Kelly T.
My story is similar to most here but with a big twist. I battled my weight from the time that I graduated high school. I joined the military right after high school and have been on a roller coaster ever since. There have been wonderful times with good friends, good food, good wine and GREAT travel. There have been devastating times...losing good friends and losing one of the most important things in my life. The Navy. After 15 years of dedicated service, I received an Honorable discharge from the military in 2008 because of my fluctuating weight. It felt like the end of the world. Don't get me wrong, I have a wonderful career as a Labor and Delivery nurse and two beautiful daughters. However, I put everything that I had into the military. I sacrificed my marriage by spending endless hours on duty in attempts to make up for my shortfall, which was my weight. There's no doubt that I was a great sailor. I received the Junior Navy Nurse of the Year award for my specialty in 2007. I earned Excellent scores on all of my physical fitness tests. I deployed to Iraq and cared for our injured. I helped thousands of women have a wonderful birthing experience, develop great breastfeeding relationships with their babies and become wonderful parents. Who would have thought that I would be "kicked out"? Well, I was and it was crushing.
I realize that there are many people out there that are more overweight than me, have more health problems related to their weight and have suffered emotionally as much as I have and more. However, I don't want to wait until I get to that point. I'm not sure what has taken me this long to even consider this as an option. One day I was just sitting there and a light bulb went off in my head. It was a spontaneous decision but one that I do not regret. My family and friends are definitely concerned about the outcomes because I'm traveling to Mexico and paying out of my pocket. Of course, most will probably see this as a drastic option. They cannot possibly know the amount of pain that I have been through up until this point. I feel such a sense of peace now that I have made the decision.
I have been brutally honest here in my blog and hope to continue blogging about it throughout the entire experience. I welcome any support from new and old friends. I'm sure I'll need it as my mental battle with food tries to overcome my will to be strong.
By the way, this is the first time that I've ever "blogged" anything!
