What Made You Decide?

Hi all,

I am curious to know what made you finally decide to get surgery?

did your doctor recommend it?

Did someone close to you get it?

Where were you and what were you doing when you made the choice to look into WLS.

Personally, I was watching My 600lb Life on TLC, and I thought "I wonder if OHIP (insurance) covered WLS". I looked into it and became obsessed with researching it. After 6 months of thinking about it, I asked for a referral.

WLS had been recommended for years and one of my co-workers had the RNY. I watched her lose weight and after being diagnosed with life threatening sleep apnea, I finally started to research. It was first discussed seriously with my pulmonologist. I first contacted the doctor of my co-worker and fortunately he turned me down. My PCP then recommended to another local surgeon who did a surgery called the DS. I had never heard of it before. I went to an informational seminar where I heard about all of the WLS options. Once I started researching I realized the DS was the absolute best surgery for me. I was also very fortunate to have, at the time, one of the best DS surgeons in the country, local to me who accepted my insurance.

Fast forward 14+ years later. I'm still within 10 pounds of my goal weight, I no longer have sleep apnea (or any other obesity-related issues), and don't take any medications (only vitamins).

You have to decide what is best for YOU. No one can tell you what kind of surgery to have. I urge you to do your research, talk to people who have had all different types of WLS, and find the one that you can live with for the rest of your life.

I am in Canada, so I do not get to choose what kind of WLS I get. I get whatever the doctor chooses. If I want to choose, I would have to pay for surgery and most likely get it outside of Canada.

I had researched it off and in for years, but every time I started looking into it I was horrified by the potential side effects and the thought of having to make such a drastic lifestyle change. Bottom line - I just was not ready. So I would go on a diet, drop 50-75lbs and gain it all back. You all know the drill.

I had been told by every doctor known to man that I needed to lose weight, but that was always pretty much the whole discussion.

The turning point for me was one of my orthopedic doctors. I have had bad knees since my teen years and I've needed replacements since my early 30s. By my late 30s I also developed hip problems and needed a hip replacement as well. This particular orthopedic had a very compassionate conversation with me where he said "I know you've heard his before, but you really need to take off this weight. I also know it's extremely hard and I'm sure you've tried a hundred times. But the reality is that if you don't get this weight off you will be handicapped and confined to a wheel chair. And I'm not taking decades. I'm talking about within a few years. Not to mention the surgeries you need will be much safer, the recovery will be much faster and the new joints will last much longer. I have no easy answers but I strongly recommend you at least consider bariatric surgery. At least go talk to a surgeon about your options. You can decide from there."

Thats when it hit me that I was never going to be successful on my own. I was ready for the change. I needed to take control of my health. And being in my 40s made mortality a lot more real. I wanted to be around for my kids and the clock was ticking on my ability to do that.

I called my PCP that day for a referral. I made an appointment with a surgeon the next week, and I had my RNY two months later. That was appointment with my orthopedic was 20 months ago. 8 months ago I got my hip replaced. It was a piece of cake and and the recovery was actually actually very fast. I feel amazing. My knees still need replacing, but feel so much better that I will continue to put that off for a few more years.

That's my story. What's yours?

I was diagnosed with PCOS and told I needed to lose weight to fix it, at the same time that a friend from college had WLS and was super successful. I had no idea how I was supposed to lose the weight for PCOS, but when I saw my friend's success I looked into surgery. My docs all gave a thumbs up and there were no insurance hoops to jump through. So from the moment I inquired to being under the knife was just a few months.

Good Morning, I had struggled with losing weight and then gaining it back time and time again. I had high blood pressure, signs of sleep apnea and was pre-diabetic but honestly what "sealed the deal" for me was when I had to exit a roller coaster that my daughter wanted to ride because the bar wouldn't go down enough-the walk of shame walking away as she had to ride by herself. When we came home from vacation I made an appt with my PCP and he agreed it was a good option for me. There were a few co-workers that had had surgery so I did seek advice and support from them. Good luck as you start the process to decide if this will part of your journey.

I had gained and lost massive amounts of weight numerous times. I was back to being heavy and gaining steadily. I lived on the third floor of an apartment complex with no elevator. One day I was hauling myself up the stairs, in terrible pain, pulling myself up by the railing and something just clicked (besides my knees ha ha). No more. Started researching that same day.

I'd always been heavy, but my weight had been steadily creeping up for years, and I'd hit the 300# mark, which was eye-opening for me.

I had several friends who had RNY over the years, with good results. But that surgery intimidated me because of the dumping and potential for malabsorption. I'd known several people who'd had the lap-band, and the results were by and large disasterous. 2 almost died from gram-negative infections, and the other 2 (a married couple) lost a bit but then their food addictions went crazy and they intentionally would eat/drink things they knew would go right through the pouch and actually gained weight.

My sister had the VSG several years ago overseas with VERY good results, and she'd been pushing me to get it. Because she's like a mother to me, that meant I automatically had to resist it, yanno? ;) Then I had another friend who had it and his results were incredible.

The turning point really came when my rheumatologist started talking to me about moving to a biologic therapy. I'd hit the 300# point, and was giving more serious thought to WLS. I knew that biologics impair healing, so I asked her opinion on WLS, expecting her to say no way. She surprised me by being enthusiastically for it. VSG was her recommendation because of the treatment options needed for my auto-immune, and in addition she emphasized that it's not a guarantee but that the tissue removed with a VSG is part of the inflammatory process and just removing that much stomach tissue can greatly reduce inflammation and improve the auto-immune. It was possible to go into remission, but even if that didn't happen, it would very likely let my treatments work better.

I'd already had to abandon my nursing career and plans to become a nurse practitioner because of the auto-immune. I went into healthcare informatics (healthcare IT specialization) and it's a good career, but I knew my health was going to eventually cause me to have to quit working altogether if I didn't do something to completely change the situation.

From there, things actually moved pretty quickly. The rheumatologist visit was in February or March as I recall, and I immediately started therapy for my food issues -- the couple who sabotaged their lap-bands was VERY much on my mind, and I knew if I didn't address those that surgery or not, I'd never change my eating habits. I jumped through all the insurance hoops and had surgery that August. And none too soon, as my pre-op workups revealed my blood pressure had become untenably high and it ended up taking 2 medications to get it under control enough for surgery.

My only regret is that I didn't do it years ago. My prescription medications have been cut in half. (I'll never get off some of them, and that's OK.) My auto-immune is in remission (though I got a new diagnosis of fibromyalgia a few weeks ago and am now taking medication for that). My migraines have reduced in frequency. I'm more active than I've been in decades, and last weekend did my first 5K - something I never thought would be remotely possible.

I had never been interested in surgery thinking I could do it myself. I did do it losing well over 100 pounds 3 times and gaining it back every time. I didn't have it in me to do it again knowing my chances of gaining it back were so incredibly high (96-98% within 5 years). Out of desperation I finally started considering surgery. I'm still scared to death I'll gain it back, but I'm so glad I did it.

This sounds like me. In addition to loosing over 100 lbs. 3 times in my life, I've probably lost 40-50 lbs. at least another 1/2 dozen times. I used to be one of those who said surgery was "the easy way." After the last regain about 5 years ago (after my most massive weight loss of nearly 200 lbs. and gaining almost all of it back), I had pretty much resigned myself that I would just always be fat. Then the knee pain started. This was new to me. I had cortisone shots that worked for a bit, but is was very hard to go up and down steps and I work in an old building on the 2nd floor with no elevator. Each trip up and down was a new adventure in pain. I knew I had to loose the weight and did more research into surgery. At the same time I had some co-workers and acquaintances that had WLS and were successful. I looked into surgery as my last resort. It's been great so far, but definitely not the easy way out. Now that I'm past the 1 year post-op mark I am able to eat pretty much anything I want to with no side effects (other than weight gain if I overdo it). That is not to say that I should eat anything. I will always have my food demons but WLS is a great tool. I just need to remember to use my tool every single day.