New ObesityHelp Member Introduction (Imagine Big Smile and Wave!)
Hi everyone!
I'm Sharon of Chapel Hill, NC and I joined ObesityHelp several days ago on June 15, 2009. I also recently joined the NC WLS Meetup Group on June 1. I will be attending my very first Meetup group event this morning (Saturday, June 20) at the Golden Corral in Raleigh. (I'm so excited about meeting everyone that I cannot sleep!) I've already received a friendly welcome from Anniep59 who graciously offered me a ride to the meeting and offered her warmest support to me. Annie has told me wonderful things about both ObesityHelp and the Meetup group, and I'm sure you all are also some of the nicest people in the world. I've been browsing through some previous postings on the NC Forum, and I already feel like I've gotten to know you all a little bit. I wanted to let everyone to get to know me better, so I thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself. I am a 24-year-old woman and am very morbidly obese. I'm 5'5" and weigh nearly 300 lbs. I have been overweight or obese since I was about 10 years old. I have tried to lose weight many times on countless diets; I've tried seemingly every diet out there. I lose some weight but end up gaining back more than I lost, lose weight and then regaining it all back plus some, repeat. It's a cycle that I've been going through for many years since I was a 10-year-old starting to go through puberty (those were horrible years). When I was 16 years old, I managed to lose about 90 lbs and got down to a healthy 130 lbs. However, by the time I reached age 19, I already started regaining some of the weight. When I reached age 21, I'd gained all of the weight back plus some and was at 230 lbs. I have been steadily gaining weight since age 19, and at age 24 now, I'm at my all-time high weight of almost 300 lbs. I have high blood pressure (controlled with hydrochlorothiazide medicine or HCTZ), hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid (controlled with Armour Thyroid medicine), overactive bladder, and stress urinary incontinence (not taking medications for either of the last two conditions mentioned but would like to). I'm starting to experience knee pain. I most likely have sleep apnea but I've never been officially diagnosed with a sleep study because I cannot afford to see a physician due to lack of health insurance and money. I have a family history of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, which I'm very fearful may affect me someday.
I'm in the very beginning stages of gathering information and researching weight loss surgery. I am not working right now due to my chronic back pain, and I would like to apply for Social Security Disability benefits for my severe back pain. I don't know whether or not I'm eligible to receive Social Security Disability, Medicaid or Medicare; if I can receive these benefits, they might be able to help pay for the surgery. I don't even know how to begin the process of applying for Social Security Disability, Medicaid or Medicare or who I call or where to go to apply for it. Even though my boyfriend is working full-time right now, we are scraping by with not enough to pay our rent, utility bills (water, electricity, gas, phone, etc), car insurance/gas, college student loan repayments (he graduated with Bachelors degree), old medical bills (I see an endocrinologist for my hypothyroidism and am uninsured), and groceries every month because he only makes a little over minimum wage. Most of our bills are several months past due. I'm extremely worried that our utilities will be disconnected at anytime now. If they are disconnected, I will likely have to pay a reconnect fee and make a full payment in order to get the services turned back on. Neither of us has any health insurance, and that's a major problem because I think I need to see a physician in order to receive benefits and I cannot afford to see a physician because of our limited income. I need to consult a physician in order to have weight loss surgery, but again, I don't have the money to do so. I must have the surgery in order to help me lose the weight permanently and to improve my health; at this urgent point in time, it's my only option left. I hope to learn about other people's experiences with weight loss surgery and hopefully get advice and suggestions from others who have been in my financial position. I highly welcome and appreciate any words of wisdom you have for me. Free free to post here in the forum or send me a private message, whichever you feel most comfortable with. Thank you so much for your assistance!
Again many thanks and I look forward to chatting with you all soon!
Sharon
I'm Sharon of Chapel Hill, NC and I joined ObesityHelp several days ago on June 15, 2009. I also recently joined the NC WLS Meetup Group on June 1. I will be attending my very first Meetup group event this morning (Saturday, June 20) at the Golden Corral in Raleigh. (I'm so excited about meeting everyone that I cannot sleep!) I've already received a friendly welcome from Anniep59 who graciously offered me a ride to the meeting and offered her warmest support to me. Annie has told me wonderful things about both ObesityHelp and the Meetup group, and I'm sure you all are also some of the nicest people in the world. I've been browsing through some previous postings on the NC Forum, and I already feel like I've gotten to know you all a little bit. I wanted to let everyone to get to know me better, so I thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself. I am a 24-year-old woman and am very morbidly obese. I'm 5'5" and weigh nearly 300 lbs. I have been overweight or obese since I was about 10 years old. I have tried to lose weight many times on countless diets; I've tried seemingly every diet out there. I lose some weight but end up gaining back more than I lost, lose weight and then regaining it all back plus some, repeat. It's a cycle that I've been going through for many years since I was a 10-year-old starting to go through puberty (those were horrible years). When I was 16 years old, I managed to lose about 90 lbs and got down to a healthy 130 lbs. However, by the time I reached age 19, I already started regaining some of the weight. When I reached age 21, I'd gained all of the weight back plus some and was at 230 lbs. I have been steadily gaining weight since age 19, and at age 24 now, I'm at my all-time high weight of almost 300 lbs. I have high blood pressure (controlled with hydrochlorothiazide medicine or HCTZ), hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid (controlled with Armour Thyroid medicine), overactive bladder, and stress urinary incontinence (not taking medications for either of the last two conditions mentioned but would like to). I'm starting to experience knee pain. I most likely have sleep apnea but I've never been officially diagnosed with a sleep study because I cannot afford to see a physician due to lack of health insurance and money. I have a family history of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, which I'm very fearful may affect me someday.
I'm in the very beginning stages of gathering information and researching weight loss surgery. I am not working right now due to my chronic back pain, and I would like to apply for Social Security Disability benefits for my severe back pain. I don't know whether or not I'm eligible to receive Social Security Disability, Medicaid or Medicare; if I can receive these benefits, they might be able to help pay for the surgery. I don't even know how to begin the process of applying for Social Security Disability, Medicaid or Medicare or who I call or where to go to apply for it. Even though my boyfriend is working full-time right now, we are scraping by with not enough to pay our rent, utility bills (water, electricity, gas, phone, etc), car insurance/gas, college student loan repayments (he graduated with Bachelors degree), old medical bills (I see an endocrinologist for my hypothyroidism and am uninsured), and groceries every month because he only makes a little over minimum wage. Most of our bills are several months past due. I'm extremely worried that our utilities will be disconnected at anytime now. If they are disconnected, I will likely have to pay a reconnect fee and make a full payment in order to get the services turned back on. Neither of us has any health insurance, and that's a major problem because I think I need to see a physician in order to receive benefits and I cannot afford to see a physician because of our limited income. I need to consult a physician in order to have weight loss surgery, but again, I don't have the money to do so. I must have the surgery in order to help me lose the weight permanently and to improve my health; at this urgent point in time, it's my only option left. I hope to learn about other people's experiences with weight loss surgery and hopefully get advice and suggestions from others who have been in my financial position. I highly welcome and appreciate any words of wisdom you have for me. Free free to post here in the forum or send me a private message, whichever you feel most comfortable with. Thank you so much for your assistance!
Again many thanks and I look forward to chatting with you all soon!
Sharon
HI Sharon,
Thanks for sharing you struggles with us.
One thing about it you can always post your feelings here and everyone respects that.
I hope you got my message the Meetup will be at 11am so I will see you at 10am.
I will give you a call in afew I ned to feed the babies and get some coffee.
Annie
Thanks for sharing you struggles with us.
One thing about it you can always post your feelings here and everyone respects that.
I hope you got my message the Meetup will be at 11am so I will see you at 10am.
I will give you a call in afew I ned to feed the babies and get some coffee.
Annie
Hi Annie,
Thank you so much for giving me a ride to the meeting. It was a genuine pleasure to meet and get to know you. I'm so thrilled that I came to the meeting; it was better than I'd even imagined it'd be. The people were very generous, welcoming, and friendly, and I felt right at home with you all. I'm glad I've made the decision to get weight loss surgery and I know the support from this group will help me through it all. I hope to continue going to the meetings regularly with you and to continue our conversations and get to know each other better. You are a true blessing to me; I cannot thank you enough.
Sharon
Thank you so much for giving me a ride to the meeting. It was a genuine pleasure to meet and get to know you. I'm so thrilled that I came to the meeting; it was better than I'd even imagined it'd be. The people were very generous, welcoming, and friendly, and I felt right at home with you all. I'm glad I've made the decision to get weight loss surgery and I know the support from this group will help me through it all. I hope to continue going to the meetings regularly with you and to continue our conversations and get to know each other better. You are a true blessing to me; I cannot thank you enough.
Sharon
Hi Sharon,
Annie took me under her wing last year a few months before I had my surgery and she is a wonderful woman and you can not make a better friend in our world or outside of it. I am glad you found our little group and I look forward to meeting you this morning.
Annie took me under her wing last year a few months before I had my surgery and she is a wonderful woman and you can not make a better friend in our world or outside of it. I am glad you found our little group and I look forward to meeting you this morning.
Ann and the 'Bean'
Blogs mysecondhalfoflife.blogspot.com/ and amanicinsomniacsreadinglist.blogspot.com/
High/Surg/current/goal - 320/253/150/healthy - I am 5' 3" tall - Size 8 now! Past surgeon's goal now!
Blogs mysecondhalfoflife.blogspot.com/ and amanicinsomniacsreadinglist.blogspot.com/
High/Surg/current/goal - 320/253/150/healthy - I am 5' 3" tall - Size 8 now! Past surgeon's goal now!
Hi Ann,
It was wonderful to meet you. It looks like Annie has taken me as another baby bird under her wings :) That's what she does when she finds baby animals that need rescuing :) I'm also very glad I got to know you and chatted with you for a while. Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.
Sharon
It was wonderful to meet you. It looks like Annie has taken me as another baby bird under her wings :) That's what she does when she finds baby animals that need rescuing :) I'm also very glad I got to know you and chatted with you for a while. Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.
Sharon
Hello Sharon,
I live in Mebane, and work in the hospital at CH.
Annie welcomed me with open wings, (she is an angel)
and made me feel right at home. So far, everyone at OH has been. I love the NC Site. To hear from folks in your own back yard is wonderful.
I'm at the very same stage as you. I'm gathering information and doing my research. At My last trip to Barnes and Noble, I picked up the book, Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies. That was the ONLY book on that topic in the entire store. They could have ordered me another book or two, but I wanted to start reading, and took the last copy of the dummy book and ran to the register.
So far, it has been a good read. I'm halfway into it, and I would love to do nothing more than fini**** but I have neglected my house cleaning, and I really need to do that. SO, pray with me and hope that I can get the work done before bead time. 
AND...this coming Tuesday, at the Women's Hospital at UNC, at 11:00am Dr. Farrell and his team will have an information session on Gastric Surgery. I'm taking an early lunch and will hopefully get to stay for the entire session. (Karen, Dr. Farrell's nurse said it will take about an hour) If you can make it, I'll see you there. I'll try to wear pink. (Pink pants, Pink flowered shirt.)
Dr. Farrell did Annie's Surgery, so you can ask her about him. My nurse manager knows him very well, and she said he is wonderful. Also, there is Dr. Overby, and he recently did a good friend's wls, and she raves about him.
Your story sound a Lot like mine. Check out my site to read more. Good luck and I hope to chat with you soon.
Hope
Hi Hope,
Thank you for introducing yourself to me. I pray that you get your housecleaning done before bedtime :)
I'd love to attend the information session on gastric bypass surgery this Tuesday , June 23 at 11:00am. Where in the UNC Women's Hospital will the information session be held (i.e. floor and room number)? Are you planning on getting your weight loss surgery done at UNC with Dr. Farrell? How long have you worked at the UNC Women's Hospital?
I detest weighing myself, but I did it anyways this morning. I was at 285.5.
I read your story, and it does sound like we have a lot in common. My parents and sister called me a fat, ugly b**** all the time as I was growing up. Other relatives did not hesitate to point out my weight to me (as if I didn't know). I no longer speak with them because I won't allow anyone to talk to me like that. I will never tolerate hateful critcism, disrespect or insults ever again.
Sharon
Thank you for introducing yourself to me. I pray that you get your housecleaning done before bedtime :)
I'd love to attend the information session on gastric bypass surgery this Tuesday , June 23 at 11:00am. Where in the UNC Women's Hospital will the information session be held (i.e. floor and room number)? Are you planning on getting your weight loss surgery done at UNC with Dr. Farrell? How long have you worked at the UNC Women's Hospital?
I detest weighing myself, but I did it anyways this morning. I was at 285.5.
I read your story, and it does sound like we have a lot in common. My parents and sister called me a fat, ugly b**** all the time as I was growing up. Other relatives did not hesitate to point out my weight to me (as if I didn't know). I no longer speak with them because I won't allow anyone to talk to me like that. I will never tolerate hateful critcism, disrespect or insults ever again.
Sharon
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