Well, I think the only person I know here is Jill, so I thought maybe we should do introductions.
I'm April from WV, but living in NY, Buffalo area for nearly 18 years, soon to be 41. I was always the smart fat one and my sister was the skinny pretty one. At age 4 my grandmother, who raised me sent me to dance classes 'cause I was pudgy. Several years later I was bribed into walking each morning. The bribe was I could stop at the local greasy spoon for the brekfast special on the way home. Around age 10, it was Richard Simmon's Live It program from TV. As a teenager I tried about ever passing diet fad from the grapefruit diet to Slim Fast to Weigh****chers. This continued into my twenties on and off. Everything helped temporarily, but nothing kept the weight off. The smallest I ever remember being was 178 lbs. in 10th grade, my prom dress was a size 13. By my 30's, I had pretty much given up. I was married in 2001 to my high school sweetheart, Hottie Man. I weighed about 240 lbs. Five years later I weighed in at 259 pounds with a BMI of 44.5 (severley obese), high cholesterol (214), arthritis, back pain, asthma, & infertility. My boss had success with open RNY about 3 years prior so, I started looking into it for myself. I recruited a friend, comet1976 to go through the process with me. We both had Lap RNY the end of May '07. Within 2 mos. I had lost weight and my cholesterol went down to 161!! Another month passed...the arthritis pain and swellin in my ankle lessened considerably, no more back pain, & no more inhaler. The one thing WLS could not help me with was my infertility, as I waited too long to do anything about it. I am now 7 mos. out and down 80 pounds, wearing a size 12 jeans and a large top, which I prefer to call "No X". My BMI is 30.7 obese, but really close to being plain old overweight.
Finding OH has been a blessing. I find the utmost support and encouragement here and all from total strangers. Jill finding me on here has also been a blessing. She never ceases to amaze me with her caring and commitment to making this work for us...all of us!
Well, that's it about me. How about the rest of ya's?
