ouch

I honestly don't think this surgery is ever going to happen. Yes I have my date it is Aug. 22, but as the days go buy the pains get worse. I am at the point now where it hurts my hips ankles and knees to move, hurts my lower back to lay down, just doing grocery shopping exhausts me and sends me into a funk of pain, sweat and tears!

Am I the only one that has these problems? I hope not, and please tell me they get better after surgery

It will get a lot better. I do not know how old you are or how long you have been obese. You may have no pain or you may have less pain based on the damage already done to your joints.

I could hardly walk a couple of blocks before surgery. Now my DH and I take the dog for long walks. It is one of my greatest joys that I can walk so far. I continue to have some pain because I waited so long to have the surgery and had already done the damage to my body.

It will get better! It will seem like a blink of an eye in retrospect.

i used to avoid paths with hills or taking stairs. My saying was "I don't go up hill on purpose, that is what escalators are for". Now I seek out stairs and caught myself chasing my son up the hill to my house the other day, playing tag. I thought to myself, not only am I walking up the hill, I'm running!

Before WLS I always parked the car as close as I could to the door of the store or office I was going to. I would lumber as I walked, and everything hurt. I got exhausted just walking from the car. There were days that my DH drove me to the door so that I didn't have to walk.

Now after WLS, life is different, life is better. I am stronger, I park further away on purpose because I still love that feeling of walking with a spring in my step, walking strongly, walking with lots of energy. As the weight came off, I took advantage of exercise to build muscle and get my cardio endurance up. It's amazing how your body reacts and recovers. Like Pat said, if you have damaged your joints there may still be some issues that may need addressing, but without surgery those issues will still need to be addressed and it would be much more difficult to say have knee surgery while being obese.

that really stinks. I am just starting to have pain in my right knee, so I am SO glad that I have already started this journey and that surgery is booked. I hope mine is early enough that the pain disappears after weight-loss, I hope the same for you too!

Before surgery, I couldn't walk for 10 minutes without having an asthma attack. My back, legs, shoulders, and neck would ache. My feet would throb. Now I can walk anywhere without needing my asthma inhalers at all.

Yesterday my friend and I went for a walk at a beach called Mark's Bay. We walked for about 45 minutes and couldn't go further because the trails were full of mud puddles, so we walked back to the truck and drove to another beach, called Pointe Des Chenes. It was gorgeous, totally deserted, and we walked in the sand up and down the beach for about an hour. Then I got cold so we went back to the truck to get my sweater and decided to drive to Whitefish Island, where we walked for another hour or more.

Nothing hurt and I had no trouble breathing and didn't need my inhalers not even once. I'll be 12 weeks post op on Wednesday.

The only issue I have now is I get lightheaded/dizzy if I walk up stairs or a hill. I'm seeing my doctor on May 6th.

you have all given me hope, I can't wait.