TiaNina
Hello! I'm a 33 year old married, Latina living in Escalon, California, just outside of Modesto. Like many of the people here, I've been overweight almost my entire life. I started out as the cute, chubby little girl, moved onto the overweight teenager and eventually ended up being the "super morbidly obese" woman. Throughout my life I was placed on many diets, all in vain. The only significant weight loss I ever experienced was after my father passed away in 2005. Out of depression I lost 60 lbs.
I've been looking into gastric bypass surgery since I was 19 years old. At that time, I knew it as the "Fobi Pouch". As years went on, I did all the research I could about what I knew now as "Gastric Bypass". Eventually I got health insurance thru Kaiser but they were requiring me to jump through hoops to get the surgery. I jumped every hoop and followed every rule but the process was a long one. Just as I was getting closer, I got laid off of work, therefore losing my insurance. Thru the years jobs came and went but never one offering benefits so my hopes for the surgery were put on hold. More years passed and I watched my mother and younger sister both have GB. As happy I was I was for them, it was really hard watching them get thin, get healthy and become even more beautiful than they already were. I never resented them for it but I would be lying if I said the jealousy factor wasn't there.
Even more years passed and in 2008 I fell in love and got married - something I never thought would happen to me. In October I restarted my WLS journey and by mid January was approved and scheduled for GB on January 17, 2009. I feel very blessed to not only have had the surgery but with not a single complication thus far.
I used to think I wanted this surgery to be "normal". To be like my friends and to be able to do things they were doing. As I got older, I realized I needed this surgery to save my life. Not to change my life but to be able to enjoy the life I already have. A blessed one full of loving family and friends and lots of good times ahead.
