Question of the day...

Hi folks! It's Wednesday... half way through the week and the weekend is right around the corner! So are some your surgeries. Best wishes to all of you with upcoming surgery. We're thinking about you! So, what has been the hardest lesson you have had to learn or are learning since you started your WLS journey and what advice would you give to someone else regarding it? Even if you have not had the surgery yet, you have begun the journey. I personally think the journey starts the moment you start your research. For me? Patience is a biggy. Not just with waiting for the approval but with people as well. The medical world can be quite a trial for some of us... I have to keep reminding myself that if it is to be...it will be. Something that helps me when I am feeling impatient and start wondering if it will ever happen is this... I imagine a year from now myself reading my profile and chuckling at the "process" and how it stretched my patience so much. I tell myself a year goes by so fast and soon this wait will be a mere memory. Does that make sense? Boy I'm dieing to hear your responses guys cuz I know I'm gonna learn a lot! Happy Wednesday, Sallykate

If I can say aI learned a lesson it would be that you will learn who your true friends are. People dont like change and thererfor expect to have a hard time with the "friends" and "family" that care about you the most. No one told me this advise. I learned the hard way. I lost a complete circle of "friends". And threw my WLS I have meet many women that have lost there sopouses. Lesson learned ..... people are not always what they say they are

Patience is a definite. I guess I must have had more than I thought because there were days when I wouldn't have made it. I would definitely say not being afraid to be your own advocate and make people give you answers. I don't think I would have ever called people and demanded (nicely) answers in the past. Faith would come in at the top of my list. I needed to believe that God had cleared this path for me and that I needed to follow his agenda and not my own...That is something I am working on in all my endevors.

This is not an easy road to travel. As in regular life, things happen that make it change day by day. I experienced this yesterday. I ate a cream cheese bagel. (This is not unusual for me to eat them at night as a meal.) It made me dump. I was so sick. And due to my pending fissure surgery next month, The diarreah caused the fissure to act up and I was in massive pain, had to leave work, change my medications and sit in the recliner in lala land until the pain went away. (hourse later.) Foods can be fine for your new body one day and not the next. Some days you know this before putting foods in your mouth, some days will take about an hour to realize you ate the wrong thing. I do not regre the surgery at all. Just tired of my body ruling me. I want to get out and live, make plans and not have to change them at the last moment.

Wow, tough questions...it makes you think. I think the biggest thing I have learned during this is that being successful is really up to you. You not only have to deal with all the medical but the mental issues. Melinda Lap RNY 10/17/03 -120lbs

You have to want it more...but it's worth it in the long run. Once when I was little a friend and I bought some Little Debbies at the carryout on the way home. When my mom found out she was mad, and I told her I had the same as my friend (who was skinny). And she said, Sarah you can't eat the same as her. And that is a hard reality. As much as we all want to be normal, we are not normal, if we were most of us would not be MO. A normal person can eat a 2000-2200 calorie diet and stay a healthy weight, for me my metabolism is so slow that I must eat 1200 or less to loss and at that it's slow going. Hump Day...YEA! Sarah

I'm not very far along....I had attended a couple of Dr Seminars last summer before Hurricane Charley slammed my home and business. The biggest thing I have learned is that your head has to be 100% into WLS. I put it on hold after the storm because I had to get back on my feet and get my insurance claims settled (that took alot of work and energy) Now I am back into my home and almost back into my office (we have been in a trailer in the parking lot since Charley) I feel that I can begin the process again and work towards a new me. Just have to be in the right frame of mind ....

Great question Sallykate!!!!!! I have learned so much and patience was definitely one of them. I have learned that this surgery is not an easy way out. I am almost a year now since surgery and I am still eating right and working out with a personal trainer. Now the pain from the surgery was only a memory and was well worth it. Also my old eating habits and my not exercising days are gone forever and so are the 130 pounds that I have lost already. This was definitely a life altering change for the better. I teach my girls that mommy is not skinny, I am just healthier. Hugs, Christine

Patience is a biggie. The hardest thing post-op I've learned is to eat slowly, and chew everything really, really good. I don't know how many times I've made myself sick because I ate too fast or didn't chew my food good enough. ~ Trish