06 due to ongoing pain from the reconstructive surgeries, but am available to train people independantly from my home or my client's home.  I have a pretty open schedule and am always interested in working with new people!

I have also upped what used to be a hobby in photography into doing portraits of pets and their people. (See some of my photography at http://picturetrail.com/carolineam  and http://CarolineAnnMartin.com.)

My hobbies include photography, modeling, writing poetry, reading, singing, playing flute (though I am no longer very good at this given adhesions from prior surgery in my left hand), photography, drawing, painting, and sculpting. I veer towards sculpture when involved in my artwork and have a website showing some of my artwork at http://MildstonesCreations.com. (The site is temporarily down - all but the home page - until I can upload it again.)

To keep my mind active and to give back to the community, I've been super active in the Hard of Hearing community (SHHH and the Hearing_Aids YahooGroup), the survivor community (ritual abuse, etc.), and the WLS community. I run several Yahoo!Groups related to these various issues including but not limited to the GastricBypass-PostOp, GastricBypass-PlasticSurgery, GastricBypass-AbuseSurvivors, GastricBypass-RunHikeWalk and GastricBypass-Pennsylvania Yahoo!Groups. I've been fortunate to have the time to be active in these groups, and enjoy being involved and giving back to others (as I've been helped myself).

Anyways, that's a little about me... Thank you for visitng me here online and taking a moment or two to visit my other websites and photos (links are above). I am glad that my sharing my journey can be of help and inspiration to others. Though WLS is not a miracle cure and requires lots of work and the development of healthy eating and exercise patterns, it is a very powerful tool to have in one's weight loss/maintenance arsenal!

~~ Caroline Ann Martin, MA
3 1/2 years postop RNY & -225 lbs @ goal

Certified Personal Trainer