Prior addictions...

In my 27 years I have used everything and anything you can think of with the exception of prescription meds and heroin. I either didn't do most of them for long or didn't use them regularly, but I quit everything but drinking and smoking weed by the time I turned 25. Over the past two years I have slowed down a lot with drinking (the last time I drank anything was a few beers on Super Bowl Sunday) but the weed was hard to quit. I finally kicked the habit on 2/9 in anticipation of getting WLS. I guess what I'm wondering is if the surgeon will deny me based upon the fact that I was a user for so long (10 years) and only recently quit. I also smoked cigarettes and only quit that on 2/16. I don't have any desire to go back to smoking weed, but the cigarettes are a little tougher to handle. (doing pretty well with it though) I also have never dieted because I kind of thought I was destined to be obese. And the drinking, smoking, snorting, whatever, let me pretend that nothing was wrong, too. I am afraid that this would be another reason for him to tell me no. I have my first consult on Thursday and I really hate to go into the appointment with the diet section a giant blank, but I also hate to lie about it too. Same goes for the "illicit substances" section, I would hate to ask for more paper to explain my drug use, but I don't want to leave it blank either because a simple drug test would still determine me a liar. Thanks for any help/advice. If you think this post is not on the right topic and should go on another board, please let me know. -Julie

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my insurance is crap, and the better insurance the company has is crap, so I'm self-pay.

Julie, Hey there--I wouldn't all out lie but I would fabricate the truth "a tiny bit" as far as the diet history goes. I am to be banded on March 10th and am a self pay too!~ I have had the same history with addiction, illicit drugs of all sorts (every once in a while I still party with my boyfriend..) mostly coke and pills but not that much anymore. I used to be a raver and then a nomadic hippy..lol..so I have been there done that. When I had my psychological clearance I told the shrink that I had experimented with drugs, not that I had been a full blown user for 10 years! I think that worked. I didn't want to come across as not being stable enough for WLS. As far as the diets go, I too have been obese since I was a little girl (am 25 now...) but I think you should twist the truth a bit. Nobody wants to work on somebody who they think have never tried a diet before. Just tell them that you tried diet pills, atkins, weigh****chers, south beach, blah blah blah..That should be good enough bieng that you are a self-pay. It isn't quite as strict when you are readily giving them all of your money vs. fighting the insurance company. By the way, who is your doc and what type of surgery are you getting? Best of luck on your journey~ Liz

Hi there. My sister has preceded me into WLS, she told me to do much the same thing you said. I just don't feel good about saying oh yeah, I tried this diet and that diet, but don't know what starting and ending weights were. (haha, mainly because the scale has always said E the times I've been on it recently! Guess it's time to invest in the big people scales. ) My Dr. is Dr. Moazzez here in Northern VA. He comes very highly recommended (he's not my sister's surgeon, he moved to Seattle, but he has been handling her post-op care since the other one moved). When I go in on Thursday, I am going to ask for the Lap RNY. Hopefully everything goes okay. I know what you mean about saying "experimented" with drugs -- I got into a bit of legal trouble a while ago, and basically told them everything I had ever done, which was a HUGE mistake. They put me in 3x a week group meetings, which I screwed up by not going to. So now it's 5 years later and I have to go all the way back through the legal process just so I can drive again. I am just waiting to clean out from the weed. It takes a month, and it's even worse when you're obese because the THC bonds to fat. What a double whammy.

Special J, If you have read the older posts you will know that I am a faithful member of NA. I could not get or stay clean nor succed post op with outside support. For me my obesity was just another result of "using" food and other things. By the time I got to surgery I was addicted to medicine, alcohol, food, shopping. You have to decide for yourself about the surgery and how much you reveal and details. You are self pay so I assume there are less hoops to jump thru. I still think you should consider dealing with the underlying problem of addiction or you may be faced with the problem again post op. I found surgery on my stomach did not help my thinking. Good luck, Laurie

Special J, How are you doing since your last post? You had some big issues to deal with. Hope it is working out well.Surgery and being clean has been a life saver for me. I wish you the same. Let us know how you are doing. laurie

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I've been really busy getting ready for surgery, which is just over 5 short weeks away. Like running a crazy marathon. Turns out I was worried over nothing. The surgeon wasn't even concerned about past dieting history since I am self-pay, and they are usually more concerned about that because of insurance requirements. And, I am still quit. Over a month now. No desire to go back. I really think I was mostly using just to make myself feel better about being so obese. Bottom line. Now that I don't need that for that reason anymore, I'm happy without it. Now if I could just figure out how to get all of the leftovers out of my lungs from smoking both weed and cigarettes for 10 years, I'd really be in business. Guess it's just a process.

Special J, Good to hear from you! Congrats on both your sobriety and surgery date. You are doing great! Prior to surgery I was off cigarettes for 14 yrs. Funny thing is...well not really funny but sad is that at 2 months post op I started smoking again. I will share my journey just as a precaution. I had surgery and all was well. No smoking, no pills after 4 days post op. family crisis happened. I started drinking which for new post op is not good. I would get drunk very fast! One drink nursed over a few hours and it was like having 6. One night stress was really bad. I wanted food, drink, valium!!! I was obsessed with having anything to take the edge off my discomfort. I smoked cigarettes. It was not enough. I was a wreck. That was the night a friend invited me to a NA meeting. Food was my first thought but as a new post op I would get really sick. I went to a meeting and found people who think like me. The rest is my 21 month journey in recovery from all of the above and more.I still smoke cigarettes but the rest is history one day at a time. I pray this is not what you will have to deal with but if you find yourself stating to have ideas like this, I hope you will be able to recognize it and find support before you damage yourself by returning to old habits! Over eating, drinking and drugs is a coping mechanism for the pain of dealing with our emotions. Surgery is on our stomachs not our brains. So have a successful journey. I feel I am. Not perfect but sucessful and on going. It IS a process. Keep yourself open minded. Laurie