Hi, new and interested in VSG/intro

Hi:

I'll do a brief intro. I'm 34 years old and have struggled with my weight all my life. At 20 years, old I was already around 400 lbs. For most of my twenties, I fluctuated between 380-445 lbs. During a period in my late 20's/early 30's, I lost of lot of weight through calorie counting and got down to 230 lbs (I'm 5'8). For someone who has been very heavy all her life, that was downright skinny for me. Although I was able to maintain that weight for about a year, I gradually put on pounds and here I am at around 300 lbs.

I have a tendency to just "puff out" and pack on the pounds. While I'm still significantly smaller than my highest weight, I'm a lot heavier than I'm comfortable being. I'm not getting younger, and I have a lot of joint issues but knock on wood not many other co-morbidities.

I have a consultation with Dr. Daniel Herron on Monday and I am scared! I know he won't say "okay, now get on a gurnery, you're going in!" but I have a real fear of going under the knife. The only surgery I have had in my life was gallbladder removal.

I read extensively on vsg and seems like the right fit for me. I work for the city of ny, so I have decent medical coverage. While I don't have to be thin and know from previous weight loss that it doesn't change your life and solves all problems (if only!) I would like to be in better physical condition.

Will be reading and posting more.

Thanks

Jill

Hi & welcome to the forum! Congrats on going for the surgery! It's ok to be scared but at least in the hospital you'll have a team of professionals to help you thru the surgery & provide help afterwards. I've also had in NY, actually in the city at NYU, they were very helpful.

Post away!, there are many helpful people here. Good luck in your weight loss journey. 

Welcome to the forum.  I hope you'll find lots of information and support here, as I have.  I am also 5'8" and I weighed 385 at my highest.  Now I'm at 160 pounds with a BMI in the normal range.  When I started the process, I would have been happy to be below 300 pounds, and I never thought I'd break 200.  But here I am. 

This weight loss surgery really works.  It doesn't make it easy, but it makes it possible.  Best of luck on your weight loss journey.  I hope you are in for many delightful surprises.

Carol

Welcome!  I was also really nervous before meeting with my surgeon the first time - I was worried he was going to say, "Nah, you'll just fail so there's no use."  Or something else.  But he was amazing and I left that appointment feeling GREAT.  And here I am having met his goal for me when I saw him for my year follow-up!  I still have quite a ways to go to reach my goal for myself, but it's nice to feel like your surgeon is pleased with you :D

Congratulations on taking the first step! I hemmed and hawed and delayed my surgery for months longer than I needed to because I was scared of surgery. Now that I'm on the other side, I can see I had nothing to be afraid of, and I wish I'd hustled a bit more! The surgery has given me a new lease on life. It is a lot easier going through the world at 180lbs than 400lbs.