Greetings from the gay and snowy midwest!

Hi all, I'm really pleased to have finally found this board. I had suspected it was here somewhere. Thanks, Steve, for passing along the link! Ken

Welcome to the madhouse and congrats on being almost a month post op already!

Thanks Shelley. It has been an interesting ride so far!

Hey Ken!!! Welcome, welcome, welcome. So, tell us a little about yourself. Rachelle

Hi Rachelle, Well, let's see. I'm a big **** hoping to become a smaller **** and even though I am at work, I seem to have time on my hands today to post! I have lost about 30 pounds since surgery. I am having pooping trouble, but am doing great otherwise. I have head hunger events about once every 6 days where I have an intense and overwhelming craving for baked goods. I live with my partner of 9 years, Paul. Paul is the most laid-back and patient person I have ever met, which is probably why we are still together, and he still loves me madly as I do him. We are considering adopting a child (been considering that about 9 years now), but want to wait until I'm out of surgery at least 6 months. We have two basset hounds named Jake and Gracie. They were from a rescue called Guardian Angel Basset Rescue (www.bassetrescue.org). We live in a northeast suburb of Indianapolis that is totally devoid of gays and others who know how to have fun! We are thinking about moving back to downtown Indy so we'll have more diversity in our lives (and fun). I am in medical research for a pharmaceutical company that has an awesome diversity policy. Paul is a vice president and partner in his actuarial firm in Carmel. We like to travel a lot and have been on several Atlantis cruises and one bear cruise that was actually part of a regular cruise (I don't recommend that kind of set up!). We garden, volunteer, hang out with friends. I still cook up a storm for people and we still enjoy the company even though I don't eat a lot any more. I have always been fat, ever since I was a kid, with a few vacations to Slightythinnertown. I have always loved being active and am looking forward to biking and hiking again as soon as the weather will allow. We're expecting 12 inches today, and not in a good way. I don't like it when fat people turn mean as they lose weight. LIKE OPRAH! So I'm focusing on keeping lauging at myself and having a good time. The first weeks of this can suck, however! More pics can be found on my profile. I'm particularly pleased with the one in the blue swim trunks with the big jelly roll and the disgusted look on my face. Hey...I've always loved myself no matter the size, but that day was a bad one! Now....who else would like to share a bit? lol

Love the pics. You and Paul look like a great couple. I adore your sense of humor. I love *** that can laugh at himself (and others). I'm with my partner Chris for 16 years. She is the love of my life and it took me having a heart attack last year to realize I am the love of her life. I've been fat since childhood and have lost and gained continuously. Since I've been on my Dr. supervised diet, I'm actually maintaining. I've never, ever maintained. I'm either losing or gaining. Usually gaining. I'm out to my friends and family for about 18 years and I'm out at my job, where I am an Executive Assistant. My thought is, if you don't like me because of who I sleep with, you are losing out on knowing a really great person...ME!!! I'm really not full of myself, I've actually got major esteem issues. Think about it, it took me 15 years to believe that my Partner "really" loved me. I do think that I am a good person, though. And I believe that I deserve to have WLS and live a healthy life. I'm currently on the last leg of my Dr. supervised diet (only 1 month left). I have my appt. with the Psych next tuesday and then I'll take it from there. Anyway, enough about me. Who's next!

Congrats on the 16 years! Good luck on your headshrinker visit. Mine was a piece of cake, hope yours will be too. See you soon. ken

Hey Ken - Welcome! Have been working on getting more people over to this board for a while - now we just have to keep the momentum up. Great introduction! I'll join this introduction since you got Rachelle to come out of her shell too - LOL!! I live in San Francisco - moved here looking for the gay mecca in 1978 and have lived here most of the years since then. I grew up in Maine and sometimes miss the country. I'm probably among the older folks on this board at 52, but, of course I really still look like I'm in my 30s - uh huh, right! Currently single and not really looking right now although I'd like to get back into a relationship over the next few years (before I get too damned old) - just doesn't feel like the right time with all the changes I'm going through myself right now. I was a music teacher many, many years ago - but a group of 4th graders with violins and bows in their hands for the first time will grind anyone down to their last nerve. And, in the 70s it wasn't so cool being queer and a teacher - had to stay closeted then. Spent lots of years in the health insurance and managed care industry after that but got burned out on that and felt like I was selling my soul when managed care started running healthcare in this country. So, I went back to school, got my Masters in Social-Clinical Psych. I have a small private practice and run the substance abuse and HIV mental health programs at a queer mental health agency here. I love to cook too and surgery did not stop that. I just cook a little differently and more creatively - and share a lot!! I've found it helpful to be able to cook up a few things over the weekend and then I have meals and snacks to carry to work all week. Still haven't gotten to the point that I enjoy trying to eat out since surgery. So, that's me - wow - wouldn't it be great if everyone else on the board would join into this thread? Steve

Thanks for telling your story. I was one of those fourth graders once. I played the viola (mangled it is more like it.) Mostly I sat with my friend Derek and we woud swallow our gum and then pound on our chests until we regurgitated it so we could chew it again. You have a cool job. I'd like to hear more about that some time.

Well now I feel like a slacker for not posting a little history! LOL Hi, my name is Shelley and I am thin girl trapped in a fat girl's body....LOL Let's see.... I am probably one of the most laid back people you will ever meet, which sometimes is a good thing, and sometimes can be a bad thing because it means I don't always stand up and get noticed when I maybe should. I have been with my partner (Chris) for 6 1/2 years, will be 7 in June. We have spent the last almost 7 years taking care of different members of her family (when we met her grandfather was in the last stages of Parkinson's and died a couple weeks before I moved in, then her grandmother got sick with Pulmonary Fibrosis and we took care of her full time (she lived with us), while she was sick my partners mother died of reproductive cancer, I quit my job and took care of her full time the last several weeks of her life, then my sister in law moved in with her one year old baby, grandma died and we were left with my father in law (who went from him mothers house, to his wife's house, back to his mothers - eventually our - house), sister in law and nephew all living in our house) and it looks like all the extras will be moving out of our house in a few months leaving us to actually have some time with just us....which we have never had and are really looking forward to! This is looking to be a big year for me. Everyone is moving out of our house, I am hoping to have my surgery in the early to mid fall, I am starting a major new volunteer project (I start training in a few weeks to be a volunteer suicide prevention counselor on a LGBTQ youth hotline), I am thinking of going back to school to execute a major career change...all in all a lot of changes that I think are going to be very positive in my life. I am 100% out, home, family, work, friends, wherever. I was lucky enough to be raised by a parent (single mom) who was very laid back about things like that, she had a bunch of gay friends herself, so when I came out it was no big deal...and I just figure it's not worth hiding it anywhere else...I live in a big city (viva Los Angeles!) so its kind of anything goes here and I figure if you have an issue its yours and not mine. I work for a fortune 100 financial services company and am doing fairly well. I am hoping that one of the "side effects" of surgery will be a confidence boost which will help me to be more proactive about further growth in my career. I also went to cooking school a few years ago and I run a catering business and teach cooking classes on this side. It is going to be interesting to see how my relationship with food changes during this journey. I am already starting to see some changes in myself and I am anxious to see where it goes. I'm not worried though, I'll take everything in stride. Let's see what else. I have been fat as long as I can remember (and the pics of my childhood confirm that it's pretty much always been that way for me!), most of my family is overweight, on both Mom and Dads sides. My mom struggled with her weight my whole life, she was thin when she was young and just kept gaining and gaining after she had me. She and I did every diet in the book when I was a teenager; I went to more weigh****chers and jenny craig classes in high school than anyone should have to go to their whole lives I think. I just got fed up about a year ago and after much struggling within myself decided to go for it and have surgery. I have a couple good friends who have already been through the experience and I figure I have them to lean on as I go through it, and, now that I have found this site, I have all of you! i'm going to shut up now.....NEEEXT!