Who Motivated You To Get Surgery?

I've seen her on different cooking contest shows. I heard she has a successful bakery. She loves to bake. Not sure I could stay at goal baking all those goodies

That would like me, being in the cracker or pizza business...recipe for DISASTER (speaking only for MYSELF)

Those nibbles and finger licking add up

For me, it was my orthopedic for the very painful arthritis in my hip and knees. I had struggled with my weight for most of my life, and constantly was told that I needed to "eat less and move more" to take off the weight by well meaning, but ineffectual doctors. None had ever brought up WLS. Of course I had researched it, but was terrified by the side effects, which made it easy to set the idea aside.

I was at an orthopedic appointment when a very caring doctor started the conversation by saying "I know you are well aware that you need to lose some weight". This is itself was a nice acknowledgement, and really sent the tone for the conversation. Such a simple thing, but acknowledging I'm no idiot and this isn't some wisdom he was dispensing from on-high was helpful. He also acknowledged how incredibly hard it was, and how low the success rate was, saying "if it was easy, everyone would do it instead of almost no one."

He then brought up considering bariatric surgery, and told me that this if I wasn't able to find a way to take off the weight I would end up in a wheelchair. And he added that this was not in the distant future, probably in about 5 years or so. Not to mention any joint replacement surgery that I would need to have would be much easier and far more successful if I was at a lower weight. That was a huge wakeup call. That combined with my growing fears of mortality led to me to contact my PCP and get a referral.

One of the doctors names I was given was Dr. Matthew Weiner. I started watching his videos online and loved him. He made it seem very real, but not scary. I went and saw him, and six weeks later had an RNY. The rest is history.

That orthopedic doctor has no idea, but he saved my life that day. Dr. Weiner certainly knows he saved my life!

There is nothing that will get our attention like the word wheelchair. I heard amazing things about Dr. Weiner. Congratulations on living life as it was meant to be lived

Thanks for sharing

My psychiatrist was actually the one who convinced me to seriously consider surgery. He'd seen me for 7 or 8 years, knew of my struggles with weight and the impact on my health, and saw how my weight was making me consider completely dropping the medications that keep my mental illness stable.

My psychiatrist's encouragement was also what helped my husband get over his initial skepticism of surgery. If my doctor said it was my best chance, DH reasoned, then it was worth considering and not just an "easy way out." (Yeah, my beloved husband unfortunately took quite a lot of convincing.)

What is so great about your journey is you were way ahead of us on the head issues. We have been around long enough to know that is the one thing that defeats us if we don't deal with it. I am so glad your husband came around, as our loved ones can be a great impact on our success or failure.

Thanks for sharing

It was a combo.

i had a friend who dropped everything to pursue her dream of living in England. She is a little older than me but it really set off a spark in my brain. If she could do this scary thing with a lot of unknowns I could maybe do something scary too.

the other one is me with a splash of my grandpa's memory. My grandpa & me were tight...very much so. He saved me, in high school. He told my mom it was either this one thing or me dying(suicide). He was right and i've Borrowed some of his amazing strength and resilience. While I don't think I could be anywhere as awesome as him, he helped make me a better person. I do it for him & my grandma. Now don't get me wrong I do all of this for me but I try and honor there wishes for me to be happier & healthier.

also...my nieces and nephew are the three major things I want to stick around for.

Awww Melody, how wonderful! To have a friend give up everything they know or should I say comfortable with and throw caution to the wind and start a new adventure I think we all wish we had that in us.

There is nothing like the love of grandparents, all the love, support and no judgement. Sounds like you won the lottery with your grandparents. Your nieces and nephews are very lucky to have such a special Aunt Melody

I had started and stop twice with the same surgeon but then I held my grand-baby for the first time... I was back in with the week and non-stop until surgery! Yesterday I slid into a tiny booth at a Mexican restaurant cause she wanted grandma to sit next to her and they didn't need to move the table at all.

I'll tell you sometimes I wish I had done this years ago but then I think, maybe I wasn't really ready? I'll never know and I'm extremely grateful where I am now.