"Massive obesity." Those two words leapt off the page I was reading: the surgeon's report of an operation I'd had. “Massive obesity?” Surely that didn’t apply to me. Surely that term was reserved for guests on 'Oprah', people who were so overweight they never left their homes. Surely that term applied to the people who, when they finally needed to go to the hospital, had to be lifted out of their beds using a crane. Me? Massively obese?
“Massive obesity.” How could that apply to me, a working girl, out there every day, earning a living, socializing, having many, many friends, making more friends all the time. Friends who love me, friends with whom I socialize both at home and in public. Friends who have never said a word to me about my weight. Friends who I’m sure had never heard the term “massive obesity”, much less referred to me in that manner.
I knew I was terrifically, tremendously, disgustingly overweight, but "massively obese"?! What a hideous term!
That wasn’t the last time I heard those two horrible words used to refer to my weight. Later that same year, I had a white cell count that wasn’t responding to antibiotics, so I went to a hematologist. This specialist wanted to feel for my lymph nodes. But because of my “massive obesity”, he was unable to palpate the ones in the centre of my chest and so had to order a chest x-ray. Luckily that all worked out eventually, but there it was on his report: massive obesity.
“Massive obesity.” The term has echoed in my brain since January 1995. This web site is the story of my journey through weightloss surgery, commonly referred to as WLS. If anyone had told me a year ago I'd even consider WLS, I'd have told them they were crazy. Well, I am hoist by my own petard.
These pages will attempt to give my perspective on weightloss surgery, obesity, and how I ended up at this juncture.
This is the photo that started me on my way to morbid obesity. I was almost 12 years old and was on a float in a parade. My dad started making negative comments about my weight when he saw this picture. I was 5'4" and weighed about 105 pounds. I had a trophy rack, killer legs, and my waist measured 20".
  
©2002 SkankWhoShrank
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