The birth of Laney!

Struggling with my weight as far back as I can remember, this year I decided to take matters into my own hands. I, Cortney, have tried may different weight loss options. I have lost but the weight never seems to stay off.

In grade school I was always the chubby one. I had plenty of friends and never thought I was "fat" not even chubby. Not until my parents divorced and my Mom, Sister & I moved to a suburb, just in time for the start of Middle School for me. From day one I was made fun of. I was called a cow, my school bordered a pasture on one side. Most of my classes the boys would sit there and moo at me and ask me why I was not out with the other cows grazing. I hated Middle School. I did everything in my power to not go to school. Was sick all the time.

I know my weight issues came on from being brought up on nothing but fast food. I can look at pictures of me up to the point my when my Mom went back to work. Up until I was 7 years old my Mom was at home with me. After that Dad and Mom worked. We never got a proper meal. Everything was fast food. I can see my pictures after that and the weight adding on so fast.

I was so glad when we moved to another city a few years later, new school, fresh start, but now High School.

Thankfully, I made a lot of great friends at this school. Was not made fun of. Had a little growth spurt while still chubby I look back at some of my photos and think I looked good. Even though at that time I thought I was FAT, weighing 180.

Then college, moving out on my own, etc...all I ate was fast food. The weight piled on. Before I knew it I was pushing 230. I hated stepping on the scale and seeing what I was doing to myself. I tried dieting, but no matter what the weight kept piling on.

Then in 2002, I moved to Florida. I came down weighing 260, but determined I was going to lose weight. I started slim fast and walked several miles pretty much every day. Before I knew it I was down to 220 and feeling great.

Then I met my future husband. And well...bye bye weight loss, hello weight gain and then some. Growing to my highest weight of 310. When I hit 300 pounds last year I cried. I felt like such a failure and doomed to be this huge blob.

I hate looking at myself in the mirror. Hate photos of me as they show me what I really look like, not what I see inside my head that I look like.

My husband is in kidney failure. Another story for another day and this year I told him we need to start living our life again. Stop saying what if this or that, get a transplant etc. We keep putting our life on hold waiting for this to happen. I told him we need to stop doing this. I want to have children with him and we put that off because of this as well.

So that lead me to view one of my PCOS boards where a lot of the members talked about WLS. I was like oh wow. I know when WLS first started to become popular it was bypass and I remember thinking I would never do that to myself. That it just was not for me. Well when Terry (hubby) and I first married and were having a problem conceiving I did see a specialist to help, till we learned about Terry's kidney failure. The OBGYN I saw for my check up at that time mentioned lap band to me. I had never heard of it. Looked into and thought wow that is something that might work for me. We had just learned of Terry's condition and so I put it off to the side for a later date.

Well almost 5 years have passed and it is time for me to start taking my life into my own hands.

So after reading a lot of the girls with PCOS have great success and losing weight with WLS and then conceiving I decided it is time. Hubby and I looked at our insurance policy and found out for me WLS is covered and that is all I needed to know and started going through the steps to get approved and have the surgery.

The schedule of events that lead up to Laney are as follows:

March 21st - Seminar

April 6th - Lap Band Orientation

April 23rd - Initial Consult with Psych

April 23rd - One on One with Surgeon

June 6th - Psych Test

July 7th - All Paperwork Submitted

July 27th - Approved

July 30th - Rejected (because the office will no longer be accepting the 3rd party biller my ins co uses)

August 4th - Re-Approved!!!

August 5th - Scheduled surgery for 09/04/09

August 21st - Start of Pre-Op Diet

September 4th - Surgery - Laney's Birth!

So a week ago now, Laney was put in me. I have to admit I did have doubts, specially when seeing family and friends eating, or craving food. But I know in the long run this is the best thing I could have done for my life.

To this date I have lost 22 lbs. It has not even been a month yet since the start of my Pre-Op diet. I love stepping on the scale right now and seeing the weight is just melting off right now.

So that is pretty much the story that brought Laney into my life.

My next post will be on choosing her name. :)

I have spent most of the evening setting this blog up and formatting it and tweaking things so now I must head off to bed as it is going on 3 am. Good thing I don't have to work in the AM.

Make sure to come back and check in on mine and Laney's adventures together. I am sure there will be a lot to talk about with her.

((HUGS))
Cortney & Laney