So, now about me . . .

My name is Sarah, I am 35, and this is my life.

I live in a place more commonly known as BFE (Bum-Fucked Egypt), California. I have been married for 12 years to The Husband, and we have two girls - Thing One (age 10) and Thing Two (age 6). We live on 15 acres and have a menagerie of animals - sheep, chickens, ducks, pheasant, dogs and a bearded dragon. As if that wasn't enough, both The Husband and I have full-time jobs and I have a second job. Ooof!

So, as you can see, life is, well, interesting.

And to make it even more interesting? I've decided to have weight loss surgery. Specifically the Gastric Reduction with Duodenal Switch, more commonly known as the Duodenal Switch or just the DS.

I've always been a little bit on the "bigger" side of things. I was never one of the cool kids in school, and was always a size or two larger than they were. Nothing terribly bad, but I knew and they knew that I wasn't "good enough" because of my size. Bah!My weight kind of just crept up on me. The happier I am, the more I eat. There was a time when I was in a deep depression over my then-fiance leaving me and I didn't eat and lost 20 pounds in one month. Not a good way to lose it, but obviously I wasn't complaining!

But then I found the man who became The Husband, and, well, since I was happy . . . .

Over the years I've tried different diets to get my weight under control. While they may have worked for a time (and some didn't work at ALL), I always gained the weight back, and then some. So now, after having two children, I find myself at over 300 pounds. Something has GOT to be done!

About 10 years ago, I met a lady who had the old-fashioned stomach stapling done to her. She was one of the success stories, and had dropped nearly 200 pounds in a year, and was keeping it off, three or four years out. Yes, she could only eat little bits at a time, but she was able to eat what she wanted with very little consequence. Only rice and bread gave her any real problems. At the time, I weighed only 220 pounds, but the idea intrigued me. I thought that this was something that I could do if I couldn't ever get the weight off me.

As the years went by and I gradually began getting heavier and heavier, the idea of having WLS appealed more and more to me. I began researching the RNY approximately 7-8 years ago. I learned all that I could about it, but thought that my husband and I could never afford the surgery even after insurance paid for it (or IF they even would pay for it!). That, plus I was very worried about some of the side effects of the surgery, such as dumping syndrome, stoma problems, the blind stomach, etc., etc. There were just too many ifs for me.

Every year or so, I would check back into WLS again, check out the surgeons closest to me. But go through the same old arguments again and again. It was the same thing, different day.

One of the ladies that I work with got the RNY about 4 years ago. She weighed somewhere in the high 200s, and was very desperate. She quickly lost the weight, and has been keeping it off. She has a fantabulous body because of the pounds she has shed. I kept looking at her and thinking, "Dang. I can do this, I can!" But I never got further than printing off the patient questionnaires from one of the doctors.

Then another lady where I work got the same thing. She had even more weight to lose, and watching her become the shrinking woman really set a fire under me for a time. This is something that can work, I would think to myself. But again, the same doubts and questions came back up.

In January of this year, the Husband sat me down. He wanted to know what were the top things that I wanted to spend money on this year. We have been greatly blessed in our financial freedoms lately, and he wanted to know what would make me happy. I thought about it for a day and came back with my list. At the top of it? Weight loss surgery. I was crying as I told him that I was tired of being this big, that I feared I could never lose weight on my own, and that I wanted to be healthy for him. Well, he looked me straight in the eye and told me that I needed to do some research and make a consult and that he would be there. I was so happy!

I got on the ASBS site, plugged in my info and searched for a surgeon. I didn't particulary want to have to go to the Alvarado Clinic in San Diego if I didn't have to because it is 5 hours away. I knew we would have to travel, but I didn't want it to be that far. Approximately 65 miles away from me (yeah, right! As the crow flies!) in Delano Ca. was Dr. Ara Keshishian. I clicked on his website link and discovered something that will change my life forever. I discovered the DS.

As I read about the surgery, about its risks, complications, aftercare - everything - it was as if God was suddenly opening up the door to heaven just for me. This was it. All of my doubts about being able to eat the way I needed to after surgery melted away. This was a REAL way of living. This kept more of my anatomy the way God had made and intended it to work. I didn't have to worry about dumping, eating 2oz meals at a time, being able to DRINK during my meal, stoma blockages, dilations, ulcers - all the sorts of things that made me shy away from the RNY previously. This was something I could do!

I quickly called Dr. K's office and set up an initial consult. I was so excited I could barely breathe. I came home and babbled to The Husband about it. He was confused because wasn't one weight loss surgery the same as another? Ah, no worries. He'll get it eventually, right? After the two-hour teaching presentation with Dr. K's nurse Dee, who has had the DS, The Husband was a convert. He now understood why I wanted THIS surgery or no other one. And after meeting Dr. K, he was even more confident about me having surgery at all.

On the trip home, we spent the time discussing the different things we had learned, and about the question of "what does Sarah want in the way of plastic surgery after this is all done and the weight is off." Hee! Needless to say, The Husband is not going to quibble a bit about me wanting to get the "girls" nice and happy and my tummy nice and tight after all of this. You gotta love him! I know I do!

So, my surgery is now scheduled for July 19. But life still goes on, and there are many, many things to do around here. So let's get to it!