Hello everyone! I'm new here and very scared! I have lots of questions, so please HELP!!

So..... I had surgery scheduled in August, but I got so scared and I canceled it.  I am having second thoughts because this is a fairly new surgery. Please let me know if any of you have any regrets. Also, Is there anyone here who got this done over 5 years ago? If so, were you able to keep it up? How is your blood work? I will be asking lots of questions, so bare with me...

I thank you all in advance for your help and advise! 

it is not actually a new surgery anymore,having been being done for over 10 years.  A variation of the vertical sleeve has been done for over 100 years,not for weight loss,but for ppl who had stomach cancer or ulcers that wouldn't heal. It was noticed in those ppl,that often the after effects of what was called a partial gastrectomy,was weight loss.  T hat is how the sleeve as we know it today, was born.

having it was the single best thing I have ever done for myself and I would do it once a month if that was necessary to lose my weight and keep it off. 

I will be 6 years out in March next year and have lost 122 pounds and kept it off. My labs are in range and I track them carefully and if anything starts slipping,I increase that supplement according to what the labs indicate. 

My diabetes and high blood pressure went into remission. 

My best advice is to read every page on this forum. Everything you want to know has been answered here, many more than one time. Start here and go backward page by page ,as your free time permits. I read from the present all the way back to the first post. Everything I know about WLS was learned on this forum.

Thank you so much for your advice! It helped me so much! I will do my best to read all the pages of this forum 

I'm still a newbie so my experience will be pretty limited but I have no regrets having this surgery. I don't think this surgery is that new, awhile back the DS used to be done in 2 stages. The first stage was the sleeve & then later the patient went back for the rest of it & they noticed in some patients they lost enough weight & further surgery wasn't needed. 

It took awhile for the ins people to catch on & accept the surgery. I know my ins years ago didn't cover it & now it does.

Thank you for your reply! Have a wonderful day!

Not exactly right. The DS is sometimes performed in two parts, when the patient is too ill to withstand being under long enough for the whole procedure to be completed. Often these are also very heavy patients, so the idea is for them to lose a significant amount of weight with the Sleeve portion, then add the intestinal portion for greater weight loss and better long-term maintenance. It's ALWAYS preferred to do the whole DS in one surgery when possible.

It's not a new surgery at all, it's pretty well proven. I know where you are coming from. I had surgery on 11/17 and right up until they rolled me into the OR, I was contemplating jumping up and off the gurney and leaving, obviously I didn't, just do it. You will be a whole lot happier trust me.

Thank you! Yeah... I am definitely hoping for the best...

I'm 2.5 years post op.  I went from a weight of 385 to 160 in about 18 months.  I am maintaining at 160, and feeling great. 

I was scared of the surgery - any surgery, and it was so uneventful.  Surgery is so much better now than it was when I was young (I'm 67, so that was a while ago!)  The anesthesia drugs are better.  The surgical procedures are better.  Of course there are no guarantees, but most likely,  you will come thru the surgery just fine. 

I waited until I was morbidly obese, and experiencing a real degradation in my quality of life before I risked the surgery.  And the surgery was so uneventful.  And the up-side is so good.  I am so much healthier and more comfortable in my body.  I urge you to take the risk.  You have so much to gain by treating the obesity. I wish I had done the surgery decades sooner.  I suspect you will feel the same.

Best of luck. 

Carol

thank you Carol !!