Let Us All Get to Know Each Other :-)

I'm Grace and I LOVE my sleeve!
I'm a 53 year old middle school teacher and live on the beautiful Monterey peninsula. I love this site because it helped me realize I wasn't a failure for needing a surgical intervention. I'd lost and gained back probably 1000 pounds in my life and felt like I would never be able to keep weight off again. I couldn't face another failure of gaining back after losing. I researched for almost a year before having the sleeve. I even cancelled my surgery once in June and once in July before finally doing it in November. THAT's how much I was afraid of failure--I thought I'd be the one that would gain all my weight back.

I wish I had done this 20 years ago--the shame of being obese nearly destroyed me. I love my life now!
Hugs,
Grace

OK here goes..............I'm Stephanie 40 y/o RN and mother to a son 22y/o . I lost my 2nd son in 2002 he was 12y/o from a heart defect. It is the worst pain a mother could feel. I guess I turned to food for comfort  and to help numb the pain. I work alot,  I started a hospice company in Ala and also own a tanning salon, video store, and a ice cream/ snowball shop. I am almost 2 months post-op and I am doing great with 41lbs loss.  I love my Sleeve!!!!!!!!

Hi! My name is Kathy and I live in a small town in Illinois.  I am scheduled to have my sleeve on June 3rd.  I am married and I have 2 daughters (18 & 16) from a previous marriage and one step son that is 15.  I work in the ER at a local hospital.  It is a very interesting job most of the time.  When I think I have seen it all......I fine out that I have not!  I am very busy right now preparing for my sleeve, my daughter is graduating from high school in 3 weeks and we are buying a new home the first of July.  Everything at once.   Anyhow, I love this site and I have learned so much from it. Kathy

Hi,

   My name is Dotty, I'm 44,  I live in Florida and am a divorced mom to a sixteen year old daughter. I am a hairstylist and a retired Ragdoll cat breeder. I have been on this board for about two years, mostly lurking, and have been researching weight loss surgery for about seven years. I initially was interested in the lap band, but due to the multiple band complications I have come across in my research, have decided to opt for the sleeve. I will be self pay, and am in hopes of being in a position to finance my surgery early next year. I will be going to Mexico, and will be using either Dr's Alvarez or Aceves. I'm looking forward to the day! Dotty

Chris, 46 years old, and single, never married. Have been morbidly obese for the better part of 25 years. Had the VSG in March 2007 and lost a little over a hundred pounds. I still need a good kick in the pants and am now considering going for the second stage - the DS. I'll be talking to my surgeon about it next month. Before the VSG, I could hardly walk or do anything, and now I can move around so much easier, and I can no longer eat the amount of food that I used to. While I still have food issues, they aren't as bad as before surgery. But I think I need something more powerful so that's why I'm looking at the DS. The last 3 months have been challenging for me (my Dad died and I lost my condo to a fire), and without the VSG, I never would have had the energy to walk through hospitals, run errands, or support my family the best I could. So the VSG did it's job for me in that sense. My life has changed dramatically in the last year. I still believe that I can lose the rest of my weight and start anew. I'm so grateful for these forums on OH - they remind me I'm not alone with the battle. Chris

Hi yall. Mary the talker here. I am 50 y/o, and I live in Central Texas. I have been happily married to my wonderful, supportive husband, John for 27 years in July. We have owned a welding and ornamental iron company for 25 of those years. Cox's Welding in Temple, TX (just a shameless plug there). I do the bookkeeping at my home. Because of that I was blessed to be able to be a stay at home mom while having a home office. We have 2 grown daughters, 1 son-in-law and 2 grandsons, who we absolutely adore. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 years ago this month. I had a successful surgery and treatment, but began having serious joint problems from some drugs I had to take. The drugs were switched 3 times, but by then some permanent damage had been done to my knee joints. I had been gradually gaining weight for the last 15 years or so. But when I got cancer at age 48 and my oncologist said, "You need to loose some weight to lesson the chances of a recurrance", well that really hit me in the gut. I felt hopeless at that point. I had tried and failed so many times before, and I knew there was no way I could do this on my own. Soon I became so disabled from my knee pain that I virtually became a recluse. I simply hurt too much. I was depressed. My entire personality changed. Well, it took me nearly 2 years to figure out what I had to do. I decided to take control of my life again. To stop letting obesity rule me, but to kick its butt! And take control I did. I thought I would have the lapband until I found this web sight and discovered VSG.  I had my surgery on March 31, 2008. Suffered through it like all the rest of you and have started to emerge as the new and improved Mary. I have had more energy than I have had in years. Even though I am down to bone on bone, my knees barely hurt at all,. I can get down on the floor and play with my grandbaby, and even get back up! My husband has already noticed the change in my personality. I have noticed my clothes falling off me. WhooooooHooooooo!!! I'm loving life right now and it will only get better. THAT I KNOW! 

Hi everyone, I'm usually a lurker but I will introduce myself and be social for a change.  My name is Laura.  I'm 33 years old.  I'm a RN specializing in Neonatal Intensive Care.  I have been married for 10 years and have 3 wonderful kids; 2 girls ages 7 and 4, and 1 boy 13 months.  I'm not working right now because my family is getting ready to move from Oklahoma to Florida next month.     I've been overweight since I was a teenager.  I have been researching WLS for a couple of years and for a long time, thought I was going to get a lapband.  However, the sleeve seems more for me the more research I do.  I really want WLS because I have PCOS and a strong family history of high blood pressure and diabetes.  The real wake up call was when I had my kids.  With each pregnancy, I had more problems.  The last one, I had gestational diabetes and it scared me.   My 7 year old told me that she wishes I was skinnier, and that just broke my heart.  I feel like I'm not being a good mother and role model for my girls.  Oh, did I mention having major depression too?  lol I am looking to have my surgery this summer, but am still unsure about going to mexico or not.  I'm considered a lightweight, so I will be self pay.  I am convinced that I will not wait for the co-morbidities to set in, I want to do something to prevent them.   Its great to meet all of you,   Laura

Hi there, I'm Naomi, and a stay at home mom of a four year old. I cant wait to join the work force again once my son goes to school. I currently live in Hawaii. My hubby is in the Navy, and we just bought our first condo.  Yay! We have one doggy named Abby, and a kitty named Pablo.

I read every one of the posts and I feel like I am in a room of friends! I am Kristen.  I am 35 year old mother of two of the most wonderful boys I could ask for.  They are 7 adn 5 (pictures on my site) and they are the reason I want to do this.  I am married to the most wonderful man who makes me feel like a princess every day.  I have been a speech language pathologist for 10 years now.  My life's passion is helping children on the autism spectrum.  My current focus is adolescent social skills.  My husband and I opened a clinic in the Phoenix area but we sold it 2 years ago since we found that I was saving everyone else's children but my own.  Selling our practice was the best move I've ever made. I am the best looser of weight ever!!  I've taken off hundreds and hundreds of pounds and gained it all plus!  I am just finishing up my 6 month diet and hope hope hope hope hope hope to be approved for surgery in July.  This six month time period has been the best for me.  I don't feel desperate or miserable.  In fact, I think I am the most centered and happy I"ve ever been.  This surgery is just going to be the icing on the cake.  I have my psych appt. in two weeks and then my last doc appt for my 6 month diet in June.  Then the really challenge starts as I wait to get approved.  I just need to have some practice with the following posting subjects.   I HAVE A DATE I AM IN ONDERLAND THE SIZE 4s  FIT I'M AT GOAL

JUST RETURNING FROM HIKING THE GRAND CANYON 10 YEARS OUT AND HEALTHIER THAN EVER!

I can't wait to write those!!

Heidi here. I'm 37, live in beautiful wine country Northern California, have been married for 18 years and have 4 kids.  3 boys, 1 girl.  I am a preschool teacher at a great Christian school and I love my job. As a youngster, I was normal weight but it started to pack on in my teen years as I became less and less active. That combined with a great country-cookin' mom and I was plus-sized at 14.  I married my husband at 19 years old, weighing about 180lbs and reached 230 within 5 years of "happyily married bliss."  I pretty much stayed there ever since.  I have never been thin. I never was one for fad diets so I joined/dropped/re-joined WW a thousand times over the last two decades. I was pretty dead set against WLS as I was one of the ignorant ones, thinking they were taking the "easy" way out.   I loved to exercise, was very active, loved healthy food, had all the components of success without actually ever HAVING success. Then, a friend of mine had lapband surgery and it really struck me because she and I were very similar - so I looked into lapband on August 26, 2007.   I walked out of that seminar convinced that VSG was the better choice for me and never looked back.  Being self-pay, it wasn't quite a slam-dunk decision but some money came through in January, I made the call and had the operation 10 days later. I am, on a daily basis, blown away by this process.    I don't really physically feel different than before because I really was quite active.  However, I love the way I'm looking and love the way I don't feel held down by cravings/food. So, that's a part of me...