Melissa S.
Where do I start? I'm 26 years old. I live close to South Metro Atlanta. I'm married to a wonderful and supporting man and we will be celebrating our 3 year Anniversary in June. We currently do not have any children as we have been busy enjoying each other and traveling a little.
I've always been overweight. As long as I can remember I was always the "fat" kid in class, heck usually the fattest kid in school. Just to give an example when I went into high school as a 9th grader I weighed 313. That’s a tough number to swallow. I was always active. I play softball in middle and high school and was a power hitter. I was active in FFA and showed livestock as well. After graduation I somehow managed to balloon up even more. My highest weight is unknown. There was about a 2 year period when I could not be weighed at my doctor's office because their scale only went up to 350. Sadly, there are many pages in my chart that says 350+ 
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In 2002, I wanted to make a change. I stopped eating at fast food restaurants and only drank water. I craved water, and lots of it. I just thought it was a normal thing since I was dieting. That year I went from a size 34 to a 28. I was really excited, I lost some weight. With my found confidence I decided to hit the dating scene. In the beginning of 2003 I got pregnant. I lost the pregnancy shortly afterwards (9 weeks) and it hit me hard. I gained weight once again. I got back up to about 345 lbs. I was also diagnosed with PCOS and that was blamed for my reason for the miscarriage since it probably wasn’t a viable egg. I had over 20 single cyst, and several pearl cyst (alot of little cyst in a row).
On June 1st, 2003 I met Jon. After about 7 weeks of dating we decided to make it a real solid relationship. After a few months of dating and finally becoming intimate I decided I needed to tell him about my PCOS because I knew he was the one for me and I didn’t want to hide anything from him. The fact that I may never have my own kids, isn’t something to hide from someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. I was scared it would end our relationship and surprisingly his response was "If we cant have our own kids, it's just GODS way of telling us we need to take care of the kids no one love or wants". From that day on, I knew I would marry him one day.
In 2004, I was diagnose Type 2 diabetic. I was told I probably had it for at least a year or two and did not know it. To this day I am pretty sure that is why a craved water and was able to lose so much weight. Jon stood by me and still has when it comes to my diabetes. I spent the next year struggling with my sugar levels.
In 2005, Jon finally asked me to marry him (August 22nd). I of course said yes. We set a date within a week. We would be getting married on June 3, 2006. Then it hit me, I need to lose weight. I went and bought my wedding gown in September it was a size 26, and barely got zipped up, but I could not breath at all. I weighed 315 that day. I was determined to have a comfortable fitted dress on my wedding day. I was hitting the gym and dieting. I had my final fitting 2 weeks before the wedding. I was so scared it was going to be too tight because I had not put it back on since my initial dress fitting when I bought it. Well needless to say, I weighed 291 lbs my wedding day. Two week before the wedding my dress was being taken in. That made me sooo happy.
As everyone knows, when you are happy and married, sometimes you gain weight. Well I went back and forth with weight lose and gain since my wedding day until now. Jon and I were going to start TTC this year. I went to the OB and was happy to find out that I now only had 3 cyst all on the same ovary and the pearl cyst were gone. The OB said it was because of some weight lose. As I left her office her next comment was "Next time I see you, you'll be pregnant". I started reading about TTC with diabetes. Honestly it scared me to death. To possibly do harm to myself and my unborn child. It was hard to swallow. I've watched diabetes attack my mom. Although my mom is type 1, she is 48 years old with complete kidney failure, congestive heart failure, and sever nerve damage. All of this because of diabetes. The fact they my diabetes is caused by weight, made me realize I'm doing the same thing to my body, that my mom has had done to hers except I caused it. I decided I needed to do something about it. I wasn’t doing anything to myself but killing myself. Although, my blood sugars were in control, my weight wasn’t. After much talk with my hubby we decided instead of trying to get pregnant this year, we would put that on hold so I could make myself healthier.
So now, here I am. Wanting to make a change for me, my husband, my future kids, my parents, and my siblings. I was always the fat kid, the one that got made fun of. The one who stopped going to the fairs or amusement parks because I was scared I wouldn’t fit. My life is in the palm of my hands, and I will not let my weight get the best of me. I want to rid myself of my PCOS, my Type 2 diabetes, and all the other stress I am doing to my body. On July 29th, 2008, I finally took control, I was banded. 
