Connie Stapleton
My story... hmmm. It's long, so let me just share the current, relevant information! I live in GA, although I spent the first 33 years of life in Iowa and the next three in Texas. My family and I have been in GA since 1997. We love it here and I suspect we'll stay. All three of our kids live in the Atlanta area. If they stay there, then we'll eventually move there, too! Our kids are such an important part of our lives and we want to be just as involved in the lives of our grandchildren (when there are some).
I went back to college almost ten years after getting an undergraduate degree to get a Master's degree in counseling. Although I was never that great a fan of being in school, I somehow found myself in a Ph.D. program at Texas A&M. My hustand, our kids and I packed up all of our stuff and lived in a pop-up camper for 8 weeks after selling our house in Iowa immediately and not being able to move to TX until closer to the fall.
We moved again, three years later to GA and have been here for ten years already!
The kids are now grown and on their own, living in the Atlanta area. We sold our house after they all left and downsized to a small log cabin in the woods. It's cozy.
I have been working with bariatric patients for five years. I conduct most of the interviews that are required by the insurance companies before a person has bariatric surgery. Then I interview the patient and write up a report that gets sent to their insurance company.
I love seeing the hope in someone's eyes when they talk about having had bariratric surgery. I love the joy on people's faces months after having the surgery when they have lost a significant amount of weight.
A friend of mine who is also a therapist conducts a weekly group with me for patients who had already had surgery. In this group, we discuss the positive and negative aspects of a person's life and how food is making their live easier or more uncomfortable. It's a wonderful way to prevent weight regain and to have a lot of fun in the meantime!
