Vanessa J.
I am a 40 year old mother of four beautiful girls, 13, 11, 8, and 2. I am married to a great guy. We have been through a lot together. I decided to have WLS after 3 years of thinking and researching it.
I was a very skinny kid until about the 5th/6th grade when I gained a lot of weight. I lost a good portion of it after I got sick going into the 7th grade. I was never skinny again, but I wasn't overweight. All through High School I thought I was fat because I was bigger than a lot of the girls, even though I was a majorette. I started gaining weight when I went to Penn State and gained the freshman 10, sophomore 20, etc. By the time I left college, I was probably wearing a size 16. When I met my husband, I was probably in an 18, then it when I started having kids, my weight kept picking up. I was also yo-yoing as I tried many diets: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, LA Weight Loss, Atkins, and so on and so on.
While I was pregnant with my youngest child, I developed gestational diabetes. I think this really made me start my journey. I had to give myself shots and I did not want to continue doing that. I also wanted to get healthy for my children.
