I AM IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGING MY WEBSITE TO INCLUDE MY PHOTOGRAPHY AND MODELING IMAGES. AS OF THIS TIME, ALL OF MY PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND AT HTTP://PICTURETRAIL.COM/CAROLINEAM . PLEASE FEEL FREE TO VISIT THERE AND LEAVE A COMMENT OR TWO :)

My name is Caroline Ann Martin. From the age of 19 to 34 years, I lived my life as a super morbidly obese person. During these years, I dieted my way up to 370 lbs losing and regaining over 100 lbs several times.  In May 2003, my life changed when I underwent gastric bypass surgery.  This, along with sticking to a healthy diet and developing an active lifestyle allowed me to lose 225 pounds in just 16 months and gain a healthy weight and life. At the onset of my weight loss, my hips measured 71 inches around and I wore a Women's Plus Size 40 (6X to 7X).  At 2 years post RNY, I now wear a Misses Size 2/4 (XS).  More important than size, I love that I can physically do pretty much anything I want to now, without the restrictions that my weight once imposed.

I am almost 37 years old, happily married for 8 1/2 years and currently live near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania with my husband, Alan, and our 5 cats, dog (Ms Molly McBabe) and lovebird. I was born and raised in Long Island, New York (East Rockaway) and moved to Arizona when I turned 18 to attend ASU. It was my first year at ASU when I started gaining my weight. After earning my BS in psychology, I moved back to NY to attend NYU for my MSW and later my MA in Deafness Rehabilitation. I met my hubby online via a poetry message board that I'd started on AOL way back in 1996, and moved to CA in August 1997. In 1999, I attended SDSU in CA for post-grad training in Organizational Development.

In January 2003, Alan's mom passed away and left us her house here in PA. A week after she passed, while we were staying at the house and preparing for her memorial service, I woke to find myself on fire. Alan and I got out safely though the house had over 40K worth of damage to it. Three things came from this - we found his mom's will granting us the house, we had motivation to restore the house and move to PA and I became motivated to find out about WLS.

In May 2003, I had my RNY. I lost 210 lbs and reached goal within 15 months, and in January of 2005, I started with my reconstructive surgeries to remove an amazing amount of excess skin that I was left with. So far, I've gone through 3 rounds of back-to-back reconstructive surgeries including a belt lipectomy (LBL), breast lift, breast implants, extended brachioplasty, buttock lift, circumferential thigh lift and vertical thigh reduction. I'll need one more surgery consisting of a 3rd surgery for my thighs/butt and some minor revisions and one major revision to my original reconstructive surgeries, though this is on hold at the time given ongoing pain that I've been experiencing from the first three rounds.

Alan moved here to PA in February '05, and I moved here in mid-March '05 though I was back in CA from mid-April to mid-May having and recovering from my 3rd round of PS. We moved into the house in early July 2005, and our first year in the house has been great!  The house is absolutely beautiful and cozy to say the least. I absolutely love it here in PA. The area is just so pretty and offers great hiking and walking opportunities.

I belong to Bally's and go to the one in King of Prussia, PA near the mall. In December '05, I started working as a personal trainer at this Bally's on a part-time basis. I've completed my certification through WITS and am thoroughly enjoying working as a personal trainer so far!  In addition to helping inspire others working towards their own weight loss and/or fitness goals, working as a personal trainer helps me to stay accountable to myself in my own weight loss/fitness goals. More so, I am happy to be working again, even if on a part-time basis.

A few years prior to my WLS, I went on permanent disability due to major PTSD and dissociation as relates to being severely abused when I was a child.  Prior to my going on disability, I worked with the State of CA Dept. of Rehabilitation as a Senior Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the Deaf. Prior to this, I worked in various capacities with several non-profit agencies -  child welfare prevention and foster care case manager (Foundling Hospital in NYC), as director of an IRA/group home (NY Society for the Deaf), as a case manager for Maricopa County, AZ working with a homeless, psychiatric population, and as a rape crisis hotline & hospital supervisor (Center Against Sexual Abuse/CASA in AZ).  I have always been very good at what I've done, but unfortunately my own personal demons that I'd battled for all too long had taken their toll on me making it necessary that I leave work.  To be starting back to work, even if on a part-time basis, I once again feel as though all of my education and experience isn't going to waste.

My hobbies include writing poetry, reading, singing, playing flute (though I am no longer very good at this given adhesions from prior surgery in my left hand), photography, drawing, painting, and sculpting. I veer towards sculpture when involved in my artwork and have a website showing some of my artwork at http://MildstonesCreations.com. (The site is temporarily down - all but the home page - until I can upload it again.)

To keep my mind active and to give back to the community, I've been super active in the Hard of Hearing community (SHHH and the Hearing_Aids YahooGroup), the survivor community (ritual abuse, etc.), and the WLS community. I run several Yahoo!Groups related to these various issues including but not limited to the GastricBypass-PostOp, GastricBypass-PlasticSurgery, GastricBypass-AbuseSurvivors, GastricBypass-RunHikeWalk and GastricBypass-Pennsylvania Yahoo!Groups. I've been fortunate to have the time to be active in these groups, and enjoy being involved and giving back to others (as I've been helped myself).

Anyways, that's a little about me...  Thank you for visiting me here online and taking a moment or two to visit the various sections of this website.  I am glad that my sharing my journey can be of help to others moving along the same path.  Though WLS is not a miracle cure and requires lots of work and the development of healthy eating and exercise patterns, it is a very powerful tool to have in one's weight loss/maintenance arsenal!

~~ Caroline Ann Martin, M.A.
3 years postop RNY & -225 lbs @ goal

Email: Caroline@AButterflyEmerges.com

MySpace: http://myspace.com/carolineam

Photos: http://picturetrail.com/carolineam

OH Profile: http://tinyurl.com/bkld

 

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