Hey everyone! I am excited to be a part of this community as I am very active in forums all over the net.

I am a 23 year old college student at Winona State University, MN. I am in my 5th year, completing a BSN Nursing degree with a minor in Psychology. I will be graduating in May and will be working in a hospital in the Twin Cities.

A little hx of me... I was a swimmer from kindergarten until 8th grade. When puberty hit during my 7th-8th grade years, I could not get over my large size and could not feel comfortable in a speedo. I quit swimming and joined football from 9th to 12th. During my junior year in high school, I was at my largest weight... 320 lbs (I am 6'2"). Because of this, my senior year I worked hard and hard with a Body for Life program my coach recommended to me. For the three years I worked hard with the BFL program (from senior year in high school to my second year in college), I lost 80 lbs.! I was at the happiest point in my entire life... 240 lbs., met a beautiful girl, changed my major to Nursing (I wassss computer science), and felt that I could conquer anything in this world! I even got a chest liposuction to make my chest tighter/form-fitting and I looked great!

Things quickly turned around. Our bodies loooove homeostasis and so when I reached my low weight, my body did not want to stay there. I started gaining weight slowly but surely. It was a process that took another 2 years (to where I am at now), but I am now 321 lbs. again. During this weight gain period, I have done everything under the sun to stop the weight loss and reverse it. Instead, I only slowed the progression at times, but my body kept gaining and gaining.

This summer I discussed with my family doctor about my options. He mentioned gastric bypass and I about jumped out of my seat. I left not ever thinking I would get surgery at such a young age to lose weight that I had already loss before. But because I have tried everything, I looked into what options I had. I did not want a "cure" or a "last resort", but something that would WORK for me... and also is not so drastic as to cut and re-shape my stomach (the bypass).

Hence, I discovered the LAP-BAND. I have since done a lot of research on it and feel that this may be my best option to aid in my weight loss efforts. My family hx includes everything... heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, etc. etc. I already have hypertension (on Lisinopril when I was 22) and mild sleep apnea (dx 2 weeks ago and am using a C-PAP). My father is on a heart transplant waiting list and is in very poor health in his 50's. My relatives are all extremely obese with already five of them having a gastric bypass already, and unfortunately many more who could use that sort of surgery. I know I will have heart disease and will die at a young age if I do not fix my problem now. Being in the health care field, I have seen people in poor health and I know I want to do everything in my power to prevent being sick at an early age.

When I talked above about how happy I was at 240 lbs., it was truly the best days of my life. I miss that time. My girlfriend and I have been struggling a great deal in our relationship because of my weight. My activity level is horrible, our intimacy is shallow, and I can't do many of the things I used to do with her. We had broken up once before, but I do not want to let it happen again. She is extremely supportive of me getting this surgery and hopes that my struggles and our struggles together will be solved.

I hope this forum will be a great way to tell my story and document my journey through my weight loss. I've already got the wheels rolling and getting all the pre-op stuff out of the way. I am hoping to get my surgery scheduled in March, during my spring break. I would be sacrificing a free Washington D.C trip for this life-changing event.

I will be doing my surgery at HealthEast (in St. Joseph's hospital in St. Paul) and am choosing to do it with Dr. Michael Schwartz.

I hope to hear many responses from people who are understanding and can help me in any way through this process.

Thank you everyone! I look forward to the future!

-Jason

Welcom to LBT Jason and thanks for sharing your story! This site is such a great resource for information and support. Good luck on your journey, I know you will do well!

There is a before and after thread on here Jason. Just do a search for it and you'll see hundreds of pictures on it. It's quite the inspiration

Welcome friend. All the best on your journey. Mookie.

Thanks so much for the responses everybody! I feel a lot more welcomed here.

I see most of the replies were from females, with the exception of I think one male. My Doctor was surprised that I actually came in because the majority are middle-aged women that come in. He then joked that it's either the woman that comes, or the boyfriend/husband that the woman makes go there.

Serious and Chubbola... I am with you on concerns being a nurse and telling my patients how to be healthy, but to feel that I am unhealthy myself. I just don't feel right tellng my 275 lb. patient that he needs to lose weight to help with his disease, but here I am 320 lbs. and taking care of them. I am curious, what type of nurses are you/want to be? If all goes well with this, I may want to use my experience and be a gastric nurse of some type. I've always had a fascination for cardiac/ICU stuff, mostly because of my dad's health being on the transplant list. Hopefully, I will eventually become a professor and aid in turning around the nursing shortage. But who knows! Maybe after losing the weight again, I may have some other high aspirations (mountain climber maybe? :rolleyes)

So is it recommended I do a journal on here to chart my progress? Does anyone read it or get anything out of it? What else can I do to chart and aid in my own progress?

Does anyone have before/after pictures or know a site they could share that would give my family and friends better ideas on what to expect from me?

I will start scouring the other forum pages and start my posts there soon. Figured these may be introductory questions .

Thanks again everyone!

-Jason

hi again, jason!

i am more than likely going into the mental health field-i am so fascinated with the brain and how mysterious it is! we'll see-who knows-i'd love to be some sort of bariatric nurse also-it would be neat to share my (hopefully positive) story someday!

i know it's no excuse, but i've found myself gaining weight with the larger homework load i have...it seems like if i'm not in class or clinicals, i'm sitting on my duff in front of the computer-sometimes i have to suck it up and get a B or C on my exam in exchange for going outside and playing with my kids! you're almost done-hang in there! you can be an awesome nurse AND a hottie mountain climber, ya know! don't trade in one for another (sorry-i'm a bit of a mother hen)!!!

hope to hear from you soon!

Jason, I think a journal is a good idea for anyone who feels motivated to write one, but it seems like a particularly good idea in your case since you are so good at expressing yourself with the written word. I hope you do a journal and I look forward to reading it.

Mark