Jezia
I have struggled with my weight for most of my life. I've been one of those yo-yo people, who has gained and lost a lot of weight any number of times. My tiniest weight as an adult was 117 (which, by the way, was FAR to little for me) and my heaviest was right before surgery, at 247, which obviously was far too heavy! I know that some of it was eating habits; stress eating, eating out of anger, eating to self soothe. But that is not all of it. I spent many agitated hours in my doctor's office fretting about my inability to lose weight on diets. I can remember going on Weight Watchers for 3 months, being extremely strict, and ending up back in my doctor's office crying because I had gained 10 pounds. So my obesity was not just because I overate. The older I got, the harder it became to have any effect on the weight gain, and I had really despaired of ever getting it under control.
Two years ago a close friend went to San Francisco to the Rabkins for a DS. I went along as her caregiver, and have watched and cheered every step of her journey. But I never expected I would be doing this for myself.
The year before my surgery was a horribly stressful year. I went through some unbelievable family stress that I will probably never recover from. Unfortunately, I also gained again, up to my highest weight ever. My mom, who is the most amazing woman on the planet, was getting very worried about me, although SHE was going through the nasty family stress as well. She knew my insurance would not pay for WLS, and she suggested that I look into going to Brazil for surgery, as she had heard my friend talk about a wonderful surgeon there. I looked into it and told her what I had found out, and to my complete astonishment and joy, she offered to pay for my surgery. Six months later, I was in Curitiba, in the hands of one of the most wonderful people I've ever been privileged to meet.
