One Year after WLS

It may be our one year surgiversary for bariatric surgery, but it was actually a lifetime in the making.

Ben and I have always been big.  It was part of our identity, until we decided to change it.  It took a while before we finally gave in to what our doctor had been asking us every year at our physical "what about weight loss surgery?"

We were adamantly against it for years thinking we could just do it ourselves.  I'd meal plan and cook and do everything right and Ben would have some success, but the weight would just NOT come off of me.  I have PCOS which makes it damn near impossible to lose weight.  I tried Atkins, had some success with it, but once you quite doing it, the weight comes back, and then some.  Plus I started working at an office that requires me to be sedentary for about 10 hours a day.  I packed on over 70 lbs during the first 9 years of working there.

The deciding moment was October 2014.  We went on vacation to Washington DC with our bestest friends.  I loved the trip - the walking? Not so much.  I would walk a little, sit for a little.  My back, hips, and knees were killing me.  The day we went to Arlington we had to do the bus tour because there was no way I could walk it.  When we went to Robert E. Lee's home I couldn't go upstairs because my right knee was swelled so bad I could hardly bend it.  When we went to Monticello on our trip back, I spent most of the time seated while the boys walked down to the gardens and grave sites.  That's when I decided - and Ben was totally on board.

January 2, 2015 I called and made our appointments at the Vanderbilt Surgical Weight Loss Center for our consultation.  I was at the highest weight I had ever been.  We were fortunate enough to have the head of the department as our surgeon.  After that we just had to follow the guidelines set forth by the insurance company and submit for approval sometime in May.  We were approved rather quickly, and we had surgery the same day.

I'll probably post again about everything that happened after surgery, but this was the best decision we have ever made.  Not just because we can buy smaller clothes.  We were cute fat, so we are still cute now that we are smaller.  But we just FEEL so much better.  I have virtually no pain anymore, and I can shop, shop, shop and not even sit down!

The next time we go on a trip, we will be able to walk wherever the hell we want to!

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