Hi! Newbie here. Nice to meet everyone! l have a ?

I suppose if you really thought hard you could come up with and unlikely reason why you would medically need a larger stomach.  You know what you don't need to wonder about?  The health risks of not doing this.  I recently read that a 40 year old MO woman has the same chance of seeing her 50th birthday as a 40 year old woman diagnosed with breast cancer.  How's that for making it real.  There are so many health reasons for doing this.  When your family gives you a hard time about it, tell them that your life expectancy will improve with this surgery and you will be around to love them up much longer.  Tell them that diet and exercise only works long term for less then 10% of people.  Would they have you take a medication that had those odds?  You have a chance to live a much healthier, happier, fuller life.  Take it.

 l'd like to thank you for taking the time to comment.  l truly appreciate it.  

l especially like how you put the truth out there.  l do have a cyst that they're watching, and my mother had breast cancer.  That is one of the reasons l'm doing this.  Along with all of the fun issues that come along for the fat ride. l have two children, one of which is disabled, and am scared to death of not being able to care for them.  Also the issue of not ever feeling like being active enough with them.  There's aLOT of guilt that comes with that.  But enough of that already!!!

Oh yeah, and if diet and exercise were going to work for me - DON'T YOU THINK I'D  BE SMALL already?!!!  That's what l'm going to tell the naysayers next time.  

Thanks again!!!!!

I'm new too, not to this board but to this procedure. I started my initial inquiry into the Band back in 2006 but when I made it all the way to my surgeon appt the Dr. told me I was too fat and that my only choice was gbypass. I wasn't prepared for that decision so i walked out, cried, and joined weigh****chers for the 7th time.

Fast forward 5 years later, still fat, I'm trying it again but at the orientation the sleeve caught my eye. I've cried several times since orientation over fears of something going wrong with the surgery and leaving my family behind. I think this is my biggest fear.  But after my initial appointment with the nurse I'm feeling more confident every day. I have my next 6 hour class schedule in June.

I'm on my way to smaller, better, me.

My best to you!!! We'll probably have surgery around the same time.  

The fear of leaving my family behind if l DON'T do something about my weight NOW gives me confidence in my decision.  ln fact, THEY leave me behind alot in every-day life  right now because l can't keep up with them. l'm ready for a better quality of life for all of us!!! 

There are risks in having weight loss surgery and risks in not having surgery. I decided that with my morbid obesity, having ALREADY had a knee replacement, with osteoarthritis still an issue in my other knee and in both ankles, and with a family history of heart disease, I was pretty much guaranteed to need surgery at some point in the future no matter what.

Then I decided that I would rather have the VSG when I was still relatively healthy, and on a non-emergency basis than to need multiple orthopedic procedures - which are much more difficult IMO than the lap sleeve or, even worse, an emergency bypass or treatment for a stroke.

Also, my grandmother lived to age 96 with a partial gastrectomy that she had in her 40's for treatment of bleeding ulcers. NO problems with her nutritional status or other issues with her stomach - and she had plenty of medical procedures for other things -  and she always did like to brag a bit about her tiny appetite!