Hi my name is Carolyn. I live in Montgomery with my husband Peter, our cat Mia, and our bird Pepper. I have been obese most of my life. I have tried diet pills. They worked great that is until they were baned and I quit taking them. then all the weight I had lost was regained plus few pounds extra. So that was just a big waste of money and a health risk on top of that. I have also tried the Adkins diet. It also worked great that is until my grandmother died and I got into a depression and could not stick to the diet and all the weight I had lost was regained plus a few extra pounds. I thought about WLS for a few years going back and forth. Just when I was ready to commit to it my husband decided to have the surgery. His need for the surgery was greater than mine so we thought we would get his surgery done and a couple of months later have mine done. When we scheduled our first consult the doctors office turned me away because BCBS was just changing the requirements to include the 6 month doctor supervised diet. My husband was able to go ahead with his surgery on 01-07-2005. I think it was three months into my doctor supervised diet. My employer sent out a notice that our BCBS coverage for the surgery had changed now instead of costing me a few hundred dollars. It would cost me half the cost of the surgery. Then a couple of months later my employer sent out another notice that said the doctor supervised diet had to be surpervised my their approved doctors. I considered changing employers to find better coverage for this surgery and who knows I still may. For now I am trying something new. I am not on a diet. I eat whatever I want but I do try to make better choices. I would feel guilty for eating something that my husband would want but can not now have so I try to eat sugar free as much as I can. Not a bad idea with me being a diabetic. I do not allow myself to weigh more than once a month. I found myself wanting to celebrate losing one or two pound with a cookie or piece of cake. The small changes that I have made in my life have helped me to lose 70 pounds so far since my husbands surgery.
Peter has lost 170 pounds after WLS. The first 6 months were very hard for him. He had an infection that took about 5 months to heal. His incision had to be reopened. Which left a very large scar and a large hernia. He has been thinking about having the hernia repaired but is a little hesitant.
