Kim Metcalfe
I don't remember a time when I wasn't overweight. I was a fat kid, a fatter teen and became a very fat adult. By the age of 23 I had 3 kids and weighed almost 300 lbs. I am 5'2" tall. I'm not blaming the kids for my weight gain. No one forced me to eat. You would think that chasing 3 kids around would keep you from gaining but it didn't stop me any. As a matter of fact I believe if I hadn't stayed so active I would have gotten even bigger then I did. Even so by age 40 I weighed almost 500 lbs. My weight was really staring to effect my way of life. I had a hard time doing anything. I even had to stop driving because I couldn't fit behind the wheel. My husband had to do a lot of the shopping because I couldn't walk far or stand to long. I had to sit down to do my dishes. One fortunate thing is I was very lucky that I had absolutly no health issues that seem to go along with obesity. I had started to look into getting gastric bypass in 2000 but my insurance wouldn't pay for the bariatric treatment center and I gave up not realizing that there were other places doing the surgery Not as many as today but there were other options . In 2002 my mom found an article on a place that took my inurance so I began the whole process of getting approved for surgery. Believe it or not the inusrance company denied me the first time because I had no health related issues. I guess weighing 500 lbs is not an issue. Anyways I lost my husband in Aug. of 2002 in an industrial accident. It was a shock and almost made me give up on the whole surgery thing. But my family encouraged me to go through with it. My children were a little afraid for me because of just losing their dad but they also understood that my not having the surgery was probably more of a risk then my having it. So I had my surgery in May of 2003. Thank God for my family and all of there help and support. I can only say that I feel like I've been set free and that I have truly been given a second chance at life. I wish I would have known about the surgery long ago but I can't do anything about yesterday all I can do is live today and believe that is exactly what I do. I am learning to love me and to accept me. No I'm not what the world considers skinny but I am healthier and I am happy with me. I know this journey will not end until I am gone from this earth but because I had the surgery I am enjoying the journey now. Life is good.
