My name is Marla. I am a 35 yo sahm living in central NJ. My husband and I have 6 children. I decided to have this surgery after a lifelong journey of always being the fat lady. I don't want to "watch" the kids grow and never be able to be a more active part of their lives. I have always been fat ever since I can remember. I was always embarrassed in elementary school to get weighed with the other kids. I was never able to participate fully in the whole school experience because of the weight. I wanted to go back to college only to discover that sitting in that little desk was quite a challenge. I would go to class super early so that no one had to watch me squeeze into that desk. Once there that is where I stayed until the end of that class. My bladder would wait, I wasn't letting everyone see me squeeze back in. I stopped going to school when I got pregnant because I feared no longer fitting into the desk. I would love to go back, and now I will. I want to lose probably alot more than I actually will. I want to get down to 150, but I think I could be quite satisfied at closer to 200. I had this surgery to change my life, change all of our lives. This is gonna be the beginning of a new life for us.