Melonie P.
I have been overweight all my life. Mom says I wouldn't breast feed so they went to formula - and my Dad feed me alot. A chubby kid and adolescent to a fat adult - I have lived through all the rude comments, sneers and inconveniences that being overweight brings as one tries to navigate through everyday living.....I have tried many diets and lost and gained many pounds (it always comes back twice as much, and faster!). That is how I got to my highest weight of 318 on my 5'2" frame.
All my life I heard "you have such a pretty face......" (women who are overweight probably know the phrase). I am now 297 (have managed to lose some again) and have asthma, hypothyroidism, hypertension, reflux, sleep apnea, daily knee/ankle pain and anxiety (more adding each year, it seems), along with my classification as "super obese". I will soon be 49 years old - so far not diabetic (and hope not to develop it but know I am at risk). I was blessed with good intelligence and many talents so I exceled in academic and social endeavors (except for dating until I was almost out of college).
I have been married for 19 years, with two stepchildren in their mid-late 20s that I helped to raise (another story all its own). My husband is the best - he has a fondness for BBWs, and is my best friend as well as the best lover for me, we share many common likes and opinions - we have been through alot with his many medical issues, child-rearing issues, financial issues, (he has had 2 brain tumor surgeries and is now on disability) but we have endured. My family (parents & siblings) are close and help each other unconditionally with support or money without "keeping tabs". I have a job and coworkers I truely enjoy, investigating discrimination complaints. We live check-to-check as many, but have enough income to have our home, keep the bills paid, support my 2 dogs & 2 cats (my babies now), and 2 cars, and still afford some little luxuries now and then.
My best friend from high school, Karen, died March 8, 2005. She, like me, was heavy all her life, smoked (unlike me), had a heart attack, many health and mental health issues, and ultimately died from a brain tumor. She was 47 when she died, had never married, had no children. Facing my husband's surgeries, and Karen's death, made me realize that I need to do what I need for me while I am alive and able, to be happy in my skin. All the years I have wished I were "average" size; to get past all the rudeness in my past from others --- everything else in my life now is fine; the desire to be healthier in the rest of my life; I need to do this for me. This is my reason for opting for gastric bypass surgery -- this will be my first surgery, and second stay in a hospital.
