My story began on October 18, 1950, when I was born!!!  I was the first child born to Mom and Dad, and after me came along a sister and a brother.  I had a great home life.  I just liked to eat way more than a person should, and so this created some very unhappy times for me in my adolescent years, and even more so when I became a teenager.   Some of my male classmates used to call me Tugboat Annie and I used to cringe on the inside when I heard them call me that.  I hated to be considered different, but I was one of the biggest girls in my class and so I really stood out.  I graduated high school in 1968, and over the next few years I would lose major amounts of weight only to regain it all back plus more.  Most of you can probably understand how this tends to happen so easily.  I met Ronnie in 1970, who became my husband two years later.  He has been absolutely wonderful for me.  God knew what he was doing when he brought him into my life.  He loved me for the person I was on the inside.  Bless his heart, he watched me put on weight and then lose it and then gain it all back again, and this happened so many times.  In spite of it all, he said he loved me for who I was, not for what I looked like on the outside.  He even once said that if I weighed 2,000 pounds and he had to push me around in a wheelchair, that he'd still love me.  (Of course I don't guess it's possible that any of us would ever weigh 2,000 pounds, but you get the point he was trying to get across to me, and I guess at the time he said it, he knew that I needed the extra reassurance.)  Our marriage union brought us two sons, who are now married and have children of their own, three grandchildren, to be exact.  Ronnie and I will be married for 35 years in April of 2007, and it was the best choice I could have made in choosing a mate to spend the rest of my life with.  And so then it was in June of 2006, I read about the lapband procedure being performed here in the Cincinnati area, and so I decided to go to a seminar and get some information about it.  As soon as I did, I wanted to get it done.  So, I did everything I possibly could to educate myself about it.  I joined this Web site and read everything I could get my hands on, because I believed that this was a major decision, and if I had it done, I didn't want to have any regrets.   I also talked with many people on the phone that had gotten the lapband.  I wanted to hear personal experiences.  People were so nice to me and were so candid in telling me everything that I wanted to know!  And so after I felt totally comfortable with what was going to happen, I did have the lapband surgery on August 8, 2006.  I am now into my fourth month postop, and have no regrets having been banded.  I am off to a fine start, but I have a long way to go.  I don't want to get lazy about doing my part; you know, eating like I'm supposed to and exercising and just all the Do's & Don'ts of the lapband world.  Getting lazy is what I got with other weight loss ventures in the past.  At first I would be excited, and then I would hit a plateau and just get lazy, no other word for it.  I want to make sure I stay motivated and constantly stay focused on my goal.  I have been trying very very hard to walk 1 mile a day using Leslie Sansone's videotape.  I really feel like it has helped me in so many ways.  It's something I can do right in my living room, and it ONLY takes about 18 minutes to walk 1 mile!!  I figure eventually I'll get up to 2 miles a day, but it's a start in the right direction.  I also attended an OH Convention in Lexington, Kentucky, the end of October.  I felt like it would be so beneficial to spend a weekend with many people who also struggle with obesity, and not only do they struggle with obesity, but they are making positive changes in their lives and becoming un-obese!  I keep looking for new ways to gain more incentive to keep on going in the right direction.  I dare not get idle, or lazy!!  I'm also trying to have more insight on certain behaviors that are destructive and negative; behaviors which need to be addressed and worked on.  There's always room for improvement, I feel.  My faith in the Lord has helped me tremendously in this new adventure.  I could not be doing any of this without His divine intervention.  He helps me every step of the way.  God bless all of you on here.  We're all learning together, so that we can all live much happier and healthier lives.  I think Ronnie was so apprehensive about me getting the lapband surgery done, but now that he sees what's happening and he can see me changing right before his very eyes, he has grown to accept everything.  As I told him during the decision-making process, Honey, if the lapband can help me to lose weight, I will probably be able to get my diabetes under control, and if I get my diabetes under control, then maybe we won't have to worry about you having to push me around in a wheelchair because I've lost a limb, or perhaps you won't have to spend your life running me to dialysis appointments three times a week.   I mean, you think about everything when you're making a life decision, that affects not only you, but your spouse, also.  It was not a decision that was made in haste.  All avenues were taken into consideration, and I truly believe that I/we made the right decision on this.  Also, I was self-pay, but my feeling on this was that even though we were taking it essentially out of our retirement, it was still an investment that would be worth a lot, even if it didn't have a price tag on it.  Anyway, this is my story, and I hope it enlightens many of you who wanted to know a little bit about me.  God bless all of you!!!

 

 

About Me
goshen, OH
Location
38.4
BMI
Surgery
08/08/2006
Surgery Date
Jul 08, 2006
Member Since

Friends 22

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