So now I'm over 5 years post op from my WLS and just now getting around to writing my story for you all to read, but I guess better late than never lol.  I was not exactly a "fat" kid, but I was always somewhat bigger than the other girls as a teenager.  I always did feel different from the others.  It didn't help anything that I seemed to get a lot of pressure from my own mother to "look like all the other girls" and was put on my first diet in the 7th grade.  I developed an eating disorder at a very early age.  When I got to college, I became depressed and ended up piling on the weight.  It seems that I went from around 150/155 to over 220 almost overnight.  I am quite sure the Depo- Provera shot and different medications I took for depression (Paxil, Prozac, etc) at that time didn't help matters any.  After that, I tried a series of diets (you name the diet/program and I have probably tried it at one point or another...  Atkins, South Beach, Grapefruit diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, LA Weight Loss, and every diet pill imaginable) and I would lose some weight here and there, but the smallest I would ever get is about 180 or so.  At that point, I would end up gaining it back plus some.  I developed a staggering list of co-morbidities to go along with the weight problems, not to mention how depressed I was looking in the mirror every day.  I just wanted to be "normal" again... whatever normal really is haha.  At 23, I was "formally diagnosed" with the PCOS and told of the grim chances I had of ever having kids of my own and then spiked up over 275, mainly due to depression.  My weight never came down again (just kept on rising to it's high point of 334 (possibly even higher than that, but I'll never know for sure)/surgery weight was 303) and neither did my depression.  When I was 26, I finally found a PCM (thank you, Dr. Neely (who used to be) at Reynolds Army Hospital!!) who listened to me about my weight and the issues it was causing me in my life.  He referred me for the Gastric Bypass Surgery.  I attended MULTIPLE support group meetings and felt very enthusiastic about the surgery.  Since my RNY, I have felt a new lease on life though it has not been without it's complications (believe me, a LOT of them).  I have no regrets.  I have a beautiful daughter and a handsome son and I owe it to my RNY.  Before my surgery, I was told that it would be nearly impossible for me to conceive a child and now I have 2 beautiful children.  I still have goals and aspirations set for myself that I would like to reach, even 8 years later.  I hope to reach all my goals and I want to reach out to others in the same situation and hopefully be a friend and an inspiration to them.  Gastric Bypass has changed me... I am not the same as I was before I had the surgery.  It saved my life and gave me back ME!  It made me appreciate things a lot more... I am confident now and I see the world in a new light!