Hi Everyone!

So I realized that I have been replying to so many posts on here, yet have not said anything about myself so you know who the heck I am!

Obviously, my name is Shenikwa.  I live in Thornton, CO and I had WLS on 01/21/07.  To this date I have lost 153 lbs.  I went from 317 lbs and a size 26-28 to 164 lbs and a 8-10.  I honestly have not been this weight since I was about 13 years old.

To say life is different after WLS is the understatement of the year.  My life, my marriage, me in general are all better and yet different than 2 years ago.  I think that I came from behind the shell of weight and allowed the world to see who I was.  Now don't get me wrong, in no way was I shy or quiet or demure when I was fat, but I wasn't me.  I think you all can understand what I mean by that.

My main reason to have this surgery is becuase I had PCOS.  I had diabites and almost high-blood pressure.  All I ever wanted was to be a mom, and at 317 lbs, I had 0 chance of having a baby.  So after years of waiting and being on the waiting list with Kaiser, I decided that my love of children and the desire to give my husband what he always wanted outweighed any doubts I had about having WLS.  To this date there are only 2 other decisions that are better, giving my life to Christ and marrying my husband.  Sooo in July of this year we are going to offically start trying to become parents. 

For those of you who are just joining us on the loser's bench, welcome!  For those of you who are waiting to join us on the loser's bench, I'm warming it up for ya!  May your journey be blessed.  Remember this is not the easy way out.  It's the toughest thing I have EVER done, but I would do it 20x's over if I had to.  If there is any way I can help any of you, please feel free to drop me a line.

God bless you!

Jennifer,

Let me just tell you girl, it is SOOOOOOO worth it.  Doing this is so much more than 3 days, and believe me, the jello, SF popsicles and such are going to be a good friend of yours for a while.  After sugery the only thing you might have is head hunger, otherwise those will be your staples for a while just to get some sort of nutrition in.  I know this for a fact because I had to do it twice (the 3 day diet).  The 1st time I did it, I went to the hospital and they had to cancel my surgery because the person in front of me had too many complications and ran over.  Soooo I had to wait for 2 more weeks and do it again.  Know when I say I understand how you feel.  The 1st day is always the worst.  The 2nd and 3rd days are so much easier.  You are almost there!  You are one of the luck people who get to have a 2nd 'birthday', and your life heavy is over!  Every pound you are losing now is gone FOREVER!!  How cool is that?  So when this gets to be overwhelming and you think if I have to eat one more spoonful of jello or drink another cup of broth, I'm gonna hurt someone, remember how blessed you are for this journey.  The steps after surgery are going to be just as difficult, but you are strong, you are a winner and you will be a loser!  May God bless you on your journey!