2025 Prom Pictures

I started my weight loss journey years ago. Diets that never seemed to last very long, gym visits here and there, complete changes after seeing professionals, yet they never seemed to work well enough to get the results I needed to see big changes.
I was doing Atkins somewhere around 2004/2005 and had been able to get down to a size 18 in clothes. Then I got sick. My fiance took me to the closest ER and I also found out that day I needed to see an OBGYN and would come to find out later that I had endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS). I also found out I needed a colonoscopy. That colonoscopy revealed I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome(IBS). The doctor told me I needed to stop the Atkins. I was crushed! I gained back all the weight I had lost over the next few years. My fiance had then become my husband, and at the time he and I tried to use some fertility meds, but they were not going to work because of my problems. After several laprascopic surgeries to remove ovarian cysts, and the failure of fertility, my OBGYN asked me if I was finally ready for my hysterectomy? I was overjoyed in some ways! This would solve the crazy menstral cycles that I had endured since I first started my period. The endometriosis and PCOS had been enough to keep me from bringing a child into the world and I didn't know how to deal with that.

My husband and I divorced in 2013. By this point I had already lost both my Parents. My Dad passed away in 2005 and my Mamma in 2012. I did have my S-D left. I had built a relationship with him over the few years that he and my Mamma were married (after my Dad had already passed). My S-D also married again after the death of my Mamma. His wife's name is Debbie. She has rightfully earned her place now as Mom in my life and we have a great relationship!

 I was in a four year relationship, but we had a short mentally and verbally abusive marriage, where after I moved to Wichita, KS. I was back in the state I grew up in for just a couple months, by the time my primary care doctor and I had discussed weight loss surgery as the only option for getting me free of, Restrictive Lung Disease, the reason I was wearing oxygen 24/7. I had my first appointment with my bariatric surgeon on October 30th, 2023. I put in all the work. I attended all the classes I needed to attend. I lost more weight. I have been learning tools and tricks to live by for after surgery success through these classes and the people I have met along the way. The day finally arrived for surgery...April 3, 2024!!! I was just as scared as I was excited! What was it going to be like once I was on the other side of the journey? I knew my walk was only just beginning, but I was so nervous inside. The pain from the stitch on the inside where my drain tube was, was the worst part of my pain. Everything else wasn't bad at all. It is all a distant memory now. I look at the scars daily from my surgery and am reminded of what I have gone through and all I have accomplished so far. I am proud of myself. That's not something I say or feel often enough about myself. I am not always happy with where I currently am, but know I am a work in progress and that I have not met all my goals yet. I was in a domestic violence situation with a friend and her boyfriend in December 2024. I was hurt in my back from this incident. I also have had trouble maintaining the same quality of food care I had up to this point because I had to leave my home and move to Oklahoma to be safe. I am still looking for a place to call my own home, but I  have some great created family whom I am bouncing between to stay safe. I also have been struggling to not eat emotionally, or skip eating all together because of being such an emotional eater in my life, The surgery didn't cure that. I have been working on it in therapy and speaking with a dietician about my food struggles. I also attend Celebrate Recovery and have for the past 16 years, and that helps a lot to get support from others with struggles in their lives too. I am going to start attending the support group for the clinic I went through for my surgery as well. They meet twice a month on something like Zoom, so i can do that since I no longer live near Wichita. I know I need to get into the gym, but at least for the current moment that isn't exactly an option. So, I will try to control as much as I can with diet and meeting my goals for water and protein. I do want to mention that I had a great friend who was with me for most all of my journey. I do believe God puts people in your life for a season, no matter how long or short, that it may be, and we were both there when we both needed each other especially last year. I am forever grateful for that! I have additional photos that I would like to upload as soon as I can figure out how to do so. The one at the top of this page is from last year. I have lost more weight since then and have gotten new glasses, so I would like to update the photo as soon as I can figure it out as well.