Advice?

KarmaKween · 01-21-2009, 01:58 AM

Hey All!!

First of all i have loved reading the stories on this thread and so many are very inspirational.
I have recently been contemplating WLS but have been a little mentally stuck. I suppose like many of you im having the issue of whether or not this is "cheating" and heck i can just do it myself.
I am currently around 292 pnds and 5'8 wearing a size 26. My boyfriend went in for WLS surgery in June 2007 and is down about 200+ pnds, starting weight a little over 500 pnds.
I guess at this point im not afraid so much what the surgery will require of me post-op having to see my boyfriend thru it. its more the surgery itself. Ive luckily (knock on wood) never undergone any surgical procedure before and am kinda just a deer in headlights thinking about electively choosing to go under the knife.
Im trying to reason with myself that if i dont do something soon that eventually health issues will arise that will require me to go under the knife when im unhealthy vs going now as a preventative measure.
I keep telling myself i just need to get up off my ass and i can do this on my own, and than again i know the frustration of working my ass off to lose weight to see little to no result.
Frankly im scared! But realize im much more scared to see my life deteriorating due to my weight and feeling like im losing a grip on my weight.
Any support or advice would be great. Ive already seen my doctor and have been approved to go in for the consult and all. I know its a process with nutritionist visits and psych evaluations etc.. i kinda told myself that while im going thru all that i can work my ass off and try to do it on my own and if i feel im making enough progress on my own than just postpone the surgery date...i dunno ladies im just frightened as to what the recovery is going to look like pain wise ( my bf said it was a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10) and would do it over in a heart beat... i just know everyones journey is different.

MikesHAPPYwife · 01-22-2009, 12:40 AM

I am not sure what procedure you BF had but i had lapband & pain was like 0 on a scale from 1-10. I walked out the hospital 3 hours after having the sure & never felt pain at all. Some discomfort where my port was stitched in & I was tired the day of & after but thats it. It was nothing compared to my c-sec I had with my DD.

In the process of getting approved I had so many thoughts of "why dont i just do this by myself" However, the more i thought of that i remember all the times I lost weight only to gain it back. I could not do it on my own..plain & simple.

Was lapband the easy way out? NO WAY!! Lapband is a small tool to assist me. I have to be willing to eat right & to exercise. Without doing so I will fail at my weightloss. Lapband was what I needed to finally succeed and I am.

Weightloss is slower with lapband & some times that is discouraging but I am getting healthier. I have already stopped talking Metformin for my IR & cant wait to get my labs done to see what else has improved. I have also lost 37 lbs in 6 weeks!!

goddess819 · 01-22-2009, 06:02 PM

I have to second to what a lot of what Laura said. WLS, not matter which form you have (I had the RNY) is NOT the easy way out. Yes the weight does come off easier, but it is only a tool and not a fix as I'm sure you know since your BF has had it done. I'm 4.5 years out now and I have to be quite mindful of what I eat. My body has adapted to my re-routed intestinal tract and if I'm not careful I can regain my weight back. Case in point...I saw the doc on 1/5/09 and weighed in at 151 (I was just 3 weeks post partum and had lost 21lbs since having my baby). I got lazy over the past few weeks and when I weighed in at the doc yesterday for my post partum check I was up to 155. I know it's just 4lbs...but it's 4lbs that I didn't have to gain.

Anyway the decision has to be yours and yours alone. I know many women who've had WLS for preventive reasons as diabetes, hypertension and the like run in their families and although they didn't have them at the time they knew that it was just a matter of time before they developed them.

As for pain, pain is relative and individual. What is a scale of 2 to one person may be a 8 or 9 to another. Frankly I can say that my WLS pain was the least of the following...breaking my ankle & needing surgery to fix it, having 2 c-sections (the last c-section was the worst...I'm almost 6 weeks post partum now and STILL tender). How well do you tolerate pain? Anyway something to remember is that they will give you pain medication, do not try to be superwoman and go without it. The less you hurt the better & faster you heal and the faster your pain will subside.

Anyway like I said...the decision has to be yours. I thought I could do it myself for many years before 'giving up' and realizing that I needed more help than what my physician or Weight Watchers could give me. I'm very happy with my decision and would do it again if I had to...but I know how to make my tool work for me and I won't have to.

Good luck in making your decision and if you have questions feel free to ask! The more educated you are about it the better decision you'll make!

baileysmom31 · 02-03-2009, 02:24 PM

You just gotta keep in mind that its a tool, not a quik fix and its not easy and its not cheating....If you have tried and tried and failed and now there is a new tool for you to use, then use it. good luck in your decision making... and the girls on here have a lot of knowledge and are super supportive. This is where i came when i wasnt sure if that was going to be the right choice for me, and i eventually did it. I had tons of questions and this is the perfect place to ask em. Good luck.