Newbie alert!

Hello Everybody,

I am new to this forum and to the WLS journey. Just thought I would come on and introduce myself and hopefully find a local close nit support group, also at the beginning of their journey.

My referral was submitted yesterday (Mar. 15 2016) morning by my NP (YYYAYYY!!!!) and I'm beyond excited to get this journey started! She didn't want to at first but after I mentioned my family history she was more than obliged to help!

I was always the "chubby girl" in elementary school.  By 14 in gr. 9 I was 180Lbs. By 19 I was the smallest I had ever been which was 140-ish Lbs and in a size 10/12 jean. Not quite sure how I managed to get there!!

Then at 21 I gained 80 Lbs (!!!!) with my first pregnancy.  Since then I have just continued to gain weight and have tried everything under the sun (except the fad diets like Atkins etc). I am now sitting at 270 Lbs (pre-pregnancy) 5'7" which puts my BMI at 42 I believe.

I have thought about doing the surgery now for a few years but also pushed it to the back of my mind thinking I could do it on my own. However, the cherry on the cake so-to-speak was having to ask for an alternate chair in one of my classes because the existing chairs had arms (lecture hall) and my rear end was too wide! 

I also have a huge family history of strokes and heart attacks at a very early age and being no spring chicken anymore (34 years) I'm trying to nip that in the bud now.  I have 4 children, soon to be 5 (YIKES!!!) come July.   With that being said I'm hoping they still approve me as the process takes a year anyway.   I currently live in Peterborough so I'm assuming I will be appointed to one of the Toronto centers. 

Does anyone know how quick Toronto gets you in for your orientation? I want to get this show on the road, and get as much done as I can before baby arrives.

If you have any advice or suggestions to share or just looking for a WLS partner in crime- message!!

Talk to you soon

Welcome to a great journey. One thing you will learn is patience unfortunately. It took almost 8 months from referral to orientation. Similar stories for others. Use this time to make positive choices and work on bad eating habits. There is a group that meets at the mall in Peterborough. There schedule as changed but I am sure someone here will be able to give you the contact info. If you go on the bariatric web site you can plug in your postal code and see where you will be referred too.

Overall you are probably looking at 1 1/2 year from referral to surgery. 

Good luck

Welcome to your journey!  I am going through HRRH and it took me 3 months to get my orientation. That being said, that was June of 2015 and the bulk of my appointments (dietitian, RN and social worker) is happening next week. I met with the internal doctor last month and he sent me for an ecocardiogram and a sleep study, which I did. I met with him again, April 13th and then hopefully I will get a surgery date. It is a long process. Best of luck on your journey. This forum is a hugehelp and motivator. 

My referral was on February 4th and my orientation is on May 4th.  I'd love for it to be sooner, but given other people's experiences, this is fairly quick.  I first started looking at WLS when my youngest was a year old- he's 11 now so it took a while for me to truly get on board.

Thank you everyone for your responses and kind words.  

I decided to call the Bariatric Network last week just to see if they got my referral. I have heard stories of peoples referrals getting lost and them not knowing about it for months.  Friday last week I finally got to speak with a REAL person! I found out my referral was sent to Humber River and that they sent me an information package the day before  (should be getting that any day now) and that my orientation is scheduled for April 1st.  That's next week!  Only 2 weeks after my referral was sent in! 

I was ecstatic because I was expecting 2 months!.   I actually screamed for joy and my 8 year old daughter came running and asked if I saw a mouse! Ha ha I said - If I had seen a mouse I wouldn't be screaming that would be your dad!! LOL 

Just thought I would share the news!