shellaylee23
My name is Michelle. Like everyone here I have been battling my weight for quite awhile. I decided with the help of my wonderful general doctor to go to a bariatric treatment center in Grand Rapids,MI and meet with one of their bariatric surgeons. I did a lot of research and found this center to be accredited as a center for excellence and found all of their surgeons were very experienced and top notch at what they do. I had my surgery on Sept 6th and although it's only been a week, I feel this was one of the best things I've done for myself in a very long time.
I wasn't always obese. Morbidly obese is what I am now. It feels wierd to say that but that's what it is. Kind of like any other type of addict, you need to be able to look at yourself and say what you are. I don't beat myself up over it. I am dissappointed I let myself get this way but I basically like who I am, I just know I can be so much more if there were less of me!!! About 23 years ago I was around 170 pounds. Not skinny but happy in how I looked and could do anything I wanted to try. Then, a husband, 2 kids and just being too comfortable in life took over. I've always loved to cook and experiment with foods and eating brings great joy. Then I think you start using eating to help every emotion you have. I eat when I'm happy, when I'm sad, mad or whatever, I would soothe myself with food. Exercising became less and less and i always had good excuses(ha, ha) for when I would hop back on and lose that extra 10,20,50,100, OMG now it's 150 or more!!! How did I let it go?? when did this all happen?? When I go to move around a lot my back and knees hurt, I am out of breath quickly. I started to avoid social situations where there would be a lot of walking. I would check restaurants out first to make sure they had tables and not just booths or if we were meeting friends, I would try to be there early to request a table so they wouldn't just take a booth then I'd have to squish myself in. Wondering if I would need seatbelt extenders if others drove since all car types have different belt lengths. No more air travel and wondering if I went to a concert if the poor sap who had to sit next to me was pissed off or not. I could go on for pages but I know most of you reading this can identify.
So, I am one week out from surgery and am looking at all the success stories on this site and I am determined to be one of them. I can't wait to see some progress and after my two week post op check, I hope to have good news to report and an update of how my first two weeks went!! Here's to all of the successful people on here and to all of us beginners, May we reap the benefits of this wonderful tool we've been given to help us lose huge amounts of weight and be the people we were meant to be!!
Michelle
