Well Well...where do I even start? The purpose of this blog is for me to keep up with my success and for others to follow me on this journey. I guess I will start from the beginning....
I am 28 and will be 29 November 1st (everyone write that down right now) and I think I've been overweight my whole life. I can't remember a time where I wasn't thinking about my weight. I remember the very first time I joined weight watchers. I was only 11 but you had to be at least 12 to join, so we lied and told them I was 12! That was the first time that I started trying to do something about my weight. It has all been downhill since then! I can't remember a time in my life that I wasn't either on a diet or planning to start a diet. I have seriously tried everything....weight watchers, nutri system, Jenny Craig, no carbs, low carbs, no fat, low fat, hydroxy cut, phentermine, weight loss wraps, you name it I've tried it. I have been able to get the weight off but it never stays off. I think the biggest weight loss success that I had was when I lived in Florida in 2001. I was able to lose about 40 pounds and was the smallest that I could ever remember being. BUT it all came back plus about 40 pounds.
So what made me decide to have weight loss surgery? Well I have the very very best friend in the world and her name is Allison. We have both struggled with our weight forever. We have passed clothes back and forth for as long as I can remember. When she loses weight she gives me her clothes that don't fit anymore, then she stops dieting and I start and we pass them back to each other again. We have never been able to successfully loss weight "together" so the whole clothes swapping thing has been perfect! There a couple of people that we knew from Florida that had this thing called the Mini Gastric Bypass surgery. We noticed how awesome they were looking from their myspace page and we couldn't figure out what they did. Then I noticed that one of the girls had posted a blog about her surgery. I have never ever ever been a fan of the weight loss surgery stuff! I felt like that was no way to live the rest of your life. Then I'll never forget the day that Allison was in town and we went to eat lunch at Pie in the Sky. She brought up the whole surgery thing again and I was like no we can't live our lives like that! But she made me listen and I had no clue how much research she had been doing about the surgery. She had me hooked! I told her I would do some research and see what I could find. I became obsessed with finding out as much as I could about this thing. I discovered that after awhile you can have the foods you love again but in moderation. I found out that there weren't very many doctors that performed the MGB. There were 2 doctors that do the surgery out of Florida and Vegas but to be honest their websites were shady to me. Then I found some doctors that did it in High Point, NC. So I really started looking into them more. Their facility is a certified bariatric center, which means they have to meet certain guidelines to be certified. The other surgeons weren't bariatric certified. So I contacted them to see how I would need to get the process rolling. Boy, I didn't have the slightest clue what was in store for me.....
Me, Allison, and my grandmother made a visit over to High Point, NC to meet with the doctor. I wanted to make sure before I got too into this if it was really for me. After I decided for sure this was what I wanted to do I began the process to get "approved". First, you have to go to your primary physician to make sure he's going to support your decision and be willing to do follow ups with you. I have been going to the same doctor since I was 12 and he has seen my struggle with losing weight. I was still so nervous that he wouldn't be ok with this. But I had decided that if he wasn't there were plenty of other doctors out there that would support me. Luckily I didn't have anything to worry about. He is very excited about my decision to do this. Then, you have to meet with a psychiatrist to make sure you can handle this emotionally. Again, I was very nervous about this too. Nothing to worry about there either, I guess I'm not too crazy! :) Lots and Lots of blood work. And more paperwork than I have ever in my life had to do! I had to do about a 12 page essay about varies stuff. I have been out of school for a long time now and I wasn't good at writing papers then! My mom and grandmother had to write support letters that had to go in my packet. Oh and there was a letter from my doctor and psychiatrist that had to go in my packet. You also have to get 10 contacts from people that have had the surgery. One of my main questions were do you ever feel deprived. Every single one of them answered no. They all said that you can have the foods you love but only in smaller portions. That made me feel so much better. Because honestly who can live the rest of your life without macaroni and cheese??? So needless to say there was so much that went into that packet! Then I mailed it and it got lost...I panicked! Not a huge panic because I'm super anal and made copies of everything I sent, but there was still panicking that was going on. They finally found it and the waiting began. Was I going to get approved????
SO I got approved and then there were some other bumps that occurred along the way. I originally was going to have the surgery in August but some things feel through. But here I am now only a week away from leaving to go to High Point to have my surgery. I have my surgery on September 22!!!! It has already been a journey to say the least! I can't wait to see what the next year of my life holds and I can't wait to share it all with you......
