KATCU2
PERSONAL STATEMENT I am 60 years old and I am in good health except for my weight. I can look at my birth family and see a pattern of obesity for several generations. My mother died of a stroke after managing her diabetes very carefully for several decades. She had a serious heart condition. I watched her struggle with her weight all her life. She was a wonderful person of many talents who gave of herself to others. Her only regret in life is that she could not control her weight and she tried everything. My only sister is 11 years older than I. She weighs at least a hundred pounds more than I do. She is also an amazing person, an artist and a mother who has one regret in life; she has never been able to loose and keep off weight and now she is nearly disabled by hip and knee pain. She also has high blood pressure and her quality of life has deteriorated since she has been widowed and has to live alone. My first cousin, who is 6 weeks younger than I and has the same family history as I do, had gastric bypass surgery 18 months ago. Her diabetes is gone, she is off all high blood pressure medicine. I have been following her progress. It has not been easy but she was committed to following all of the training that she received before her surgery and after. She now is not far from her ideal weight and is finally able to enjoy her life. She can walk and go camping and volunteer to help others. She was unable to do any of these things before her journey. What a difference I can see in her. I can see myself following the path of my older sister or I can see myself having a chance at a healthy and active life like that of my cousin. I understand what a drastic lifestyle change this will be and do not take lightly the differences that I will need to adapt to, but I am willing to make this commitment. There are some other reasons for wanting to make this change. I have four children with my first husband. They are now wonderful adults of whom I am very proud. I stayed in a marriage for 32 years and kept together our family while sacrificing a great deal of myself. My children did not know until the final years of that marriage, that their father was very controlling and often unfaithful and mentally abusive to me. I chose to remain as long as I did because he was a good father to them but would have used them against me in a divorce situation which would have destroyed their lives. Looking back on the situation, I can see no other way that could have given them a good home and good educations. My oldest son, has retired from the USAF with a BS degree and is beginning a second career. My oldest daughter is an RN and the mother of four. My second son has a law degree from the U of O and is a assistant county attorney in Great Falls, MT. My youngest daughter has a Masters in Education from the U of O and is a teacher with 2 young children. They are worth any personal sacrifices that I had to make. In early 1998 I finally left an increasingly abusive marriage, divorced and moved to Springfield. I went back to college and received an associated degree in business from LCC. In 2000 I married a wonderful man, Joe. In 2002, his oldest daughter became addicted to meth and we became legal guardians to two wonderful little boys, Logan, 2 and Jacob, 6. Because of the trauma they had been through, I stopped working and began a home day care business so I could be near them. They are now 8 and 12 and doing very well. I want to be able to see them grow up and to be a active part of their lives. Although I am in good health right now I do have some obesity related conditions that cause me a lot of discomfort. I have incontinence, loud snoring, foot, ankle and knee pain and general tiredness that keeps me from being active. All these problems affect the kind of wife and companion that I can be to my husband, although he never complains. I know he is very concerned about my health and he is 100% supportive of this surgery. I have a thriving day care business. I am known as Gramma Kat and I love being with the children everyday. We need the income that I bring into our home. We both lost everything in our divorces and had to start over in our 50's, buying a home and saving toward retirement. My husband recently changed jobs and his insurance now makes it possible to be able to have this surgery. I have been through so many attempts at weight loss that I am ashamed to say that I have failed to loose any significant amount of weight or keep it off. In the past I have suffered with depression but that has seemed to diminished in recent years. I want these next 20 or more years of my life to be better instead worse. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up and be an active part of their lives. I want to enjoy the years that I have with my husband and to be able to do things I cannot do now. Kathleen
