Tell Us About Yourself!

[my_friend_amber]

Greetings from "The Natural State!"

My name is Amber and I'm from a town called Arkadelphia (reads like Philadephia, but with an "ark") Arkansas - about an hour southwest of Little Rock. I'm a college recruiter and I love, love, love that I get to travel around the NW and SW parts of my state and talk to peole about my alma mater (Henderson State University) as a job.

I've been married for over 7 years to a stellar person, Justen, and we have no kids (yet - hopefully a year from now my weight will have stabelized and I'll be ovulating again!!!) but 2 dogs - Piper and Zoe who are adorable muts.

I have a bachellors in Psychology and am about 1/3 of the way through a Masters of Science in Counseling. I really love higher education and recruiting and want to stay working in that vein all of my life. You'd think with all this education I have on human behaviors, I'd have been able to better restrict my own, huh!? What I do know about myself is that I am at a point where I need some help exterior to myself.

I was a big-time athlete in high school - lettering and achieving in every single sport my high school had to offer. When college began, I had an academic scholarship to keep and I let my body go by the wayside. I started gaining at a crazy rate about my Sophomore year and was finally diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. I have been through a myriad of medicines and treatments to reverse the terrible symptoms of PCOS (acne, lack of ovulation, male-patten hair loss in some, excess facial and body hair, severe weight gain around the middle, skin tags, etc) but to no avail.

It was only about 3 months ago that I broke down and admitted to myself that I have become bigger than myself - if that makes sense. What I mean by that is that the weight I have gained is just more powerful than my own intrinsic ability to fix myself at this point. I knew something drastic was needed. After researching all the options out there, I decided on the band because it A: doesn't re-route, remove or sever any organs B: is fully reversable if need-be and C: still requires me to do work (if that makes any sense) I didn't want a surgery like the Duodenal Switch, where they say fat is your friend because everything just flushes right through your body - I wanted to have the help to limit me there after I've done all I can do.

I look so forward to my surgery date - May 15th (arriving on the 14th...holy cow that's soon!!) and to meeting some of you and learning from many of you!!!

[Ms.Teacher]

Howdy Bandsters!

My name is Helena, I will be 42 next week, the new 25 I've heard, hee-hee. I've been married 18 years and we have 2 incredible sons, 17 and 14. I've lived in Las Vegas for the past 12 years, but I was born and raised in Irvine, CA. I've been a K-2 elementary teacher and reading specialist for the last 15 years. It is my true passion, except for my kids. I'm very athletic, and I swam professionally for 9 years.

Never skinny just muscular, through a 2 year stressful time I put on 80lbs. I got the band. Some days I love it (today) some days I curse the day I got it. I've lost almost 60lbs and over 25 inches. I'm an exercise freak, it let's me eat more while I continue to lose. I refuse to starve myself. Anyway, I'm incredibly blessed, and I feel lucky to have this support group!!!!! > Helena

[mom12]

Hello everyone.

My name is Charlotte Hypolite.

I'm 41 years old and have 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren. I'm raising one of the grandchildren Trevon, his the only boy of all the grandchildren. I also have 2 stepsons. I'm in love with Mark Ina and we are getting married next year. Yes, we both been married before, but he's the one. I been overweight since my last daughter,she is 16. I love shoes and that's because my size shoe is not consider big.

I work for a hospital as a Program Director that treats drug and alcoholics. I was born in Anchorage Alaska and now living in Houston, Texas. My father was in the military, so I traveled most of my child hood life.

I can't wait until next Friday, May 9, that day will be a great day for me, you and others. This forum as been great.It's nice to meet people all over the world and have something unique in common.

Jena, Moma12, Alania, sorry If I forgot someone's name or if I'm spelling your name wrong, but I will see you next week in person. Let's meet in the lobby on Thursday, May 8th sometime in the evening if it's ok. Ms. Moma12 don't forget to tell your husband that my fiance will be there as well.

Everyone

Have a wonderful day

God bless.

Charlotte

Charlotte,

My Surgery is scheduled for Thurs. so I will probably still be at the clinic on Thurs. night but my hubby will be by his lonely self at the hotel from 5:00 on on Thurs. so I'll tell him to look for you all in the evening. His name is David.

[Susy]

Hello, my name is Susy. I am 26 yrs old. I have two children, my son is six and my daughter is three years old. I am in school hoping to get my RN licence. I was banded on 4-7-08 and it's the best thing I have ever done for myself. I wasn't always big but became really big with both pregnancies. I was able to loose 60lbs. after my son was born but wasn't able to loose the weight with my daughter. I live in Garden City Kansas. It's out in the middle of nowhere! just kidding it's a small community (about 30,000 people) but it's a great place to live except that I would love to live by the ocean or by a river. After nursing school I am planning on moving although I am not sure to where yet.

Some of the things I enjoy are pretty much anything outdoorslike: fishing, camping, walking, entertaining, blah blah blah.

Anyways, I am really happy to get to know everybody else here and hopefully we can motivate each other to keep up the weight lose.

Susy

[trulytangledgrl]

Greetings from "The Natural State!"

My name is Amber and I'm from a town called Arkadelphia (reads like Philadephia, but with an "ark") Arkansas - about an hour southwest of Little Rock. I'm a college recruiter and I love, love, love that I get to travel around the NW and SW parts of my state and talk to peole about my alma mater (Henderson State University) as a job.

I've been married for over 7 years to a stellar person, Justen, and we have no kids (yet - hopefully a year from now my weight will have stabelized and I'll be ovulating again!!!) but 2 dogs - Piper and Zoe who are adorable muts.

I have a bachellors in Psychology and am about 1/3 of the way through a Masters of Science in Counseling. I really love higher education and recruiting and want to stay working in that vein all of my life. You'd think with all this education I have on human behaviors, I'd have been able to better restrict my own, huh!? What I do know about myself is that I am at a point where I need some help exterior to myself.

I was a big-time athlete in high school - lettering and achieving in every single sport my high school had to offer. When college began, I had an academic scholarship to keep and I let my body go by the wayside. I started gaining at a crazy rate about my Sophomore year and was finally diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. I have been through a myriad of medicines and treatments to reverse the terrible symptoms of PCOS (acne, lack of ovulation, male-patten hair loss in some, excess facial and body hair, severe weight gain around the middle, skin tags, etc) but to no avail.

It was only about 3 months ago that I broke down and admitted to myself that I have become bigger than myself - if that makes sense. What I mean by that is that the weight I have gained is just more powerful than my own intrinsic ability to fix myself at this point. I knew something drastic was needed. After researching all the options out there, I decided on the band because it A: doesn't re-route, remove or sever any organs B: is fully reversable if need-be and C: still requires me to do work (if that makes any sense) I didn't want a surgery like the Duodenal Switch, where they say fat is your friend because everything just flushes right through your body - I wanted to have the help to limit me there after I've done all I can do.

I look so forward to my surgery date - May 15th (arriving on the 14th...holy cow that's soon!!) and to meeting some of you and learning from many of you!!!

Hey Amber... I have PCOS too - I understand what you go through. Its really tough, isn't it? I have always had weight issues, too, and have been on so many diets and nothing works I just gain weight like crazy. I have been seeing an endocrinologist in Philly who specializes only in PCOS and only sees patients with PCOS - she is amazing! Thanks to her, I also found out I have hypothyroidism. None of my other Dr.'s believed me when I told them that something was wrong - they just told me to 'eat less and exercise more' ... I am just wondering what medicines have you been on? I have been on 2000 mg of Fortamet for like 3 yrs now, but my cycles still aren't regular, and from my understanding, the medicine should help with that? Also those darn pills are SO HUGE! I nearly choke every time I take them, and I have to take 2 per night.

Well, we should keep in touch its always great to have supports of those who struggle from similar medical issues. We could help eachother through rough times, as it still may be more difficult for us to get the weight off meh. Well, good luck to you and hopefully we can stay in touch!

~Carrie

[apple]

Hello all, :-h my name is Amber & I was banded on March 24th (day after my 30th birthday) at the OCC. I live outside Wellington Colorado on 10 acres out in the middle of no where with a wonderfull wiew of the Rocky Mountains. I am originally from North Dakota where I grew up on 37,000 acres. I spent my days helping out on the ranching/farming operation with my family, riding horse, roping & rodeoing. With all this activity I didn't get REALLY heavy until after I started working ALOT, riding less & had a baby.

Well long story short, I got fat. ( I've tried all diets with little success. I got married 6/9/07 and with Jenny Craigs help lost about 25 pounds in 6 months. After the wedding, I stopped Jenny and gained most of my weight back. SO with my husband and best friend (also a bandster) support I'm "with the band." I paid for it out of my pocket so it has been a HUGE investment to my health. I decided I wanted to beat the problems associated with being obese. It is truly the best decision I've ever made. I know I have to work for the results, but with the help of the band I know I can finally succeed!

I have to stepsons ages 14 & 10 who live with us 100 percent of the time, & my wonderful daughter who just turned 3. My husband is fantastic. He said he loves me no matter what but I don't love myself when I look in the mirror & it has taken a toll on my personallity, self esteem & ME. I work in a mans world in the oil & gas industry as an operator in a Natural gas plant. (like a power plant or refinery but natural gas plant) I am the only girl operator which is great. I work with terrific guys who treat me like family & look out for me.

I look forward to my future success & for all your future successes...WE CAN DO THIS!! Lets keep our chins up (no matter how many there are LOL) & be proud we took the first step. WE are our best cheerleaders!!! > >

Godspeed,

Amber

[oknewbie]

Sounds great, Charlotte!

SO how are you feeling now? Your weight was close to mine and I was just wondering how you are doing. I am 8 days post op and my port insicion is still sore and tender. No redness though. It does kinda stick out. I hope after the swelling goes down it will be less noticeable to me. I've done rather well on the post op, but today I have felt sooo weak and have eaten more than any other day. I am still full liquid, but want to eat/chew food. I cooked breakfast for thye kids that morning and I sucked on a piece of bacon. So bad.

[Dontondan]

Hi all! I am Dontondan, AKA Chiplicker, AKA Donna. I live in the beautiful town of Bremerton in Washington State. I am married to a wonderful man, Tony, for the past 26 years and we have 2 adopted children ages 31 and 17 and many, many foster kids that consider us their family. I work out of my home as a Theraputic Foster Care Specialist and foster primarily troubled teen girls. It is very rewarding and most days very challenging work. I also volunteer for a local animal shelter fostering hundreds of kittens prior to adoption in my home. I have 5 cats and 1 dog (pomeranian), who is very, very spoiled, and a house bunny.

I am 49 years old and came to the conclusion that I didn't want to be fat and fifty, so therefore I got my Lapband in December 2007. So far I am down about 48 pounds and am incredibly happy as I have never had any success with any diet in all my life though I tried them all. I have several hobbies, the biggest one is rubber stamping. I am looking forward to having my "first" grandchild from one of my foster girls (we are still very, very close) next month. which is so exciting for me. As you can tell I am a huge animal and kid lover! I also enjoy traveling, but only can do that once a year and we usually go on cruises to the Carribean, my favorite place on earth! :lb5:

[teensy01]

Hi to all! I'm Teensy01 - Tina - and I live just outside of Nashville, TN. I'm happily married and have two sons - one is married and the second gets married in August. I'm another 49'er who doesn't want to turn fabulous 50 with all of the same old baggage. I get banded 5/13. I didn't start getting heavy until after I had my sons 13 months apart, both c-sections. Seems I handle stress by medicating with food. My husband and family are all very supportive - my mom is going to come to OCC with me.

I'm looking forward to the band to help me control my quantity of food. I don't snack - but have had a bad soda-pop habit. I went on the pre-op diet 2 weeks ago, quit the sodas cold-turkey and haven't had one since. I haven't started exercising yet, but I'm down 13 1/2 pounds as of this morning. Of course, at this weight, it does come off quickly at first.

I get to San Diego on Monday @3:30 and surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. Will they still take us to OCC that afternoon for pre-op tests or wait until the next morning? If anyone has had similar schedule, I'd like to know. I'm sure I'll be talking to the OCC folks this coming week - but was just wondering.

Thank you all for posting and letting us get a better picture of what to expect. Tina.

[MKLADY63]

My screen name MKLADY63 comes from the fact that I am a Mary Kay Consultant (have been for 8 years) and the 63 is the year I was born. I am 45 years old and have been married to my high school sweetheart for nearly 27 years and have been together for 29+ years. We have 3 grown children children, twin girls who will turn 24 in July. One is a new mommy to a 6 month old little boy (our 1st grandchild)and expecting # 2 in Nov. THe two babies will only be 12 mos. apart in age. The other twin is getting married on the 14th of June to believe it or not an identical twin (my twins are fraternal). We will see how that pans out for them when having children. Both girls are preschool teachers. Our son is 20 years old (will turn 21 in Nov.) and graduationg from college with his BA this summer. He has aspirations to be a movie producer and writer. I love to play SIMS 2 and spend time with the family. I work for the ARMY as a budget analyst and absolutely love my job. I was banded on 4/23, almost 2 weeks post op. Went back to the gym yesterday but just walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, nothing too strenuous, but it felt good to be back at the gym, it is another big love of mine and I have missed it over the last two weeks. My weight problem hasn't been from the lack of exercise, but I have contributed to the problem starting 5 years ago when I had a hysterectomy, nothing but a battle since. But I do feel I am on my way to winning that battle.

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