Let Us All Get to Know Each Other :-)

Hi. my name is Kaye. I'm going to be 58 this november. I was born in Indiana but, now live in Arizona.I have been married for 39 years and have one daughter, and 5 dogs. I have been fightin my weight and sometimes losing (winning) only to gain it all back and then some.Then a few years ago I started to have some problems, pain, falling, skin eruptions. It took the Dr's 2 years to diagnosis. I became a shut in, afraid to go out for fear I would fall, or become anxious and brake out in a sweat and escape to the safety of my home. I got a puppy and started to train her to be a Service Dog. Then my life started again. I had help with me at all times. I was enjoying getting out. I went everywhere, I had to to train my dog. We worked at home at the mall every where. Along the way I actually got better physically. My Dr. is so happy with me that my disease hasn't progressed in the 6 years, I have had my dog. Oh and along the way I started a business. I make dog collars and leashes, I have a website, and go from dog show to home show, to World games for dogs. My husband calls it my hobby gone wrong. All I wanted to do was make collars and leashes for my Service dog. http://www.lolalimited.net Now that I have rambled on (sorry)I guess I had better stop for now.

Your leashes and collars are BEAUTIFUL!! Who woulda ever thought that collars could look so cool!! I have always thought that pet collars should be colorful, bright and cheery or classy. I am looking at them all....your fun like I think is my favorite....my dog is a lot of fun and those remind me of her. I can't place an order right now....but I am going to bookmark your site because I want one of those!! :-) Thanks for sharing your webbie...it is so nice to be able to turn a hobby we love into a business as well. cheers Sherri

I'm Elizabeth, I'm 39, a freelance web designer and homeschooling mom of a 10.5 year old daughter with Asperger's syndrome. I live in the SF Bay Area and had my VSG in Sept. '07. So far, I've lost around 67lbs. I'm in a bit of a stall but I guess I might also be just slowing down a bit. Hard to say. I'm also rehearsing for my first show in 22 years - Pirates of Penzance - so in a way, it kind of feels like I'm getting the "old me" back. And I couldn't have done that a year ago. Or rather, I WOULDN'T have done that a year ago. Was on the edge of morbidly obese but well on my way and following a looong line of relatives with diabetes and heart disease and a whole host of obesity related diseases. When I contacted my bariatric surgeon, we both agreed based on my history and genetics that I was a walking timebomb and that the VSG would be a great preventative measure. And I have to say...so far so good! I hope this lasts. I hope I reach goal and can normalize in fact because I actually have so little appetite I can't imagine being able to live many years eating as little as I do, feeling as weak as I do at times. I'm sure the problem is that I'm perpetually dehydrated so maybe that will change if I start eating more fruit/veggies eventually. I just have no impulse to drink enough. Oy. Enough griping! Anyway, that's me in a nutshell. Finding me after all this time...just need to hydrate!

I love it Sherri................since we have so many newbies and it has been a while since we updated!! Great Idea!!! I am a 41 year old mom and wife. I have 2 adorable kids (pictures on profile, just saying! :-)) One handsome husband......hubba hubba. We live in Hawaii on the island Oahu. I have been a teacher/educator for the last 18 years...........holy cow, hadn't figured out how long it had been in a while. I am a perpetual optimist. I am a morning person. I am a life long learner. I am a people person. I am a lover of life, even more so now that I have 83 pounds off this body. I love my VSG OH family.................. jeni

Hello,

I am Chantay from the great state of Texas. I am 38 years old and have been married to my DH for 17 years.  We have three children, ages 16, 11, and 6.  I have been an RN for nineteen years, working in many areas with the last being in the Operating Room(working with 3 plastic surgeons).  I recently (this last month) retired from nursing to work for our business.  This has been a huge change for me because I am a social butterfly!  I of course have the same story as most, chubby as a child, gained weight during pregnancy, and just could not keep weight off.  I had thought about WLS for several years, got serious in Jan of 07, had VSG with Dr Alvarez in May.  I have had excellent results, pretty much without effort.  I am no longer able to exercise due to a back injury, and eat what I want( I do follow the protein first rule).  I am now lactose intolerant, and I do have mild dumping like symptoms when I eat something sweet.  I went from size 16 to size 2s amd 4s.  I had a tummy tuck prior to WLS so I run a little smaller.   I am so glad I did this for me.  I would do it over again in a hearbeat!!!  I love to teach so if I can help just  ask!! Chantay P.S.  We are from Texas and the whole family are real cowboys and cowgirls, check out the profile!!!!

What a great post Sherri. You always think of the best stuff. I have enjoyed reading everyones posts and will pop back on tomorrow to read more! My name is Cathy. I live in Wisconsin. I am 42 yrs old and this yr will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. I was a late bloomer as a mom. We tried hard for quite a few yrs to have kids and at 31 and married at that time for 13 yrs I had given up the hope of having kids. I adopted three kittens. I did not know at the time I was already pregnant. I am sure our hard time in starting to have kids was probably due to my weight. I have weighed over 300 lbs for most of my married life. Our first son was born on Valentines Day and we felt we had quite a miracle child. I became preggers again and lost that one early out. But three months after losing that one I was again pregnant and we had another son. A few yrs after that I became pregnant again with my daughter. She came 10 days after my 40th b-day. I feel so blessed to have my kids. They are now 10, 7 and 2.  After I had my middle son I became quite interesting in WLS--than looking into the RNY. But my dreams were squashed as our insurance would not pay for any WLS even with co-morbidities. I was diabetic at that time. After I had my daughter I had inherited some money. It was just enough to self pay out the country for surgery. I came back to OH after about 6 or 7 yrs and started investigating again. I found the VSG  and just knew that was it for me. The rest is history.  I am now 14 months out and have lost 188 pounds of my former self. I am so very happy with the surgery. I no longer take any prescriptions for high blood pressure or diabetes. I am way more energetic and can walk for miles each day. This yr I am so looking forward to going to Great America with our sons and knowing I can ride any ride in the park without worrying whether the belt will fit! It is amazing. I have been overweight my whole adult life and much of my teen life. For me the only way to lose this kind of weight is WLS. Now at over a yr out it is getting  harder to lose..but I am still working towards goal and really can't wait to hit "onderland" one of these days! I can't believe that will be possible after being between 300 and close to 400 lbs for quite a few years. It has been an amazing and wonderful journey. I love this thread!!! Thanks for posting it Sherri. Hugs Cathy

Hi, everyone...I'm Lizanne, 54, married 25 years with one 17 year old daughter who will be leaving for college next fall, probably UCSD (she's on the wait list for Stanford, so keep your fingers crossed!). We live in the CA east bay area and have 2 spoiled dogs (Cotons), a cat and a ****atiel. I grew up believing I was fat --my skinny mom, 5'7, 120 lbs, was always on me to lose weight. So I started yo-yo dieting while in high school. I was never actually overweight until my 30s...and I started on a really miserable cycle of losing 30 pounds, gaining 35, losing 35, gaining 40, etc. etc. The last 4 or 5 years, it's been really, really hard to lose weight and I had reached my heaviest. So after several years of thinking and debating, I jumped in and haven't looked back! I'm grateful I waited as the vsg really wasn't around when I started my research... It's really wonderful to read everyone's stories!!! Lizanne

 I live on Goodyear Arizona.I am going to be 33 on Saturday. I am a struggling mortgage broker. I have 3 kids. 14, 11 and 10. And I am married to my high school sweetheart. Who has stuck with me thru thick (literally) and thin..lol...I was always 120-125 thru high school. When I got pregnant (17yo) I had toxemia and gained almost 100lbs in about 2 months. I struggled to lose the weight and finally did in 1995 with the help of the wonderful drug phentermine. I got back down to 150-160. Then I got pregnant. Doesnt that always happen? Shot up to 215 again. lost that pretty quickly and guess what....got pregnant again. This time I had toxemia again and went up to 235-240. Have never been under 210 since then. I gave myself a lapband for my 30th birthday. I thought I was about 270-280. Like so many of us, I would not get on a scale. I scheduled my surgery on my late mother's birthday. Kind of a tribute to her and my new life. She passed away when I was 19 from cancer. To my surprise I weighed in at a astounding 310. Life with the band:Good and bad.....I never lost that large chunk that most people lose in the begining. I Did not really lose much the first year. I could never get the proper restriction. I also needed to get my mind right. I finally got some restriction in Feb 2007. From then it has been a fill-unfill roller coaster. I have streched my pouch 3 times now. The first was from the fill in Feb.Since then it just has not really been able to correct itself. I go back get the fluro, it looks good, they give me a fill and then I strech again. Right now I am actually recovering from a strech again! So I thought of looking at my options. Can I justifiy another self pay surgery with the housing market the way it is? Not really, but I want to lose this weight already. I have lost 98lbs. But over 2 years. I also cannot see the loss. I dont have many pictures. of before or during. I look at the ones I have and do not see a difference. I really just want to be in onderland by June 16 2008. Which is 12 -15 lbs away. Depeding on the day. I stayed away from the boards because of my slow loss. I felt like a failure. But I realized that I need the support to get to my goal. The times I lose I am a regular poster. When I am at a stand still it is when I stay away from OH. So I am back, discover, meeting and learning once again. Who knows I might keep the band on the other hand if I get the revision I need to learn about it as much as I can...Maybe even a bit more than I learned about the band.

So, what I hear you saying is that if we don't see you for awhile, we need to PM you & bring you back into the world of caring supporters here!!  Ok, gang, are you with me? 98 lbs? That's AWESOME!  There is NO failure there!   In fact, as long as keep trying we will keep learning, not failing! 

That is so sweet. And the anwser is Yes, LOL.