No question, just sharing a thought...

Took a few days to browse the other boards, figured I'd see what all of OH is about.  Gotta say what a great website... except for the Weight Loss Surgery Regrets forum.  What a depressing a$$ message board.  Ater reading some of those posts, I wanted to cancel my surgery, wolf down a large cheese and pepperoni, and cry myself to sleep.  Well, not really, but damn.

 I steer clear of there

Success or failure of weight loss surgery is determined by many factors, the most important being preparedness and willingness to accept changing your lifestyle. Many of the failures, that I have encountered, were unwilling to accept a complete change in their lives. They wanted to be thin while doing exactly the same things that got them over weight. Albert Einstein once said, "Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, is a form of insanity." Guess that sums it up. You can either repeat your past, or accept a new future. It's about accepting change and being willing to work at it. I won't ever say it's easy, nothing worth doing ever is. The Egyptians didn't build the pyramids because "it was easy".

Never been there ... and after your report, don't wanna go there. 

There have been millions of WLS performed over the years...You really don't get a good sample of society post WLS on that board.  Your local support group will give you a good cross section of what is going on...in person and up close.

Reading those forums and the Revision forum steered me away from the RNY and the lap band....hell it's some scary stuff. No reason to stick your head in the sand though, although it doesn't often happen, **** can happen, and it's important to know the risks.

Scott

 I belonged to a local Yahoo "WLS Grads" group for awhile, after being invited there ..   The name sounded postiive, or at least supportive ..  Boy was that a mistaken impression .. 

 Geez, what a bunch of gals that have had nothing but major problems since their WLS on there (nearly all of them RNYers, btw)  griping and griping ..   I felt so out of place, since I have not really had any major complications from my DS ..    I felt so sorry for anyone who would have checked out that group before having their WLS, as it would probably scare them off of it  

 I think a lot of their whining and bellyaching (literally in some cases it seems) is due to buyer's remorse. They go into the surgery thinking their surgeon is miraculous and can't make mistakes but what they fail to realize is the human anatomy is very complex and sometimes things just happen. Not the answer anybody going through surgery wants to hear but it's true and happens frequently enough to be of concern. You never want to take any surgery lightly especially one which alters your digestive tract so drastically like most of the weight loss procedures do. So if you feel like you'd be better off not having had the surgery, deciding that AFTER you're altered doesn't really help you out. Go into the surgery knowing things can happen but you're taking a risk to be healthier and then when you come out and you DO have complications you can't be all flabbergasted about it. Maybe I'm just too optimistic b/c I had a smooth surgery/recovery time and I'm doing well now, but I can see where it would definitely suck to have surgery and then come out with more issues than when you went in.