LauraMarie
Hello everyone!! 
My name is Laura and I am from western PA. This is "my story". I have always been overweight my entire life!! I can't remember one time in my life where I was thin. I am 5'9" and 332 pounds... I dont know how this happened... 
I have always been active, I played softball for 9 years and exercise almost every day!! The scale keeps going up, up and up!! There are points throughout grade school where I can remember exactly what I weighed, who weighed me, and what time it was. It was absolutely mortifying having to be weighed each year in school, then highschool oh that was fun, they had the girls in my grade way me. Today I look back and think how dumb it was to be upset over that, but at that time I wanted to crawl under a rock and die! 
I had a great childhood!! My parents are my best friends and I have two twin sisters. My parents are amazing and I hope one day I can be half of what they are. As kids we were taught morals, responsibility, respect, and manners. We had plenty of family outings like going camping, bike rides, girl scouts, my dad was the manager of my softball team and my mom was the coach. They were very hands on parents and I thank them for choosing me to be their child!!! Back to the weight... my family, we're all overweight, but my sisters, they packed on the pounds in their mid section, as for myself, I feel like I blimped up all over the place!! I have been thinking about WLS for about two years now and finally started taking the steps to having it done this past February 2008. I am hoping to have surgery October of this year - I'm not gonna lie tho, I'm scared shitless. This could change my life for the better!! I can wake up happy everyday and when I go to get something to wear I might not have to worry about it being too tight today... OR something could go wrong and I could have complications or possibly die!! I dont have any medical problems as of right now and I would hate to do something to myself to make me worse in the end... Cancer, Diabetes, High BP, High Cholestoral - all of that runs in my family and I know sooner or later its gonna get me too... I have a lot of confidence for a girl of my size, I go out all the time, I love to dance and have fun and meet new people but when your in public and are competeing with teeny tiny little girls with booty shorts on its hard to get much attention if you know what I mean. I have tried every diet out there, Weight Watchers, Richard Simmons, the cabbage soup diet, Noni juice, starving (that worked until I got hungry 
), the list goes on and on. I did lose weight on some of those but you better believe I gained it all back plus about 10lbs... Thats what got me to where I am today... Yo-Yo dieting... Makes ya feel great then you feel works a month later because you weigh more then you did before you started the diet...
I am Catholic. 
I dont go to church every Sunday but I was confirmed Catholic and I do believe in god. When I began this whole process I asked God to show me a sign if this wasnt for me... I was even a little goofy and asked him not to like have a bird fly by and make that my sign because im not that quick I wont even notice lol so last Thursday I got a call that the Doctor that I was suppose to have my surgery with is leaving the practice and moving to New York!!!! How can a doctor just leave his patients like that??? The office where he worked at explained to me that I will just get scheduled with the other surgeon in the office... Hello?!? Im not getting my hair cut!! I'm having major surgery!!! You dont just pass me on like that... So I did some research and I have an appointment August 11, 2008 with Dr. Courcoulas in Pittsburgh, PA. She is the director of the bariatric department and has done 900 Open Surgeries and 1200 Laparoscopic Surgeries... She seems like the best of the best to me! I guess I'll find out once I meet with her. So i dont know if my sign was not to have the surgery, or not to have the surgery with that doctor... I know I need this... I cant keep the wieght off!!! Im terrified that one day I'll wake up and become one of those people I've seen on TV that cant get out of bed on their own... I don't mean to offend anyone I just know I'm on that path...
I never understood why thin girls go on diets and try and loose 5lbs... To me I can loose 5lbs by drying my hair 
But now I understand... Its those 5lbs you gain one at a time and ignore that get you to where I am today... If I am fortunate enough to have this surgery and heal with no complications I am going to be one of those people who live, sleep, breath health!! Im going to work my butt off exercising and become a health nut!! Not everyone is given a second chance and if I am you better believe I'm not going to mess that up!!!
If anyone took the time to read this and has any kind of advice or just wants to talk I'd really appreciate it, Its much easier going through something like this with a friend and with someone who understands the process then doing it alone... *Hugs* Laura 
