~Attention Newbies~Welcome~

Hi Newcomers to the MO Board I wanted to send a shout out to welcome all of you to our board!! I know we dont all get to officially welcome you, do to time restraints, but would like to take this opportunity to welcome ALL of you and ask you a little bit about yourselves-such as-are you pre or post op, what surgery you had, how much weight you have lost, where you are in your journey, your age, are you married? Kids? what you do for a living and what your hobbies are-things like that.....Please take a moment and let us all know about you-so we can get to know you a little. Jan C does a post everyday called Whats Happening (and then the day it is) and we invite you to chime in-it does not have to pertain to the journey etc-we welcome any thing you would like to post!!! We love having so many new people to our board and this board is filled with some of the most awesome people you could ever know!!! Anyway-take care newbies and I look forward to meeting you all!!! Love, Janet

I would guess that I am still a newbie so I will let you all in on who I am. I have grew up in Mississippi but after high school moved around a lot with my now ex husband. He was miltary and that is what got me to Missouri in 1999. I have a son 18 who will graduate this year. He has already joined the army and leaves right after graduation. I also have a 10 year old daugther that is my sweet angle baby. I got divorced in 2003 and because of the kids decided to stay in Missouri. I never was heavy growing up and didnt have a weight problem until my mid 20's. While I dont want to lay blame on my ex since its my issue to own our relationship was one of him being the controling and my self worth floundered along with sufering from depression. In one year I gained 50 pounds. By the time I hit my 30's I had gone from being 120-130 pounds to being over 200. My ex husband informed me he was no longer attracted to me and felt that he no longer wanted to be married. Finding myself single and the mother of two kids by age 34 and reaching an all time high of 240 pounds at 5'4 didnt help my self esteem. BUT with the love of my children and the support of family and friends I found out that I was a great person, that I was worth time and effort. I now have been free from depression for 3 years and have reclamed my self worth. I remarried last year to one of the most easy going loving men I have and will ever know. He accepts me for who I am inside and outside. I had looked into WLS in early 2005 and begin the hoops jumps that my insurance reqired. But after several months of jumping and still more hoops to go through I had to give up. My insurance wanted me to jump though a few that they would not pay for. With only one income and being a single mom I did not have the money to follow through. I put the idea of WLS on a back buner but never really gave up just gave in for the time being. 2006 was a great year. I met my new husband in late 2005 and found a spirt and love and acceptence that I had never know before. A year later we were married. THE BEST thing to happen to me since chocolate. This January (the 8th ) I went in to have my blood pressure check. I was put on meds and out of the blue decided to ask about a referal for WLS. My new husband is also in the miltary and I was now using his insurance instead of the insurance from my work that I had in 05. I got it with no questions. Two days later went to see Dr H. and one week later was approved. (didnt hurt to have already jumped through those hoops in 05). My husband teases me that I only married him for his insurance. Now I am 4 days from surgery. At the beging of a new chapter in regaining the life that was taken away from me by the battle with my weight. I have already lost 18 pounds on the preop diet and its 18 pounds I know will not return. Thanks you all for this support on this board. It has been wonderful and safe place to come and ask all of the questions that we newbies have.

Hi Shawn Congrats on the 18# girl-thats so awesome I am so happy to hear your story and that there is such a happy ending for you!! Your husband sounds wonderful and I am glad that you have a good one to go through this journey with-it sure makes a difference!!!! Wow-4 days and you will be on the losers bench sitting next to Sugar, I believe she was our latest surgery...WOO-HOO.....I am sooooo excited for you! Thanks for posting, and very very nice to meet ya. Love, Janet

Hi Shawn I know you are excited about getting so close to your surgery date. We are excited for you . Richelle K has surgery tomorrow the 26th and Christy Mc Daniel has surgery on the 28th then you on the 29th. so we will hve 3 new losers this week. Im sure Sugar will be glad to scoot down for the three of you She has already lost about 27 pounds since the 7th so more and better things are to come for everyone. Your hubby sounds like a wonderful man, I have one of those too. there are some of them out there. lol way to go on the weight loss already. and we will all be cheering you on to more and more. Jan

Howdy Missouri Folks.... My name is Tammy H. I will be 41 April 12th. I live in the bootheel of Missouri and have lived here all my life. I am married for my third time to a very sweet, thoughtful and caring man. We have been together for 7 years now. I have a daughter-Ada that is 21, a son-M.C. that is 17 and I have two step-daughters-Christina 19 and Heatherlyn 17. I also have a grand daguther from my daughter Ada...Her name is Christa and she is 2 1/2 yrs old and is the light of my life. I am very close to my family and my Mom & my lil Sis are my best friends. The support of my family and my friends has help me make it this far on my journey for WLS. I have been heavy since I was a child. Seems to run in my family. But for reason it chose to like me more lol lol.....Being heavy never really got in my way of doing things until the past 2-3 years. But now it has slowed me down and gotten me down so much health wise that I have to do something about it. I attended a siminar in the spring of 06 but did not get started on the rest of my stuff till about Nov. I had my first appt with Dr. Scott in Feb of 07. We decided I would have the Sleeve then go on to having the RNY after I have lost enough weight to do it safely. He also suggested I go on a liquid protein diet to help me loose some weight while I was working on getting all my test and paper work done. I started my protein diet 1 month ago to day and so far I have lost 25lbs!!! My first appt with Dr. Scott I weighed 474!! 20 lbs more than I did at the seminar I attended in the spring that year. I just had my psyc eval and hope to get the rest of my stuff done and hopefully have surgery by the end of May 07. I don't have a date yet I just hope to have it by then. Doing the liquid protein diet has not been as bad as I thought it would be. I get my protein powder at wal-mart (vanilla) and I flavor it with SF instant pudding or Dannon's light and fit yogurt. There are at least 10 different flavors you can get in the sf pudding mix and my favorites in the light and fit yogurt are strawberry-banana and blackberry. I have been visiting the Mo Board for about 3 months now. It has been a wonderful place to have to come to. I have had so many questions answered for me here. Gotten so many suggestions and alot of advice. For the most everyone on here has been absolutely friendly and caring. I have only had the chance to attend one support meeting. It was in Srpingfield Mo and I am so glad I had the chance to go. It was so great to get to see friends from the board face to face. I loved getting to see the before and after pics...It really inspires you!!!!!! I plan on attending more support meetings in the coming months and hope to go back to Springfield this summer sometime and visit everyone there again.... On top of all the support I get from family, friends & my new friends from the board I have been blesses with 2 very caring and loving ANGELS!!!! The are so supportive and up lifting I can't say enough about them....Janet & Mel I love you guys!!!!! Feel free to visit my profile anytime....and PLEASE feel free to drop me a line anytime. God Bess each of you....Good luck to all the other Newbies...Hugs & Love...Tammy H.

Hello, everyone I am very happy, just like everyone else to have found this website!! I was on a 2year waiting list with Barnes Jewish in St. Louis when I starting reading so many good things about Dr. Scott in Columbia. I called them in Jan, got a seminar date in Feb., and have my first appointment with Dr. Scott the same day as Tammy H. (yeaaaaa, cant wait to meet her)!! I have gotten soooo much help and support here, (Jan, Tammy, Janet, Lana, and Melissa and lots more). I own a Bail Bond Business with my brother and father in St. Charles, I have had chronic back problems since I was 24. I worked for moving companies when I was 15, (uncle owned St. Charles moving and storage****il I did so much lifting, bending and etc. the wrong way damaged my sciatic, had 2 disks removed, degenerative disk and arthiritis thru out neck and all of my back. Didnt help chasing bad guys when I hit my 30s, and I thought rolling around with all those guys on the ground was a good thing, LOL! I am married for the 3rd time to a crazy, loving, hateful, grateful, wonderful, fruit cake of a man, and I couldnt be more happy with him,( most of the time),LOL We have known each other over 15years, (I dated his bestfriend), and we have been together 7yrs married 2yrs. I have a 13yr old daughter, (Lord help me thru puberty) and 2 border collies (bronco and dolly) and a cat named eddy. I hope to have this surgery because I feel like I have battled my weight my whole life and although I have the will power and have lost 65 lbs twice in my life I cant seem to keep it off. My back keeps me from exercising the way I want and I feel like I have missed out on so much with life. 1 1/2 years ago my back became so bad that I was confined to bed almost every day for 7 months. I hate that I am on medication that makes me so forgetful, (I hate it when I walk in to a room and wonder "What the hell was I gonna do in here?", LOL Oxycotin is not your friend when it comes to your memory! My DH say my mind is just multitasking and I am glad he is not saying I'm losing my marbles. So I am serious , I am ready, (I AM KINDA SCARED), but everyone here is helping me and that makes me feel better and understand this surgery better. I have quit smoking, I think 18 or 19 days now. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I smoked for over 28yrs at least 2 packs a day! So, I am commited. I never shut up, and I am here every morning and most evenings reading old posts, writing down receipes, and taking notes from you all. Send me a mess anytime. Susan

Hello everyone. I was told to come here to talk to you. I have been emailing back and forth with Shawn S. She told me you all were a bunch of wonderful people and that I needed to come chat. Since that is what I do best here goes. I am living here in Missouri for now. Being a military family you never know exactly how long you will be in one place. I have been looking at WLS for about 3 years. Usually I got blown off by Doctors saying quit eating and exercise. I have battled my weight since I was about 10 years old. Growing up heavy was awful. I was teased so much in High School that when I was in the last month of my Junior Year I stood up in the middle of a Math class and walked out. Never to look back again. Lucky for me and had a wonderful mom who understood. I took courses at the Local college to insure a good score on the GED. I was one scared kid. I dont regret it one bit. Just one month after dropping out I met my future husband. He is a great country man. We married in 2000. I gave birth to my daughter in 01. Then in 06 I gave birth to my son. They are the joy of my life. I am a stay at home wife. I plan on going back to college to become a Paramedic as soon as my son goes to Kindergarten. I am 25 years old and at this point weigh about 275. I had my phsyche eval today. My appointment is on May 23. I plan on having the RNY. I have great insurance. No problems there. As soon as Dr. Hornbostel says lets do this, I am ready. So far this website has been a great tool for me to learn more about it. Yesterday I got on the Memorials. I sat there for over an hour reading them tearing up. It was a reality check for sure. It did not scare me as much at it reconfirmed my desicion. I have already put my faith in Dr. H. My journey has only been a few months but I am so excited there are so many wonderful people out there to talk to that understand with judgement. Thanks -Heather w