How did you finally decide to have surgery?

KnitterNY
on 4/21/11 12:21 pm - NY
Hi all,

I am a newbie here. Had an initial consult with a highly recommended surgeon, who suggested either the Roux en Y, or Vertical Sleeve. I met also with his nutritionist. But I am stuck at the decision- Do I really want to have weight loss surgery? I'm 29 and weight 330 lbs. I have done every diet in the universe (at least it feels that way), and have lost more than 100 lbs before, only to gain it all back plus 70 more. I think the surgery would be a good tool for me, but having major, life-altering surgery is still scaring the pants off me.

So my question is: 

How did you finally decide to have WLS? Did you have a moment where it just "clicked" for you? 

Thank you in advance,

Rebecca
sleeve genie
on 4/21/11 12:36 pm - Alhambra, CA
I had high blood pressure,  elevated triglycerides,  borderline diabetes.   Then i got severe leg pain and found out i had a suble fracture in my left hip from an injury many years ago.  It got so bad i could hardly walk.  The sports medicine doctor who ordered the MRI and found the arthritis said lose weight or get a hip replacement.  Well  i can put weight on but i can't get it off.  So my daughter suggested wls.   I was afraid of the bypass,  didn't want anyone messing with my plumbing but was looking on youtube and found a guy who had the sleeve.  I had never heard of it and when i did i knew it was the answer to my prayers.   I love my sleeve, best thing i ever did for myself.   good luck  i hope you find the right answer for you :o) jeani 
oh and all my health issues are now non existant. all gone   Thank God!!
      the start of my brand new life was on 5/28/10
                
                      aka  jeaniwantsasleeve!!                  

      
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
          
cattywompos
on 4/21/11 12:38 pm
I came to the realization that I needed surgery, not wanted, but needed it.   I had done diets, I had lost, I had gained it all back plus double. Then I literally became scared to diet and decided I am just going to have to live life at a fat person and I might as well enjoy it. So, I ate what I wanted when I wanted, I didn't do a lick of exercise. I quickly became addicted to carbs and junk. Pop was my drug of choice. I drank nothing but regular pop, not juice, no****er, not milk. Within a few years the weight ballooned and I was on a downward spiral.  I was fat, lazy, eating and sleeping my life away.  The bigger I got the more sluggish I got, the more sluggish I got the fatter I got. At this point even if I wanted to diet and exercise I simply didn't have the energy and I was so addicted to the crap!  Surgery gave me that boost. After the first weeks and few pounds lost I started to feel better. I detoxed off all the junk that had a hold on me. I say detoxed because that is literally what it felt like, like a drug addict detoxing off a drug.  I had a raging headache, the shakes at times, and whoa was I a CRAB!!  The better I feel the more I can work my tool.  With each pound lost things get easier, it is easier to exercise, it is easier to say no to the crap and it is easier to envision me reaching my goal.  So, yes one day it just clicked.  Someone at work had the sleeve and she was telling me about it and instantly it felt right and I knew I had to do it.  You and know you.  If you can do it with diet and exercise, great.  Yes, surgery is scary, but so is a life living over weight, it is only a ticking time bomb.  Search your soul and do what you feel is right for you.
 HW-304 / SW- 286 / CW-198.25 / GW-170
    
_Nikki_
on 4/21/11 12:43 pm
I constantly worked my butt off and dieted and couldn't lose the weight. I exercised for a year and 2 times a day, ate right everything and I lost 15 lbs in a year !! It was crazy.

I had decided that once you get to a certain weight it just isn't going to come off. Surgery to me, was cheating. I saw people getting surgery and thought psshhh they're just lazy. So, I worked and worked and worked and nothing.

One day I just said let me look into this. Surgery is definitely not cheating or the easy way out, it's actually very hard. But, I now have the tool needed to get the results of all of my hard work. It is a very personal decision and definitely a last resort for me.
_Nikki_ 

    
LeeAnn5350
on 4/21/11 12:51 pm - Patterson, NY
Hi Rebecca!  Dr. Pomp was my surgeon as well.  My ah ha moment was around the time of my 32nd birthday.  It was then that I realized my mother was that very age when she had me.   She was dead 15 yrs later.  Like me, she had continuously lost and gained back the same 100 lbs over the years and those pounds always brought back friends.  Eventually her diabetes became so out of contol that it took her piece by piece and I watched it all happen.  I was 3 months shy of my 16th Birthday when diabetes/depression consumed her.  I am not even close to being in a relationship/marriage and having children.  I couldnt imagine continuing on the path I was on.  Settling for any loser that would have me, having children and leaving them behind because I wouldnt take care of myself.  I know the ramifications losing my mother to a PREVENTABLE disease, had on me......I cant do that to my future children.  It was also this year that my weight finally started to take its toll on my physically.  I had been kidding myself for YEARS that I was one of those "fit" fat people.  Sure I could walk circles around some of my thinner friends, I could lift massive amounts of weight, I had stamina.  I work with horses, its is a very physically demanding job.  It was never a problem for me until the year I turned 32....All of a sudden everything that had been so easy for me caused me pain and made me so tired.  I could no longer do my job!!!!!  Oh yea and I got the big "D: diagnosis by the end of that year.  I had to get serious.  I wasted 1/3 of my life being this obese....and guess what..IT HAS NOT worked out for me.  Having the VSG was the best dicesion I have ever made.  Im down 70lbs, I no longer have that gnawing, ravenous hunger that compels you in the middle of the night to hit the drive thru just to shut it the Hell up.....I am going to the gym on a regular basis, I have tremendous energy, my arthritis hasnt bothered me in 2 months!  In 2 weeks I will have my 3 month follow up and I hope to learn that my diabetes is in remission.  Good luck on your journey!
    
smbergie200
on 4/21/11 1:26 pm - Naples, FL
It "clicked" for me at age 35 - this year. After yet another physical with my Doctor and her telling me all the bad news about my blood pressure and weight and how she wanted to put me on blood pressure meds. I said no. She then suggested  Weight loss Surgery which I initially was shocked and upset and said no way would I do that. Then I slept on it and as the days passed I started to feel comfortable with the idea.

My sister was morbidly obese and decided to get the Vertical Sleeve a few months ago. It seemed like the logical decision. She asked for my advice and I researched the pro's and con's of all three of the main surgeries. The Gastric Bypass takes the intestines and reroutes them. This causes all kinds of problems mainly not getting enough vitamins and nutrition from the foods you eat. Also If you eat 1 drop of sugar you get dumping syndrome which they say you feel like your gonna die. Its not realistic for me to say I will never have a taste of something sweet the rest of my life. The Gastric Band has alot of horrible side effects. Food gets stuck in it, It causes scar tissue, It usually slips after a few years, It requires you have a port under the skin that you have to get the doctor to inject saline to adjust the band. Not only that you are still hungry because you still have the hunger hormone grehlin in your stomach. In my research the gastric band has been a failure in Europe.

Then there is Vertical Sleeve surgery - so many pro's I had made up my mind.

Pro's

No rerouting of intestines

Reduce Grehlin (hunger hormone)

No Dumping Syndrome

No malabsorbsion which causes vitamin deficiency

Less risk than Roux en Y and much more effective than the band.

No foreign object in the body.

My sister dropped 80 pounds in less than 3 months so far. She is happy, happy, happy. I haven't had my surgery yet, and I keep asking her if its worth it and she said it is 1000% worth it. She is feeling so good about herself. I am so proud of her.

My humble advice is don't waste 6 precious years of your life in hopes you will lose the weight on your own. I -  like you have lost tons of weight and gained it back faster than you can say McDonald's. If I knew what I know now I would have done it at age 29.  Heck, I would have done it earlier. I read these forums all the time and so many positive results from this life saving surgery. I think to myself that this many people cant be wrong (including my Sis)

Yes I'm scared, but all the fun things I have missed out in life because of obesity was the final straw. I have made my decision. Obesity will not win!

Good luck with your decision.






 

Plastics - Extended Tummy Tuck - February 6th 2013


       

(deactivated member)
on 4/21/11 1:34 pm
My story is similar to everyone elses.  I am older tho. I'm almost 59 and have lived for about 20-25 years overweight.  It snuck on 10-15-20 lbs a year.  Last summer I fell down in the pasture chasing some baby turkeys that were orphaned with mama met up with a coyote, I stepped in a hole fell down and landed in a lot of grassy undergrowth so I wasn't hurt but I couldn't get up.  I struggled and struggled but couldn't get up.  I started getting mad at myself for being so out of shape and fat and saw my 35 year old son coming across the pasture with a worried look.  I made one last hurculeon effort and got to my feet.  I looked at my son who is about 60 lbs overweight and I decided then that I had to do something.  My liver specialist had been after me for a few years to lose some weight and he had suggested I get WLS.  I have a liver disease and I will probably have to have a transplant in the next 10 years but with my weight I would be turned down .   So it became an easy choice to make.  I was quite worried about having surgery too but it was nothing like I thought it would be.  It was so easy for me, very little pain.  It was like I went to sleep and woke up on a diet that was easy because I filled up so quickly... go for it girl!
acbbrown
on 4/21/11 2:27 pm - Granada Hills, CA
I am 27, and while I've always been pretty heavy, I kind of managed to bounce around 350ish since high school. Diet, gain, diet, gain. That cycle. But then i started gaining weight at record speeds, and went from about 350 to 420 very very quickly, and I hit what I call my "rock bottom". My back hurt, my knees hurt, my feet were swollen to the point where I couldnt wear shoes, I couldn't find a single suit to wear to work (or any decent clothes for that matter).

That's when I knew I needed something drastic. I'm terrified of surgery,but I know based on my past, it's my only hope.

www.sexyskinnybitch.wordpress.com - my journey to sexy skinny bitch status

11/16/12 - Got my Body by Sauceda - arms, Bl/BA, LBL, thigh lift. 


HW 420/ SW 335 /CW 200    85 lbs lost pre-op / 135 post op
  
~~~~Alison~~~~~

 

KCChris
on 4/21/11 2:36 pm, edited 4/21/11 2:44 pm - KS
 For me I had tried numerous diets. I had lost weight but I'd gain it back. And then some. Which led to depression. I was incredibly unhappy all of the time. I felt like **** all the time. I had high blood pressure. I was having a few other health issues.  Honestly, I got to a point where I just gave up. I didn't care anymore.  I was slowly killing myself and I knew it. And I also didn't care.  One day I just snapped out of it. I was fed up with how ****ty I had let my life become. There was way too much I wanted to do and too much that I was missing out on. I no longer wanted to be that guy watching life happen like he was watching it through a window. It was as simple as a choice between life and death. I chose life.  That was how I decided I wanted to do it. But not really just wanted but NEEDED.   It's amazing how different my mentality is now. I am so much happier it's unbelievable. I'm still the same sarcastic and crazy guy I was before. I'm just not pretending to be happy anymore. Now it's for real. And when it's for real it's amazing :)

/end sappiness.
My heart is all mine and my mind is free. That's all the revolution; revelation that I need.
KikiRox85
on 4/21/11 2:52 pm - CA
I've been Dieting since I was 8 yrs old. Never got remotely to goal. Never been "normal." At 25 I decided to get a life and go for the Sleeve.
I asked myself two questions:
1. Can I lose this weight? Eventually
2. "If" I lose this weight can I keep it off? No
That's when I knew I needed a tool to help me out for life.
Hope this helps and I LOVE my Sleeve.
Went out to dinner with my cousin who had RNY and she asked me if I've had dumping yet? I told her with my Sleeve I don't dump. She was surprised and said, " I wish they had the Sleeve when I got surgery." 3 years out and she still dumps.

  
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