kelly_hope
I was stick thin as a child. When I was 17 I started putting on weight. I was able to lose it with extreme dieting, but never with any lasting success. In 2000, I had my youngest son in October. January 2001, I had back surgery. I hadn't been able to lose the pregnancy weight and being bedridden after my back surgery, I piled on even more weight. After that, it just got worse. I've lost and gained hundreds of pounds over the last ten years. In 2003, I researched WLS and began the process through Medicaid. I did all the pre-op workups and dieting, and tests, only to have them deny me. Then we lost insurance and literally didn't have any until 2010. My husband got a job at Boeing and I knew their insurance covered WLS because my dad and brother had RNY through that insurance. Three days before my husband started the job I was at the surgeon's seminar. I knew I was going to do it this time. As of the time of writing this, I'm still working on my 3 month doc supervised diet. I could have started it earlier, but my mom had a heart attack in November and I couldn't think of anything but her until now. My dads side of the family are all obese and as many ancestors as they could remember were all obese as well. I don't care who says what, but I know obesity can be genetic. It isn't all of the problem, but it is a real problem. Here's hoping we can change it for the future generations in our family.
