Vida W.
My Journey Through Obesity:
The Early Years:
Where do I begin? I guess I will start with my clearest memory of becoming aware that I was different from the other kids in school as far as my size. This was in the 4th grade. I can remember going school shopping (NOT FUN) and I remember getting an outfit that I just loved. It was a long white shirt that buttoned down the back and a pair of dark blue jeans trimmed in red...I was going to be too cute on the first day of school. :-) Well, while I may have been cute I remember that that outfit was a misses 14. Over the next few years I just became resigned to the fact that I was "supposed" to be overweight. There were NO I mean NO average sized people in my family on my dad's side which is where I was told I got my "bigness" from (direct quote from an Uncle 
). Of course junior high school was a travesty. I was absolutely miserable from the sixth thru the eighth grade. My junior angst did not help my weight any of course and I coninued to gain weight due to emotional eating and lack of activity. I really can't remember what size I'd gotten to in jr high because honestly it was the absolute WORST three years of my life :-(. Back in my day 9th grade was still a part of jr high school and I went to a new school for the 9th grade and somehow I'd managed to lose a few pounds and I started caring more about my apperance in general and 9th grade was far better as far as the teasing and what not but deep down I still felt like the odd ball and when the class clown or in my case the school bus clown was ready to perform my sister (she has her own story) and I became the early morning entertainment. But all and all from an emotional stand point things did start to improve. Throughout high school my weight continued to go up and down. I remember being in the 11th grade and this boy saying, "I bet you weigh bout 300 pounds." I was devastated. For one that you talking to me about my weight....and for two how dare him think I could be that big...Well, we did not have a scale at home but as soon as I got to my granny's house I weighed...I was 301.
The Middle Years:
Life was pretty much that after high school...Life. Between already being overweight and not eating properly and defintely not exercising my weight continued to increase. Of course I would try whatever the newest diet craze was for that particular month and I may lose a few pounds but you know the drill...10 off 20 on. Before my WLS journey began I had three children (all girls) and I can tell you one thing...going to the doctor and having to weigh monthly, bi-monthly and then weekly when you weigh 290-something to 300 pounds is a devastating blow to your self-esteem. Well, after I had baby #2 I had a job that was pretty physical and I did begin to eat a little better and exercise a little more and I lost the most weight I'd ever lost in one time period. I went from about 295 to 267. That sounds so funny now being hype about weighing 267 but I was on cloud nine...little did I know......
Roo and Who?
I didn't know what all the hoopla was about BUT my aunt was having this special surgery to help her lose weight. WHAT!!! A Shropshire was doing something to make them less Shropshire-ish (I have a problem making up words LOL). I had no idea what they were talking about but you bet your last dollar I found out as soon as I could get logged on to a computer. Well, after a little searching I found out that my aunt was going to have gastric bypass surgery. I honestly didn't know what to think. Is it safe? Will it work? How is she going to look afterwards? I had a million questinons but I couldn't wait to see how she did. My aunt had her surgery on 9-11. The 9-11 in 2001. She is now 6 years post op and still doing well. Needless to say when I saw her at the first family function that she came in town for I was speechless. My wheels began to turn a little faster I had to have this done. Well, my daddy wound up beating me to the punch because his employer, Memorial Hospital (Chattanooga, TN) opened up a Surgical weight Management Program and their new medical insurance was going to cover the procedure for employees at 100% (less their deductible of course). OMG. My daddy was going to lose weight. I was so happy for him. My daddy had just about every obesity related co-morbidity you could think of, diabetes, hypertension, arthiritis, sleep apnea like you wouldn't believe. I was too happy my daddy was adding years back onto his life :-). That being said I still had to continue my mission of getting me "some surgery" there was no way I could walk around weighing more than my daddy LOL.
The Joke:
My hubby and I had a longstanding private joke that I only married him for his insurance. 
That was so not true BUT finding out that your baby-daddy's insurance pays for gastric bypass is not bad incentive. Seriously, after about a two year sabbatical he and I had gotten back together and were planning on becoming an official family and tying the knot but hey lets get the ball a rolling. :-). We were married May 31, 2003. The pre-op picture here on my profile is on my wedding day. I did NOT want to have a ceremony because I was so self-conscious about being in front of people but he really wanted a ceremony so that's what we did and it wasn't bad at all.
Let's Roll:
As I said the insurance wasn't the only reason for our nuptials but it was a perk. No sense in sitting around letting good insurance go to waste. So after we returned from our wedding trip. The first week in June I met with my PCP and my stupendous surgeon-to-be and began my WLS approval process. I went for my initial consultation with the Dr. Rutledge on June 6, 2003 and I received an approval letter from BCBSofNC July 17, 2003. I almost passed out in the driveway when I opened that letter BUT it would still be over 7 months before I would actually have my surgery. See, although BCBS of NC approved the surgery they did not pay well for the surgery. So I had an upfront co-insurance cost of $1,750 that was not just sitting in the cookie jar. I didn't think my W-2's would arrive soon enough. After talking with my hubby we decided that once we file our taxes that we would take my co-insurance out of our refund so I could have my surgery. That was the best $1750 I ever spent in my life. :-). As soon as I took my cashier's check to University Surgical I had a date for 2.25.04.
Post-Op Journey:
On My surgery date I had actually lost 6 pounds from my initial consult weight of 326. That was the heaviest I'd ever been in my life. The jeans I wore that day were my pre-op uniform jeans as I called them because I refused to buy another stitch of clothing until I had surgery. I still have those pants. They are a pair of Wal-Mart brand (Faded Glory) mens' jeans...size 48. I needed a pair of jeans when I bout those because my old ones had gotten too tight and the Avenue did not have any 28's and the largest women's size Wal-Mart had was a 26 so I converted the numbers and grabbed me a pair of mens FG's size 48. My surgery was totally uneventful. i had no complications. Dr. Rutledge and his staff were wonderful. When I had my surgery we were not doing the pre-op liquid diet so that is one thing I can't relate to with some of the more recent surgery patients but other than that I believe my issues and concerns were pretty similar back then as they are for some of the new patients...Am I losing fast enough? Why haven't I lost another pound? Will I ever get back to solid foods? :-) Below are my weight-loss milestones from my old profile as I said my starting weight was 320:
3/3/04: 300
3/15/04: 293
3/29/04: 283.5
4/07/04: 273.5
7/16/04: 236.5
9/8/04: 215.5
11/22/04: 201.01
01/04/05: 195
01/22/05: 189
02/22/05: 186.5
04/22/05: 181
05/21/05: 176.5
06/10/05: 174.5
As you can see the last time I updated my weight was June 2005. The smallest I got down to was 164 and because of my height I looked as if I weighed less than than that and at first I was thrilled to be able to wear a size 8 in pants and sometimes a 6 I just felt that that was too small for me. So the next year or so my weight leveled out and I am now 3 1/2 years post op and 6 month post pregnancy and I am comfortably in a size 10 in most of my clothing and I honestly feel great. :-)
