Introducing myself

Gina, 

Thanks so much for recommending the board to me and for the warm welcome. 

Hi Barbara,

I am so glad you came over here to join us.  I loved reading your post on the RNY board when I was getting ready to have my surgery.  I very rarely post anything on the RNY board, but I used to read it all the time.

I know about the skin issues.  It is good to look nice in clothes though!!  Looking back it is hard to realize that we did this to ourselves.

Hope you will stay and hang out with us.

Linda

Hi Linda,

Thank you for your warm welcome and the sweet compliment. As you may have noticed, I haven't been as active on the other forums; that's for a number of reasons, but in large part, it's because life is just to short for a lot of the negative stuff and I just decided to step back. 

This feels like the warm, welcoming, supportive face of OH that I originally came to enjoy and participate. I really do look forward to joining in and becoming a part of this group.

Regarding the 'skin issues'... I've sort of made a deal with myself. Each day I need to look myself in the mirror and find something that I like about what I look like; it can be weight/size related or not. At any rate, the deal is that I don't look myself in the mirror until I'm fully clothed because then I find that I can be so much more 'kind' to myself. I don't know that I'll ever completely come to terms with the outward manifestation of the damage I've done to myself, but I continue to try. When I realize that I am being hard on myself, I try to imagine that I'm talking to a friend in same cir****tance... It's amazing how much more kind and gentle I can be to someone else. 

As you say, it is wonderful to be able to look great in clothes!!... and better yet, to be able to walk into any store... other than plus size... and fit whatever is available! What an incredible, liberating concept!!

Thanks again for the warm welcome,

Welcome!  You are a true success story!  Glad you are joining the board!

Thanks! And you are looking pretty darned successful yourself!

Keep up the good work, 

Hi Barbara,

I used to see lots of your posts on the NC board. I stopped going there though due to the lack of activity. This is a wonderful forum and everyone is super supportive. We need more long termers so glad you joined in!

Blessings!

Jennifer

Jennifer,

I'm delighted to see you and I have no idea why the NC board seems to have died on the vine. 

Glad to find another/new safe, supportive place to land. 

I look forward to seeing you more often. 

All the best,

Linda - welcome.

Glad you're able to find a safe harbor here with us. 

I definitely understand the "skin" issue.  I've had a couple of "reconstructive surgeries" to take care of "some of the issues" and am totally happy with it.  I know everyone cant' do it - but its part of the journey, in my opinion.

The "too small for surgerY' is very common here - as I know many of us have heard it. 

Glad to have you here.  You have a wealth of information that I'm sure many of us will benefit from.

A number of my friends have had plastics and if it were in the monetary cards for me, I'm sure I'd have some things done. It's my face and neck that are really the hardest for me. I can camoflage the rest of it, but since I don't where burkas, it's hard to cover up the excess skin on my face, jowls, neck and eyes. That said, people that don't know that I was ever big, are always astonished if they find out, so while I know that I really do have a turkey neck.... it's more about how I 'feel' about it than what anyone else notices or thinks. 

I look forward to getting to know you better and to enjoy the give and take... we all have a lot to learn from one another no matter what surgery we had or where we are in our journey.  I've found it truly is a journey, not a destination.

Thanks again for another warm welcome... It's really nice and refreshing.

Welcome Barbara.  We were talking about skin issues at my support group meeting last week, and I think most all of us struggle with seeing ourselves in our full glory.

I have to remind myself that plenty of women my age have body issues, and not all of them have had weight issues.  I cannot compare myself to what I see in TV and magazines.  I've lost about 85 lbs., and have never felt so free and able-bodied.  I'm not super woman, and I do cringe, but give myself the pep talk, and walk tall.

I hope I'm not minimizing what you feel because I cannot help what I feel, and I'm sure you cannot.  I try to replace my insecurity about my skin with how good I feel now.  That's all I can do for now since I cannot afford to have plastics on my whole body.  Believe me I think my whole body needs it.

Anyway, I hope you know that we all feel similarly.  In a way my insuritiy about being MO has been replaced with seeing ugly skin.  I definitely think I'm better off now, but I still have an issue.

Glad to see you here.