DeidraL916
I am 31 years old. I have been overweight my for as far back as I can remember. My weight started really becoming a problem about a year after my child was born 8 years ago. I broke up with her father and was an emotional wreck because now I was a single parent struggling to do everything alone. I'm a mood eater. I was depressed. Not clinically but breakup depressed so I ate and ate and ate. I went on weight watchers and lose over 40 lbs. Then I got off the program and gained my 40 lbs back plus and extra 20 or so pounds. Then ended up with high blood pressure. For years I escaped it because it runs in my family but now it had caught up to me. Then I went on another weight loss program and lost about 30 lbs and then got off that one and gained weight again. On my 30th birthday (Jan. 2008) I had a little get together at my house and pictures were taken and I was disgusted by how I looked in the photos. I found out I was at my all time highest weight of 350 lbs!! Now I'm 5'11" so I'm tall but 350 lbs is still too much weight to be carrying around. I found out in March 2008 that a coworker of mine was going through the steps to have the gastric bypass surgery. I went to my doctor and told him I wanted to be referred over to the program. So he sent the referral. In May 2008 I went to my bariatric orientation and weighed in at 343 lbs. My surgeon set my goal weight for surgery at 310 lbs. so I had to lose 33 lbs before they would do the surgery. It took me 5 months to drop the weight. During those months I went back and forth with which surgery I wanted (gasric bypass or Lap Band). I made my decision after weighing the pros cna cons about each one and which one would work best FOR ME. I decided on the Lap Band surgery. My surgery date was set for Feb 24, 2009. The day of my surgery I weighed in at 302 lbs.
The surgery didn't last that long and I had no complications. I went home the same day. For about a week I was sore from the incisions but the medication I was prescribed helped so much to ease the pain somewhat. The first 2 weeks after surgery I was on a liquid diet. I was eating sugar free jello popsicles and pudding, drinking crystal light and water. I had no appetite really so some days I would have to force myself to put something in my stomach. It definitely took some getting used to. As of today it has been almost 3 months since my surgery and I and down to 275 lbs! I haven't been in the 200 lbs range since before I had my child and even at my highest pregnancy weight. 25 more pounds and I'll be at the weight I was when I gave birth! My goal weight is 210 (thats what it says on my drivers license!). If I lose more than that great but my goal for now is 210 lbs. I've set a monthly goal of at least 10 lbs a month I want to lose. I'm still a work in progress and I have no regrets about having WLS.
