Penny85
My name is Penny, I'm 25 years old from Ontario, Canada. I have been overweight my entire life. The first time I noticed that I was "different" than everyone else was when I started getting teased for being bigger in grade 3. From then on I was teased, tormented and abused(verbally, emotionally and physically).
I've tried every diet under the sun to get my weight under control with next to no results. I would lose 20-30 lbs here and there but then would gain back double or more. The only time I was actually doing well was when I joined a gym with my sister and mum. We would work out 4-5 times a week and I LOVED it! I had such a great time! I ended up losing almost 50 lbs when I got a back injury at work. I could no longer do the amazing workouts I was doing. I had to resort to water aerobics, which are fun at first, but quickly get tiring. Shortly after the injury I was fired from my job (relating to the said injury) and everything went down hill. Not only could I no longer work out, but because I didn't have a job I couldn't afford my gym membership so I couldn't even use the pool. Not-so-slowly I put back on the 50 lbs I had lost as well as an additional 20 lbs. My depression got worse, my relationship ended, everything seemed to be going wrong. I turned back to the only "friend" who had stuck with me, food.
Then I remember reading an article online about someone having WLS and doing very well with it, and it almost seemed like a lightbulb going off above my head. That was it! That's what I needed to get my health and my life back on track. So I began researching. OH was one of the first sites that I found while researching and I've been here ever since. It took over a year of researching before I worked up the nerve to talk to my PCP to get a referral. By that time OOC surgeries were being closed and the DS was no longer being offered by OHIP. I started the process wanting the DS so when I heard OHIP was no longer covering it I was really upset. I was kicking myself for waiting so long to get a referral. But once that door closed a new one opened. I had read about the VSG but had not really taken much notice of it because I had decided on the DS.
I now know which surgery is for me.
My PCP had put my referral into the central registry June 2010, I had my Orientation Info meeting December 9, 2010 and I have my first set of meetings (SW, nurse and NUT) in March 2011
