Shirley D.
My story began a long, long time ago. From the time I was a child, I was always heavier than most kids. My weight continued to balloon through adolescence until I was 170 pounds at my high school graduation. At age 30 I was diagnosed with PCOS and began fertility therapy to have a child, which thank God, worked and I have a wonderful son named Thomas. My weight continued to skyrocket until at age 35 I was 240 pounds. I stayed there for several years despite trying all the things most people do. I did manage to lose 70 pounds on Atkins in 2003, but of course gained it all back as soon as I went off their plan, which increased my hopelessness. Add Hypothyroid into all this and I was pretty much a mess. Last June I went to an information night for Bariatric Surgery, and something clicked in my head. Everything they talked about made sense and for the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a "failure". I never knew that all these mealplans out there have such a low success rate. When I weighed in the first time for the Bariatric surgeon, the scale said 251 and I almost died of embarrassment. I went through all the steps the practice required (Physical Therapy Evaluation, Nutritional Consults, Psychological Evaluation, etc.) and had my surgery 11/7/07, which is my new birthday. I've lost 25 pounds since then, and am off most of my medications, sleeping without sleep meds and feeling like I have chance to be a success. Life is a great adventure!
