Tracy S.
My story? Hmmm--Let me see. I am a little bit ashamed to say, but I am not one of those people who have been overweight most of their lives. To a lot of people, I married late in life--at 35. I taught school(elementary) and for the most part, lead an active life-- Up until I got married, I weighed anywhere from 125 to 145 and had no problems with weight issues at all. I really hate to say that I gained weight because I got married, but dang it---this is what happened. I guess while I was single, I ate what I wanted and if I wanted. I usually ate on the run and probably didn't eat right. Well, getting married meant cooking for my husband, right--Had to be a good little Mrs. I guess in the first year, I gained about 20 lbs. A year and a half into the marriage, I got pregnant with child number one. At this time, I weighed 178 lbs. I had moved to a new town and didn't really know any doctors. A lady I taught with told me I should go to her doctor. What the heck, I did. I had the book, "What to expect when you are expecting." I was reading it and my doctor wasn't the "book" doctor. This doctor didn't run a lot of tests that I was reading in my book that he should be. In the meantime, I was getting HUGE. In the first four months, I gained 30 lbs and by the time I delivered, I had gained 84 lbs and was severely anemic. My bouncing 9 lb 7 ounce baby boy looked like a three month old. Hmmmmmmm, you think if my doctor had run the diabetic test that I would of tested positive? And, if he had done blood work, perhaps he would of caught the thyroid problem. Needless to say, I changed doctors. My husband asked around at work and I soon got and still have the best OBGYN and Internist. I was immediately started on thyroid medicine and it was determined that I did have gestational diabetes. I did manage to get rid of about 60 of those pounds before I got pregnant the second time. With child number two, I gained 45 lbs. I weighed 201 at delivery. Over the next few years, it seems like having two little ones--eating the rest of their happy meals and snacks packed on the lbs. In 2005, I weighed 224 and had to have an emergency Hysterectomy. I guess I can refer to myself as a dog being neutered--in two years, I have managed (while on several diets) to put on another 25 lbs.
About three years ago, I had two things that I wanted in life that I didn't already have--
One was to have this surgery and the other was to adopt a baby girl.
This past October, my husband and I traveled (twice) to Vladimir, Russia and met the most beautiful little girl in the whole world. "Princess" Tess joined our family officially (by way of Russian Court System) on October 30th. So, one more goal in life to go and I will be all set!!
