My VSG journey

Oct 30, 2009

Hello; my name is Lori and I am 37 years old.  I have a fiancee of 13 years (since we've been together so long sometimes I do refer to him as 'hubby'), a 14-year old son, and a 11-year-old stepson.  I, like many of you, have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember.  I have always remained active, and have been involved in various physical activities; but always still struggled with my weight.  I have tried what seems like hundreds of diet plans, exercise routines, and diet pills with very minimal results.  It's very frustrating, as I'm sure you know!  Over the years I developed high cholesterol, slightly high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease.  The fatty liver disease causes me chest pain when I eat certain foods or overeat.  Unfortunately, my regular doctor has not been helpful over the last few years either.  He told me that if I lost weight it would help my medical issues, but when I asked him for help (i.e. presciption meds, diet plan, nutritionist referral), he would not do any of that and would simply tell me that I all needed was "willpower."  Yeah, that really helped me a lot.  I started researching WLS about a year and a half ago.  I knew WLS would not be covered through my insurance so I was trying to figure out a way to pay for it, so that has been a big constraint.  A close family member had lap band done about a year ago, but has had a lot of issues, and her weight loss has seemed to stall after a few months.  After researching procedures on OH and other resources, I have decided that VSG will be the best choice for me.  I have chosen to have my VSG done in Mexico by Dr. Joya in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on 11/11/09.  After making my decision, I told a few family members about it; most of whom were very supportive.  When my sister found out, she said that she would like to talk to me in private about it (I thought she was going to criticize me for doing something 'crazy' lol).  When we spoke in private, she asked me a lot of questions about the procedure, the cost, the process, etc.  She finally told me that she wanted to go too, and have the procedure done with me.  From there we made all of the arrangements for us to both have our procedure done by Dr. Joya on the same day.  We'll be traveling together, sharing a hospital room, sharing a hotel room, etc.  I had been prepared to go to Mexico on my own, but am SO GLAD my sister is coming with me and we will be on our weight loss journey together!  Although I did have to get a loan to pay for most of the surgery and I know it will be difficult financially for me to pay back the loan (monthly payments are a bit higher than I would have liked), I did not want to wait any longer and I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to pay it back.  I decided I did not want to keep putting off the surgery any longer, as I have met so many people here on OH that stated that they wished they had done it a long time ago.  I knew if I continued to put it off, I would probably regret it later.  I'm sure I probably will already regret not doing something sooner than now.  As of now, I have nothing but positive feelings and vibes about the surgery, and I'm not scared at all (although that may change as the date gets closer lol).  I'm currently on my pre-op diet and doing well (although I am hungry a lot), but I am sticking with it and hanging in there.  My highest weight was just recently at 232, and my goal is 140; therefore hoping for a loss of 92 pounds.  So far I've lost 2 pounds on my pre-op diet (day 3).  I'm looking forward to 11/11, and I can't wait to be on the loser's bench!  Good luck to all of you wherever you may be in your journey.  Feel free to "friend" me, maybe we can support and help each other!

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