My name is Deborah and I am the youngest of 4 children. I was born and raised in the beautiful state of West Virginia, Charleston to be exact. I am recently married a wonderful man named Travis. We have a crazy cat and silly dog.
What my life was like before surgery: Pictures before
It seemed like ever since I could remember, I was the chunky one of the family. I could remember in grade school quickly growing out of clothes and my uniform. (I went to a Catholic grade school and uniforms were required) I was wearing women's size clothes during my last years of grade school and on thru junior high. I just couldn't stop. I would think to myself...Deb...you have got to loose weight, but I just couldn't. My mom would diet during these years and I would diet right along with her. It really hurt knowing I was a lot bigger then everyone else and unable to do most of the things they did. That seemed to make my problem even worse because I turned to food. I would eat when I was sad, eat when I was bored and eat until I was so full I couldn't move. One thing I use to do once I reach junior high and high school is eat a bag of chips from the snack machine for lunch so no one would see me eat a lot and then when I got home I would eat a whole bag of popcorn and a cheese sandwich. I never let my mom or dad see me eat it....I always took it to my room. Now that I look back...I feel awful.
What changed my life: One day I went to turn the radio on in the bathroom before I took my shower. It was located on the window seal and I had to step on the toliet seat in order to reach it. Once I was on the toliet seat I heard it crack, I screamed and the next thing I knew my foot was in toliet soaking wet. I just started crying and my mom came running to see what was wrong. When I showed her the seat she just hugged me while I cried. It was then I decided to do something...I just had to. I was in 10th grade and big enough to break a plastic toliet seat...I hated the way I looked and had to do something. My mom and I research and found a pill program that we both liked. I took it to my doctor and he didn't see anything in it that would harm me, it was all natural. I took it for a year and lost over 100 pounds! I graduated high school in 1997 wearing an 18-20. I was thrilled and feeling great. I decided that those pills were costing me way too much money and that I could handle my weight now. They were costing about $120 a month, but I am glad I graduated looking and feeling better. Those are times you really remember and I wanted to be happy. My eating habits didn't change unfortunately after I graduated and stopped taking the pills. I believe they got worse. I was always hanging out with friends and eating fast food. My food quantity started out small, but it just got bigger and bigger and so did I. By 2001 I got engaged and I weighed more than I ever had. I saw news programs about the gastric bypass surgery and watch with interest. I kept hearing about it for months and even saw a program about it on MTV. My sister, who is a nurse, saw the MTV show too and called to alert me. This really got me thinking hard about the possiblity. I talked to family and friends, some of who knew someone who had it done. Everything seemed positive and I contined doing research with my mom over the internet. I finally approached my family doctor who told me to go for it. I was a perfect candidate in his eyes and he knew Dr. Daniel Stickler who was the Gastric Bypass surgeon in my area. I made then appointment to go to the free seminar with my mom who became my support person. After the orientation I knew this surgery was for me. I knew I could do it. I went through the initial office visits, the pyschological evaluation and the dietary consultation and passed with flying colors, all I needed was to get approved by my insurance. Boy, insurance make you go through so many hoops to get anything done. I had to have letters saying I tried a certain number of weight loss programs and they failed before they would approve it. It took about 2 weeks, but I finally got approved. My surgery was scheduled for July 8, 2002. By the time of my surgery I was wearing sizes 30-32 and as you could have guessed I hated to go shopping. It was embarrassing. Well, the week before surgery I took off work and went with my parents and my fiance's parents to Tomlinson Run State Park in New Manchester, WV to camp. I wanted to relax and enjoy the food one last time.
My surgery: I had the laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery in Charleston, WV. After my surgery I had people from the West Virginia Weight Loss Surgery Support group stop by my room and give me hope for the future and to let me know what they had been through and how they felt. I will never forget that. One of the ladies told me that it was the best thing that ever happened to her. If she needed to go through the surgery every month to feel like she does now then she would do it. I now feel the same way. I don't remember the last time I had so much energy. I am skipping ahead though. I want to talk about what it was like after surgery. But first take a look at the link below. I want you to learn a little more about Gastric Bypass Surgery.
What is Gastric Bypass?
