VeggieGal
I wasn't a huge kid or teenager. I've never been thin either. I think my weight accumulated after having 3 babies in 8 years. I'd lose after each one, but gain again before having the next, and it just kept snowballing.
I've lost tons of weight over the years, mostly via Weight Watchers. 5 or so years ago I was 5# from my goal weight, losing 90# and never did make it to goal. So close yet so far away. It took me 4 years to lose that weight and I started gaining again about 2 years ago. Thanks to a mix of menopause and non stop, unbridled eating! Anything and everything. Lots of it. One thing about menopause is this extrodinarly huge tire like thing that appeared around my middle. Overnite! My once rigid exersice routine faded into oblivia. Add in apathy, and the rest is history. The more I gained, the more inverted I became. Like so many over weight women, gaining weight after losing so much is a real shot in the head with self esteem. Over time, self esteem is just a foggy memory. I jumped on the low carb wagon, Medifast, South Beach, anything to get me moving downward in weight again, but nothing took hold. I couldn't get rolling again in any diet plan for long. It wasn't that I didn't lose any weight, I just was unable to keep it off for any amount of time. The yo-yo syndrome has probably done more harm than I know.
In Feb '08, I was approved into the bariatric surgery program at Kaiser. I was wanting to get a lap band at that time. Shortly after attending a couple of orientation meetings, my husband's company switched insurance companies. This really gave me such a lack of hope because the new insurance company would require me to jump through all kinds of hoops that I didn't have the energy to jump through. And, most likely wouldn't be approved anyhow. I began reading about VSG on this website and doing all kinds of reading about it. People here seemed totally sold on the procedure and were having amazing results. April 1st, I made my mind up to go ahead and self pay for this procedure and began looking into a doctor to do it. Dr. Alvarez' name kept coming up as one of the most proficient surgeons in this field and so I contacted his coordinator, Susan. I was totally sold on having my surgery done by him as he had come so highly recommended. I had many episodes of freak outs with the whole surgery in Mexico thing, but , soon as I arrived and met him and his staff, I had no worries at all :) April 30, '08 I was sleeved! Best care I've ever received in my life. Dr. A and staff are attentive, supportive, very professional, and I would recommend anyone considering VSG to go with the best, like me and hundreds of others have :):) It's amazing!
