WOW! Its been 7 years! Love my Sleeve (STILL)! Update - Sorry VERY long!

WOW! So many new faces! I can’t believe it’s been more than 7 years (4/10/07) since my VSG! Six years since reconstructive surgery. I’m going to go lurk in the “Graduates” forum, but I wanted to make a pit-stop here at the VSG forum first. Like many here have said before, “the best thing I could have done” or “I wish I had done it much, much sooner!” and I eco those remarks, it has been a wonderful 7+ years.

Back on April 11^th 2014, I got an email from Eric Klein, co-founder of ObesityHelp.com, I don’t know him and I’m sure it was an automatic email asking to share my long term experience, but it was put together very thoughtfully, so here I am, a couple of months late, but here none the less. The message was an appeal to come to the site and share my long term experience, gosh, you don’t have to ask me twice, it’s just been so busy that time is barely enough. However, this site was such a godsend back in October of ’06, when I re-started my journey that I had to take the time to write.

I don’t believe that anyone that makes the decision to take the WLS route does it lightly. It was heart wrenching and a long drawn out process for me, as I’m sure it is for others considering this option and I did a LOT of second guessing and back pedaling. So much came into play, such as irreversible, complications, mutilation, not another full meal again, failure again, too much more to mention all. I also considered all the positives, again way too many to mention here, but I’ll mention 2: being able to cross my legs (!!!), being able to wrap a normal size towel around myself (!!!), so many more! This is a very personal decision and one that others that are not afflicted with obesity cannot usually understand. So once I made up my mind, I did not let anyone detract me and I tried to stay positive. I also have a very supportive husband that wanted the best for me, weather I did or didn’t have the surgery.

Back in 2003 I reached a personal “low”, or should I say “high” of weighing over 300lbs, it was almost the worst period in my life. As many here with this horrible disease, I had tried every diet known with mixed results, only to regain all the weight lost and then some more on top of that, as I’m sure others have experienced. Sometimes I feel like I could literally write a book. I either did not assimilate the information properly or my physiology just did not respond. I had all the typical complaints and discomforts associated with obesity, which I’m not going to recount, luckily I did not have any other health issues or co-morbidities, yet, but they were not far off, I’m sure. Very guardedly, I started to research WLS, I felt like a failure and ashamed that it had come to this. Back then, the By-Pass (RNY) and the Band were the only options. I did not want to have a foreign object inside of me that would require another surgery to remove, and I did not want to have my digestive system rearranged. I did not like the many complications and issues associated with the surgery, but losing the weight was such a temptation! I started the process, but to make a long story short, I stopped; I just could not wrap my head around what the RNY entailed and without any other viable options (in my opinion) I went on my way without it for another (almost) 5 years.

Fast forward and almost 70lbs later, pretty much the worst period in my life, I was at my limits and decided to take the plunge. By this time turning in bed at night and getting into and out of the car was an ordeal, and the trail of broken or damaged chairs I left behind, just to mention a few things. Went to the primary doctor, started to document the process, the tests, the documentation, getting all the approvals, the research, etc., but still not happy about the RNY and by now had heard about the “Sleeve” (VSG). The more I found out about it the more convinced I became that it was the option for me. The challenge was that it had been performed for less than 5 years, considered “experimental” and there was not a lot of data to support its success. I was approved for the RNY, but continued to research the VSG, hours and hours daily. I posted many questions here on OH and got lots of help, one in particular was an insurance savvy member (can’t remember his name), THANK YOU wherever you are, with his help and detailed instructions I researched, prepared and submitted an appeal to my employer’s insurance committee, after our UHC “self-funded” plan denied it. I basically documented the cons of the RNY and the few studies for the VSG and that it would be a “risk and detriment” (complications) to me and my employer if I didn’t have the VSG, legal action implied, but not mentioned. It took just a few days (2); these were the longest days of my life. Then the news came on March 29^th, 2007, “You are approved for the VSG”! My surgery was immediately scheduled and I got my VSG on April 10^th, 2007. The sleeve has come a long way since then!

Let me share some stats. I’m 5’10”, I have a large frame, literally “big boned”, no joke. Wide shoulders, wide hips, I’m built solid, like my dad. At a weight of 175 (almost my lowest as an adult) I had a BMI of 25.11, practically skin and bones, I was considered borderline “overweight”. I have resigned myself to accept that under those guidelines I will never be “normal”, but I am normal for me. I registered for a pageant and listed my true weight, I was asked/forced to change it (30 lbs. lower), because “it cannot be”, even after changing/lying, I was still 20lbs heavier than the other contestants. See "Continued" above.