HarmonyRose88
As of January 18, 2008, I was 63 years old, with three grown children and three grandchildren. I have nearly always had weight issues, although I was 100 pounds lighter about 20 years ago. A life style and profession change were all factors in the 90's which led me to gradually gain this weight.
We bought a restaurant in the fall of 1990, and a second one the following year. Not only was there a wide variety of unlimited food, we worked very long hours, during which it seemed necessary to "graze" during the day just to keep the energy levels up. It has always been very easy for me to gain weight, from childhood, so year by year, the pounds creeped up. I began researching weight loss surgery at least three years ago, when I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and started having leg problems. I had also gradually developed blood pooling in my legs from so much standing at the cash register every day. I went through the entire process of testing, etc, until the Spring of 2007, when the package was sent into my insurance company, and was denied. As crazy as this sounds, it was because I could not produce a photograph of me (from a doctor's office) for the year 2004. I made several phone calls, to no avail, and decided it just was not supposed to happen.
My husband and I are "retired"; both from the restaurant business and he was also retired from General Electric in Mt Vernon, Indiana. So he is now on Medicare, and I am on that supplemental policy that kicks in for spouses until I am also 65. Well, I was told that the coverage would change from Blue Cross of Alabama to Anthem this year, which it did in January. It was now a very simple procedure to get approved, because all of the testing I had completed was still good for this time period. So now, surgery is coming up on Sept 10, and hopefully, I will sail through it fine.
For just some basic information about me: My husband, Don, and I will be married 43 years in August, and he used to be my high school art teacher. We have 3 children: Todd who is 40 and works at the Princeton Toyota plant. He is married to Sheri, and is stepfather to her three teenagers, with a son of his own, Payton 13, from a previous marriage. My second son, Sean, now owns the second restaurant, the Silver Bell, and lives next door with his wife, Amy, and 2 children, Madeleine, age 2 and Alexander who will be 1 on Sept 5. Babysitting them is now my "day job". (We no longer have the first restaurant, which was in New Harmony). My 90 pound thirty year old daughter, Heather, is a web designer with an advertising firm in Evansville, and has a super boyfriend, Dan.
I strongly feel that losing all of this excess weight will make my life much easier and hopefully, longer. I have recently discovered that I now have the beginnings of type II diabetes, which is another great reason to have the surgery. We love pets, and have too many! We have 5 dogs, 3 cats, 4 birds, and a turtle. We have lived in our current home less than 2 years and still are working on improvements, both inside and out. I would love to hear from other bariatric patients from anyplace, but especially from this area.
