Chris V.
Let's start at the very beginning. I was born November 16, 1971 in Meadville, PA. My parents seperated when I was 2 and eventually divorced. I am an only child. I was raised by my mom and my dad was basically not in the picture. He was (and still is) a truck driver and would stop and see me on the rare occasion he had a load close to where we lived. My mom comforted herself with food and gained a lot of weight. I think I watched her and learned my behaviors that way. I have always been an emotional eater and also an eater just because something was there. Sometimes I really didn't need a reason to eat. Anyways, I went through grade school and into high school being overweight. I fit in great with my friends because we were all the same size. After high school I moved to Pittsburgh for a year and went to business school. It was great and I thinned down some. I had to walk everywhere and meals were at designated times. I didn't have much spending money so fast food and junk food didn't happen. After I was done with business school I moved back home and packed on the pounds. My relationship improved with my dad and in 1993 at the age of 21 I moved to Iowa. I made good friends with a guy I worked with who was into fitness and lifting weights. He got me into a gym and I went from 235 lbs. to 140 lbs. I was at that weight for 3 years and felt phenominal! I thought I'd finally whipped my past. In 1997 my mom passed away from breast cancer at the age of 49. She was just 4 months shy of her 50th birthday. I took that hard but instead of eating I worked out more. I was in the gym about 2-3 hours a day 6 days a week and playing volleyball at an obsessive rate. I would play 1-2 times a day everyday. Where ever I could find a game I would travel there. Then in 1998 I met my oldest daughter's dad. Things started out great until I got pregnant. He was very mentally abusive and I gained about 75-80 lbs. with her. I was depressed and beaten down and when she was 6 months old we moved out. Now I was stressed because I was soley responsible for this tiny, beautiful baby and still packed on some more weight. Eventually I settled into my single parent roll and began the diet rollercoaster. I think I tried dang near everything I could afford on a single paycheck. I'd lose then gain back plus some. In 2002 I met my hubby. Our first year together was rough and I went from 190 to 250 in about 2 years. Still trying to diets and nothing worked. In Jan 2005 I got pregnant with our baby. I only gained 19 lbs. with her. It's amazing how much difference a stress free pregnancy makes! After she was born I thought I'd lose that 19 lbs. but NOPE! I tried the diets again and nothing was working. Finally in October 2006 I started the ball rolling on WLS. I feel it is my only hope to help insure I will have a longer life with my kids than my mom did with me. My surgery is scheduled for Feb. 26. I'm getting nervous. It's coming up so fast! I can't wait tho to use this fantastic tool I'll be given. It's almost like a gift for me and my family. I don't want to die early from being MO. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with sleep apnea, high blood pressure, wetting my pants, worrying if I'm going to turn up diabetic, etc. I've encountered a lot of negativity and a lot of uneducated people when it comes to any type of WLS. The only thing I can say is everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if that opinion is based on some assinine idea they just yanked out of their rear end ask them what website or article they got their information from so you can read it too. Sometimes it pays to be a smarta**
