JessieRae
I have been overweight for 21 years...my whole life! Born at 10.4 lbs, I have always been big for my age(now big for anyone's age!). However, I have never let it get in the way of living a normal life and being outgoing. My mother always taught me to love who I am, and others will love me too...words I live by. At 15 years old, I went to Camp Shane, a weightloss camp. Needless to say, it was more torturous than helpful. Many of the kids there were already skinny and their parents just put them there to get rid of them for the summer. I only lost 2 lbs. in the 3 weeks of being there. Shortly after, I went to Weight Watchers. WW may be great for me now, but at the time, I felt completely out-of-place since I was by far the youngest person there. Weight Watchers was followed by 3 years of different diets, diet pills, exercise regimes, ect. Finally, last year, I realized what I needed to do...I researched weightloss surgery, found out who the best surgeons in New York are, and went to a seminar for NYU Langone Weight Management program. I was immediately impressed by Christine Ren's professionalism and openess. Ren was very clear on the Pros vs. Cons, stories of failure and stories of success. She made it clear that it is indeed just a tool to weightloss and I will still have to work hard at it to reach my goal. Two months later I had my first consultation with her. I was informed that my insurance(Empire BCBS) does not require a physician supervised diet pre-surgery. Two weeks following my consultation, I had my psych. evaluation. Three weeks later I had my upper endocopy done. On May, 27, 2011, I received the news that I am approved for surgery, and better yet, it is 100% covered! I am so thankful and I know the reasons I'm doing this are the best reasons and I refuse to fail. June 20 I will be undergoing the RNY Gastric Bypass and it will be the beginning of my new life =)
