Stephanie H.
It starts like this.....
I was born the 3rd girl in 5 kids. I had a pretty good childhood and then my parents went through a horrible divorce. I was pretty normal in my size until just after their divorce. My mom took off one day with my little brothers and left me and my sister with my dad. We didn't know what was happening, then one day she kidnapped my sister and me from school, and proceeded to tell us that we could stay with her or go back to my dad and never see her again. It was heartwrenching, but I went where my sister went, not really knowing what I wanted. After that, I started to gain weight. This was in 9th grade. By the time I was a High school Senior, I weighed about 175lbs. Sure I dieted here and there with some success, but food was my best friend, so I always gained it back. Then I met my future husband. We got pregnant, and before we were to be married, he was in a devastating car accident which put him in intensive care for 2 months and a rehab hospital for another month. It was a massive head injury. By the time he got out of the hospital I was 7 months pregnant. I went to live with his family to assist in his care. So, I went from dancing 6 days a week to staying at home pregnant and nothing to do but eat.... When I gave birth to my son, i thought I was doing so well, I weighed in at 199lbs. I lost almost 10 pounds right away. He was a sick baby (but is fine now). Needless to say, I was now taking care of two kids (as my husband had regressed in age to about a 2-3 year old) Over the course of the nex 10 year during his recovery, I gained another 80 pounds. There I sat, with my health going down the toilet, trying to manage his life and my sons, and forgetting about how well i was taking care of myself. I think One day I was so sick of it, that I decided I would check into this surgery. My doctor denied me because our health plan required a liquid physician supervised diet first. So That's what I did. I figured if I had to do it, I would do it with all my energy. I was a success, I dropped 110 pounds between July and January. I was down to 173 at my lowest, and my world was changing. People were starting to invade my personal space now, they wanted to touch me and ask personal things. I started to see a counselor and at the same time noticed my son who was no 16 was eerily depressed. So I began taking in all my environment and what needed to change. I decided to get plastic surgery and have my 15 lbs of hanging abdominal flesh removed. That was an experience I never want to go through again. I had minor complication. My drains were in for almost 5 weeks. But while I was at home, I got to see my son a lot and realized he was in a scary place. it wasn't too long that I knew I had to do some kind of intervention. I had him admitted to a hospital program for depression. Boy he hated me. taking him there was the hardest thing I had ever done in my whole life. I cried for 3 days straight. But I learned that previous to me doing that, he had actually made an attempt at suicide. so it was the right thing to do. over the next year, it was all about him. he was angry and hurt and fought me every step of the way. I quickly started to gain weight as I focused on my friend Food to get through it all. in a little less than a year I had gained back 90 pounds. When he seemed to be coming to the end of this rough time( he is so much better now) I realized how bad I had treated myself. This time I went back to my doctor and requested the surgery again. She gave me my referral. Within 3 months the surgery was scheduled and I was just waiting for the time to pass. Scared to death of how this would all play out. My family needed me and I was afraid something would happen to me. Everything went so well in surgery, and that brings us to the present. It's all good!
