Christine C.
As with a lot of people who are pursing WLS (or have already undergone the surgery) I have been "yo-yo'ing" almost all of my life. I was always the "chubby" girl in middle school and then I went in the complete opposite direction throughout highschool (graduated weighing 108lbs). Although I did it the healthy way then and hoped it would be the turning point for the rest of my life.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Within about 2 years of graduating I had gone from 108 to 150. It took almost that long to get the weight back off and I got myself down to 125-130. Over the next 4 years I managed to skyrocket and weighed 210 at my highest (at that time of my life). After going through a divorce and living a full year of stress I got myself back to 140 within about 15 months. I was able to keep it off for a year but then started gaining it back little by little ... at 160 I got pregnant with my middle child (thankfully I only gain 20lbs with my pregnancies!) but never really lost the pregnancy weight and then a year later was pregnant with my youngest. Again another 20lbs ... which again didn't come off. Little by little ... gained more and more. I am currently at my highest (225 today) and want to break the cycle NOW.
My biggest fear is that my daughter will grow up and follow in my shoes. I want my kids to be healthy and happy. Not healthy and miserable. Believe it or not even with all of the weight my health has not suffered ... yet. I am starting to feel the signs of it now (achy knees, acid reflux, etc). Its time to end this battle and start over with the new ME!
I have been looking into WLS since roughly March '06. At that time I did not qualify ... unfortunately, now I do :( I began my process on August 1, 2007 with a visit to Dr. Pupkova at Barix Clinic in Langhorne, PA. My husband was a little more apprehensive than I was (since I've been researching it for so long) but even he walked out of our consult completely at ease (well as completely as you can be when surgery is involved! lol). We have an amazing life and couldn't ask for more. I have 3 children. 2 boys and 1 girl. They are my life and they are the main reason I started looking into this surgery ... I want to be healthy enough to watch them grow old, get married and have children. If I continue the way I am now .... that won't be possible.
I have a lot of goals that I would like to acheive after this surgery ... first and foremost is to play with my children instead of sitting on the sidelines.
