How did you first find out about bariatric surgery and what were your initial impressions of it?

My mother had her initial surgery in 1980 with revisions in 1981 and 1983. Terrific weight loss at first and lots of being ill. A friend had the surgery in 2000 and I started researching the changes and was impressed.

What was your stay in the hospital like? How long where you there? What things are most important to bring?

only stayed 2 days in hospital staff was very kind--most important thing to take is a robe for walking in the halls.

Did you have any complications from the surgery? If so, how did you deal with them?

no problems with surgery

In the weeks after you got your surgery date, how did you feel? How did you cope with any anxiety you might have felt?

got surgery date just 1 week before having surgery had too much to do too fast to be overly anxious about the surgery

What aftercare support group/program do you have? How helpful/important is this?

my aftercare group is the friends that I have that have also had the surgery and one who hopes to soon

What is your scar like? Is this what you expected?

my scar is about 8 inches long and fairly thin--quite a bit smaller than I expected ---smaller than my mother's and my friends'

Please describe any plateau experiences you have had since surgery.

had a short plateau at 85 #--stayed there 3 weeks then weight started falling off again

Do you notice people treating you any differently now?

people definately treat me differently now I get notice from lots of men--this was very strange in the begining to me--I felt lucky if hubby paid attention.