I have been overweight most of my adult life.  I started researching the surgery about 10 years ago.  I went to an info session at the University of Minnesota and was scared of the surgies they described.  As time went on, I started being diagnosed with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and others.  My asthma was out of control and I couldn't walk around the grocery store without being in pain.  I woke up on April 15, 2005 and decided that at 367 lbs, I had one foot in the grave unless I did something.  I knew from my years of attempting to diet that Weight Watcher's was not the solution to my problem.  I felt that the time had come for a drastic, permanent solution.  That was the day my life turned around.  I had heard about Park Nicollet's program and started investigating it.  I went to their information session at the end of April and called for my first appointment the first part of May 2005.  The process went rather quickly for me.  I had all my appointments completed by the middle of June and received approval from my insurance on July 1st.  The only things delaying my surgery at that point was a sleep test I had to have that was scheduled for July 14th.  I was really ready for the surgery when I was introduced to the c-pap machine : (  After that the time flew by and I had my surgery on October 4,2005.