I started the "battle of the bulge" around 1990. Actually it started way before that when my now ex-husband told me in 1979 after the birth of our son, that I was gaining weight and he didn't want to be seen walking down the street with me, holding my hand, if I didn't lose it. At that time I weighed 135 pounds. Needless to say I didn't lose it, and my weight escalated until the time of my WLS on Dec 12, 2007. To make a long story shorter, my ex left me in 1994. He told me "If I leave, you will lose weight for another man". He has been gone 14 years and I didn't lose the weight. In fact, I have never even dated. Shortly after he left I found out that he was engaged to someone while we were still married. It's so amazing how one can allow someone like him to have control over you for all those years. I am HAPPY to say that the light bulb finally came on, and I decided that I am worthy and deserve to be healthy and happy. I decided to give WLS a try in May 2007. I had to do 6 months of diet and exercise before my insurance would approve me. Looking back now, I am so thankful for that 6 months because it allowed me prepare myself for this journey. As I stated in my introduction, I was totally against WLS. I said, "I will never have WLS because it is the easy way out and is too dangerous"  I had taken care of patients in the past that had complications from the surgery. In fact some of them lost their lifes due to those complications.

In January 2006 I started to work for Foundation Bariatric Hospital of Oklahoma. At this time I was still against WLS, however my mindset was, maybe working here would at least give me the motivation to try to lose the weight once again. Wrong again, I continued to gain weight and felt miserable most of the time. At 287 pounds it's rather hard on all your joints to carry all that extra baggage around. My three children were very concerned about me. They were nicely always saying "Mom, you have to do something, we don't want to lose you" I also have beautiful grandchildren that I needed to watch grow up.

One day after being employed at FBH for a year and a half, I decided that WLS just might not be a bad thing after all. I had seen very few complications from the surgery, and certainly no one had died from it.(At our Hospital, that is) I began to get excited and feel hopeful. My surgeon, Dr. Gregory Walton, is one of the best weight loss surgeons that one could ever ask for.

On 12-12-2007, I had the laproscopic RNY. Everything went above and beyond what I had hoped for. I had no complications, and as of today 2-23-2008 I have lost 66 pounds since my journey began. And guess what? It wasn't the easy way out. The head hunger is still there, but with the tool I was given, life is much easier. I know that I wouldn't have gotten this far without the RNY. You see, the difference now is that I know if I am not compliant with this new way of life, I will get very sick. I can no longer say "oh to heck with it, I'll start my diet tomorrow or Monday". It just doesn't work that way.

I have to tell this story. My ex's wife told me about a year ago that I was going to die alone, fat and lonely. She told me that I needed to get a life and had the nerve to say "EVEN OPRAH HAS GAYLE". I told her " I may be fat, but you're ugly and I can lose weight".She said, " you got that off a tee shirt". I said, " I may have, but it's the truth!" I CAN SO NOT WAIT TO SEND HER A PICTURE AND SAY " I'M NOT FAT ANYMORE, BUT I BET YOU ARE STILL UGLY" LOL .And to top it all off she's still married to the condecending ass that made my life so miserable for so many years. Any way I look at it, I won..........Life is good once again.