ryd1125
I have been overweight since high school and on one diet or another (LA wieghtloss, Jenny Craig, South Beach, Flat Belly, etc) since college. After 3 failed pregnancies, I realized that my weight had become a significant barrier to maintaining a healthy pregnancy. In 2006, my significant other would also tell me that he had an inoperable oligodendroglioma (brain tumor). He was only 29 years old when he was told he was terminally ill and since the tumor is slow growing he may have 10-15 years to live. Due to complications from the initial chemo and radiation treatments, we thought getting pregnant was not going to be a possibility.
In 2011, we found out we were completely wrong and one month early on December 23rd due to pregnancy complications (preeclampsia) I had an emergency C-section. Although our baby spent two weeks in the NICU, I am happy to say I am the mother of a beautiful, robost little boy! He was 9lbs 3 oz at birth, even at a month premature! My weight was a contributing factor to pregnancy complications and I have been trying ever since to loose the baby weight. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant my significant other went through some major personality changes (the brain tumor is located on his frontal lobe-left side, effecting personality) and told me he could not be a father. He sadly has not been involved in our son's life and most of my family lives over 2 hours from where I live and work.
Being a single mom without a lot of help puts things in perspective and after multiple doctor appointments this last year for one ailment or another, I knew I had to take control of my weight once and for all. Not only for myself, but for my son. It actually came as a shock when my doctor recommended weight loss surgery, but as I began the research I heard so many stories of success and kept hearing the same thing over and over again "I wish I had done it sooner."
I didn't want to wait, my son needs a healthy mom to be around for a very long time, someone to play with and look up to right NOW. I don't want to waste another minute not being able to keep up with him. I also want to have more children in the future (when I meet "the one" of course and now I will most certainly hold off for the next 2 years) and the next go-round I would like to have a much healthier pregnancy.
My vertical sleeve gastrectomy is scheduled for 11/25/13 and as of today I have already lost 20.8 lbs!
