I never really had a weight problem when I was younger, I even remember being called "tooth pick" , boy, wouldn't that be nice now. When I was graduating from high school I remember weighing 150 and thought that was too heavy, that's when the dieting began. I started business college and lost 20lbs, so I was at 130, my height is 5'11" so I was very slim, people commented how great I looked, I thought to myself, that Id never be over 150 again.

Well a few months later, I met my future husband, felt comfortable eating around him, and it was great going out to eat. We broke up a few times and then thoughts ran thru my head, maybe if I lost weight he'd love me. Ended up he did love me and we married in 1997. I remember after our honeymoon I told my sister-in-law I was at 180lbs.

No one could believe I weighed that much due to my height. Well after marriage comes babies, right? A little over a year we had our first born, Courtney, she had medical problems, sowe were only given 8days to be with her. After she had gone to heaven, I decided I wanted to try again, well another year later and here comes our second, Seth.

By this time I quit getting on scales, he had colic and I didn't get a chance to get away much, so no exercise etc. About 3 months later I joined a diet center, scaling in at 221, ohmygosh, I got down to 165 and felt great, tho it was a big struggle to make wise food decisions.

Still thought I should lose some more, but never did. Little by little I had gained the weight back. Not even sure how much I weighed when I gave birth to our third child, Sydney in May of 2003, I think I blocked it out even when doing my weight checks, Im pretty sure it was close to 300 the day I went in to deliver. Sydney was born with down syndrome and didn't know ahead of time to prepare, so put off the diet thing till I could give more attention to it.

Then there was this and that, Halloween and Christmas. By the end of 2003, I knew I had to do something. In December I went on the internet investigating, that is where I found the wonderful group of people at Ready4achange, as soon as I read things about this Doctor, his staff and the procedure itself I knew it was for me. I called my sister-in-law, who is an RN, to look into the medical aspect.

She called me back and said, I think I'm going to do this too. So that made me feel even better, I wouldn't be doing this alone. Called Janet, then Judy called and said we could sign up for January 2004, couldn't believe it was so fast, but am glad it was. January 24, 2004 was the day my life changed, weighing in at 244 I had the band installed and surgery went great. Got back home did the liquid and soft foods with no problems.