hiii :) new to this site...

Hey, welcome! My surgery is March18, and I would love to support you! This is such a helpful & supportive site. Im so sorry that your family is giving you a hard time..most of mine is ok,  but theres a few that don't understand why i have to go such lengths. Your surgery will be soon, and they won't be able to say much then. Tell them if they love you, they don't have to agree with your decision,just support you, help you and respect your decision. I wish you the best, and look forward to your updates :)

Hi, I'm Eileen. I'm from Western NY. I considered surgery 7 years ago but chickened out cause it required I quit smoking. Then in 2009, a year after my mom died from complications of morbid obesity, I went to my aunt and cousin and told them I was thinking about weight loss surgery. They both talked me out of it, I suppose due to the horror stories in the newspapers. Fast forward to 2011, 40 pounds heavier, I got so sick I quit smoking and ultimately was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Last year, after failing to control my blood sugars, I decided to have surgery. I again turned to my aunt and cousin, and they were both supportive this time around.

Don't let anyone talk you out of being healthy. Don't wait till you're diabetic or have cardiovascular disease. Take control of your life. It is YOUR life and until others walk in your shoes they don't get a say in how you chose to live it. You deserve to walk, and breath, and live a healthy, pain free, life. Best of luck to you.

Hello,  I did live in the Carmel area and am now in Crawfordsville.  I started with a St V's doctor and ended up at IU Health with Dr Mattar.  There are several support groups in the area and probably some in Kokomo.  Your bariatric center will have one that they probably will prefer that you attend.  Good luck to you.

Regarding support.  Your family wants the best for you whether you believe it or not.  If you do not have diabetes or other illness that is directly related to obesity I wouldn't recommend it even for my own child either.  I hope you understand that you will be on a life time diet.  The surgery does not do it all for you.  It helps to a point and then you have to work it......forever.  You will have serious problems if you don't  follow the rules and change your habits and attitude towards food and exercise.  Those are things you would have to do with surgery or not.  

So, I am not close to you at all, I am in California. and I hear wh,hat you are saying about people around you not being supportive.  I lost a bunch of weight like 165 total with a food 12 step, and while that s great, I still have about that same amount to go, and I am not able to move my body to exercise to get the weight off due to mobility impairments.  Plus, I have lost this before, and gained it back. When I walked into my surgeons office the first thing she said made so much sense to me, about having a smaller stomach, that I broke, stretched, ruined the size of my stomach when I ate too much, and all the dieting in the world is not going to be permanent because ultimately my stomach is the wrong size, and thinks it needs to keep being filled up because I broke it. I told that to the non supportive people in my life, and they see me making all the changes I have made to get ready for the surgery, and at least they keep quiet about it now. I have come to believe that I am doing this for me, that my doctors advised me about a lot of options, that this one seems to make the most practical sense. And, really it's not my business what anybody else thinks about I am doing to take care of myself.  I am grateful for places like this for support from people who make similar choices, and I am grateful for the life I have, and welcome the opportunities that will come after the weight is gone. I feel lie I have been walking around with a hangover for about three years now, and I am so ready for the fat to start being burned away.......I know that you too will do great.