I have been overweight since I was 8 years old. I remember being skinny when I was 6. I started dieting when I was 18, when I weighed 195 lbs. I lost 60 pounds on the Scarsdale diet, my first diet. Little did I know that the first diet would be the start of a vicious cycle.

Obesity is almost certainly hereditary in my family. Both of my father's sisters are morbidly obese, one is about 400 lbs. Most of my cousins on my father's side are obese. My sister is at least 300 lbs. and my mother is about 100 lbs. overweight, as well. One of my cousins died at 31 years old, from obesity-related sleep apnea.

I have tried lots of diets over the years, including:

* Scarsdale
* Opti-Fast
* Nutri-System
* Jenny Craig
* Weight Watchers (a couple times)
* Hollywood Diet (The silliest diet ever invented. Lose weight one week. Regain it the next.)
* 6-Week Body Makeover (More like 60-Week Body Makeover in my case. Lost 90 pounds in a year.)
* Fen-Phen
* Meridia
* Xenical
* All kinds of over-the-counter carb blockers and appetite suppressants, including Dexatrim and Hoodia, that probaby don't do diddly.

I've always been successful at losing weight, and even more successful at gaining it back. In the last few years, being overweight has taken its' toll on my health. Plus I got bigger and developed even more problems. Problems I have experienced that I didn't have 10 years ago include: swelling feet and ankles, acid reflux, low back pain with walking, shortness of breath.

Plus I've come to realize that problems that I've had since my early 20s may be  exacerbated by obesity, including:

Knee weakness and clicking, low back pain with standing for a long time, migraine headaches, and social anxiety/phobia.

My heaviest weight was 285 2 1/2 years ago. I felt like I was dying with excruciating lower back pain and shortness of breath so I went on what I thought would be the last diet. I saw the 6-Week Body Makeover on TV and started it. I lost 90 pounds in a year. Unfortunately in the last year and a half I have gained back more than half of that weight.

All dieting has done for me is given me a taste of the "thin" life only to have it cruelly snatched away again. My life consists of just a job, and that is not much of a life. I don't want to end up 285 lbs. again, feeling like my body is dying, but that appears to be where I'm headed if nothing changes.

I would never have considered weight loss surgery until my mother mentioned the Lap-Band to me. I wish I had heard of it when I was 285 lbs. I started doing research on the Lap-Band and also did research on other weight loss surgeries. I was not interested in Gastric Bypass because my aunt had it, and while she is a normal weight, she is sickly and looks miserable when I see her. She has had surgery for adhesions twice. However after obesessively reading lots of opinions here, I realize everyone's experience with gastric bypass is different. So gastric bypass is also a consideration.

I am going to be seeing my new primary care physician in a week and will ask her for a referral to a bariatric surgeon to discuss weight loss surgery. I fully understand all the potential consequences, including death, and at this point I don't see any other option. I don't want to be obese the rest of my life. I don't want to end up with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, degenerative joint disease, and asthma like my mother. I already have acid reflux, swelling feet and ankles and bad migraines like she does. I don't want to die of a heart attack like my grandmother or a stroke like my uncle.

It looks like many of the people who have WLS are over 300 lbs. and I barely make the NIHS requirements. My BMI is around 39. I'm hoping the insurance company takes co-morbidity such as acid reflux into consideration. Why should I have to wait until I get bigger or develop more co-morbidities?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see what my PCP and ultimately the insurance company says. This is the best weight-loss related site on the internet and I'm so glad I've found it. I will post more as my journey unfolds.  Wish me luck.