Did I make the right decision?

I know I did.....but driving around tonight and looking at all the EAT HERE signs has me alittle frustrated.I have never doubted having this surgery,and others have told me the first 2 weeks are the most difficult.I see what they mean now.If anyone says this surgery is the easy way out....come on in and walk a few days in our shoes.   Maybe I should explain myself alittle bit on here....I have been going to Rochester's Highland Health Hospital for the last 8 months ..nut. appointments,psy. appoint...bloodwork and anything else they needed me for.I chose to go with Dr.O ' Malley....heard great things about his team and wasnt dissapointed at the least.I had my surgery on the 25th of this month and was released on the 27th (about 3 days ago).  When I did get home,everything was so new to me,,,I have never been on this kind of  diet before..Fat free ,sugar free everything.Sip on this and that.Its really like you have to train yourself all over again.Something at 42 years old,I thought I had everything down but I am starting everything from scratch!   I really dont know where this letter is going but I feel better now that I wrote it.If anyone has any questions please feel free to write me...I swear I am not crazy.lol.                                   I DO KNOW I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE....

Hi Larry, Welcome to the NY Forum and for having WLS! As the saying goes....you didn't get a lobotomy, only WLS!  It will get a litltle easier, I promise. Best of luck to you.

Hi Lar!!!!

Welcome aboard!!!  We've all been in your shoes sweetie...second guessing for a second, then realizing this is the best thing we could have done for ourselves!  It is tough when you drive by those places, but it surely sounds like your mind is in the right place.  Congrats on your surgery.  This is where you can come to vent, brag, etc. 24 hours a day.  99.9% of the time the entire OH site has positives for ya.  Stay in the NY room...lol  I've definitely found this place to be more supportive and friendly.  It's truly a family here!  Guess I'm partial!  You have many people with so much to offer here, take advantage of the knowledge!  I'll stop rambling.  Add me as a friend if you'd like, though I didn't have RNY, I can add support if ya need it to drive past those places!

xo

Congrats on your surgery and making the decision to CHANGE your life. it is a BIG adjustment ... not easy  BUT worth every second of it!!!! Hang in there and take it 1 day at a time hugs, Britt

Larry, You made the right decision and yes, it will get easier.  Take it one day at a time...follow the rules...don't overdo...and once you start seeing progress it all gets better. Rosemary

I felt exactly the same way...I had my surgery a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. Ugh!  I was asking myself if I had lost my mind!  What was I gonna do now if I couldn't eat, eat, EAT with everyone over the holidays.  Surprisingly enough, I survived.  It gets so much easier after a couple of weeks!  Sometimes I still miss the "junk," but the way I feel so much outweighs (no pun intended) that!  I've lost almost 60 pounds and it was so worth it!  Good luck and have fun!  This is pretty exciting.

Hey Larry .... Were twins. We were both reborn on Friday. :) Big cyber hugs to you... Part of what you may be feeling is emotional. I cried at the drop of the hat for the first 3 days home... Let's just say I was a blubbering fool... LOL We are on a whole new journey of our lifetime. Probably the first time in your entire life you've done anything for just you. Let's re-ask ourselves in June if it was the right decision. When all of the anesthesia is out of our systems... LOL By the way... if we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't have needed the surgery in the first place. So now it's our chance to try it again... So many people don't get a 2nd chance to get it right... Keep your chin up, were all here on the journey to help hold each other up when we need it..

First, congrats. and best wishes.  It doesn't get easy, but it does get easier.  For me, routine and schedule helped me out.  I had to figure a way to get my fluids and proteins in.  It took some time, but it worked out.  It gets easier to drink the farther out you are, so that helps with time and fluids.  Your doctor gave you a program, so just work it day by day.  It will get better all the time. When you see all of those signs you wrote about, just automatically think "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels!" I read that on one of these boards and it really helps.  Your taste will changes, and you won't like a lot of the things you once wanted, so even that gets easier.  Just hang in there! Lou

Thank you everyone for all the help....I dont know what I would have done without all your advise.This is awhole lot harder than I thought it would be.With a loving family and great friends like you guys....the only way I can look is up.Thanks Aagin!!!!!

Larry: Hello, welcome and thak you for the topic! Do you feel you made the right/wrong decision? What are you feeling? How yo choose to view your choice and this change will either assist you or restrict you. Viewed as a rebirth and opportuintiy to grow, learn and succeed or as a restricting negative hurdle to overcome will undoutably make it difficult. Acknowledge your feelings will help the good bad and ugly vs letting them fester only to try and avoid numb them with food and or another unhealthy coping (many switch from food to other addictions) never really embracing the opportuinity to feel and life totaly! (myself included exercise became an addiction I had to face)...

The let down is immense for many the build up seeing the surgery as the end point and hurdle only to realize was most likely the EASIET part of the journey! Living the rest of our lives is the hard stuff! You are not alone! Keep posting,  journaling, talking in support group and with family and friends who are supportive and a good therapist won't hurt either! I is great you are connecting to those feelings and not numbing or avoiding them! Notce them without judgment just notice! That is our goal to living well!

The last sentence for you is the positive affirmation you need! Keep stating it daily as a mantra and you will believe and feel it soon enough!

Sometimes we struggle with change vs embracing and accepting it. We didn't know really how to live and so the surgery ALLOWS US THAT OPPORTUNITY IF WE CAN EMBRACE AND ACCEPT IT.  or we can be angry embittered and self sabotage this. The first 2 wk were brutal for myself no food to chew on! Oh and the commericals I was watching the food channel (food pron I call it!) almost torturing mysef I think. I knew how many pizza commericals came on a day LOL! I chose to obsess on that when I coud of thought instead about all the oportunity I had to live life free of the bonds of obesity! We all grow and learn at our own pace! Be well. CONSIDER _______________________________________________ Establishing your mindset to accept that weight loss surgery is not a cure/quick fix for morbid obesity, it's a very effective/powerful/wonderful tool that can be used lifelong to combat the chronic/lifelong disease of morbid obesity that has NO *current* CURE (*So at 1 yr out when many say 100# gone forever I sometimes shudder, it is never gone forever it is gone for now but the work has just started at 1 yr out IMHO). The tool is flawed and can be defeated as well (emotional eating, grazing, drinking calories, eating/drinking together, alcohol use, high calorie dense foods, too many simple carbs, overfilling pouch, carbonation, no consistent exercise routine).  Considered WLS as part of a life-long process & commitment to challenge your personal awareness/responsibility/consistency/accountability and that a life-long requirement to follow up with physicians, a regular exercise program, and healthy eating. Accept it will come w/ potential challenges & imperfections (risks, side-effects, complications, challenges such as plateaus, not meeting goal, regain, possible depression, grief over the loss/safety of food/obesity may of offered/invisibility it offered although may of been unwanted at the time/the new attention you get, possible anger or anxiety w/o comfort of food as it used to be/limits it may impose, effort it requires to be healthy etc.) that these frustrations are part of the process to make you healthier see them as challenges not difficulties, positive self talk helps!.  Your mindset will be the most important tool for success, as all the challenges of traditional diets/exercise plans for health will be present after WLS as well *Yup so many say I will never diet again, well let me say diets don't work *because people go off them* correct but you will have to be mindful of food and pay attention to intake and exercise for life, so in a sense your dieting for life! Even after WLS.... The surgery won't make a person change, but the beauty is YOU HAVE COMPLETE control over those changes/choices needed after surgery for success, the choices are there and the best use of the mind/psychology will harness those. Surgery is such a drastic choice that so many are successful due to a recommitment to healthy living and choices that is one reason it works and we say it is a 'rebirth'.

 

 

NO MATTER HOW INFORMED/EDUCATED YOU ARE NO ONE CAN PREPARE FOR THE DIFFICULT ADJUSTMENTS..MANY FEEL THERE IS SORT OF A ‘MAGIC’ TO WLS.