anyone else heistant?

I've been considering WLS for years now. The idea comes in my head & then it jumps right back out. Well after graduating college Dec 08 i decided that I needed & actually wanted to make changes in my life. But i spent ALL of 2009 see-sawing again. I've talked to one of my good friends who had surgery Jan09 & my brother who had surgery Jun05. My brother had no hesitations because they told him that without surgery he wouldn't see his 30th birthday (he was 28yrs old). & my friend has talked to me about it & calmed my fears...yet they're still there.

So this week i'll be starting Weigh****chers & Curves in the hope of losing weight that way (and for my insurance i need 6months of monitored weight loss anyway).

I know that having this surgery is my best bet for prolonged weight loss & maintenance considering how much weight I need to lose. I'm almost 24 & i weigh close to 350. I've seen all of the positive benefits & i know that I'd definitely reap major benefits from it. 

But my question is for anyone my age who has had the surgery...were you hesitant? did they go away before you had the surgery? did you have the surgery despite your hesitations?

 noooo heistation!!! i would do it over and over again 1,000 times if i had to!!!!!!!

I spent two years going back and forth. I couldn't make the commitment to myself. I kept saying well I want to still eat what I want, or I don't want to risk the surgery. All of course were just excuses, but had I go on with surgery having all that in my head, I would have probably failed right away.


I took the time to get myself physically and mentally prepared, and when I felt I was I started going to seminars. My surgery is tomorrow.

You aren't alone in debating it, and I certainly do not blame you for waiting until you are positive.

Also, the six month documented diet typically means to have your Primary care physician prescribe and monitor the diet. I would call and verify with your insurance what they need, just in case.



Good luck!

Crystal

 It's perfectly normal to hesitate.  I hesitated and changed my mind about 4 billion times, even up to the point they were wheeling me up to the OR the day of my surgery.  

It's sort of a weird thing because we know losing weight will bring us nothing but good and help us to be healthier, so why would we not want to?  The best explaination I can come up with (at least for me) is the fear of the unknown.  If you are like me, you've been overweight/obese your whole life...that's all I knew.  It's scary to think that everything you know will change and you will be come a different person quite literally overnight.  I can't use my fat to hide anymore, I have to face my fears and challenges head on without the option of binge eating them away.  I totally understand hesitation!  

Just remember that you CAN do this.  Don't make failure an option and you won't fail.  Yes, it's hard and I struggle with something everyday but my surgery and my weight loss were the key that I was missing in my life until now.  I was so depressed all the time about my weight and now I feel so free and so healthy.  I'm really not super special with any magical secrets, so you and anyone can have this too if we all work hard.  

Best of luck to you!  I did Weigh****chers before surgery and I really liked it because you can still eat real food, you'll do great!  

~Emily~ 

thank you so much for the encouragement Emily. You were right in my  head with what you said! it's exactly how i feel!!

 Glad I could help!  It's always good to knwo you aren't alone in the way you feel, even though sometimes you think you are.  

I was also going to add that it's also normal to be hesitant because it is, after all, major surgery.  That's never something to get excited about because of the risks involved...but our age is our ally in that battle.  You'll do great!  

~Emily~  

i think its normal to be hesitant.  I had cold feet a little.   It went away.  I would do it a million times over!  best decision of my life!

I'm 29 and every time I think *maybe I am "young" enough to do this on my own....I look at my history and my future (my obese parents with multple co-morbidities)... then I read posts from people who say they wish they did this sooner.  I see-sawed for the past 2 years until I finally broke down and told my husband that I felt it was my best option.  I am scheduled for VSG next week.  I can't wait to move forward!!  Good luck to you and your decision. 

 I didn't really hesitate until the night before. Up until that point, I didn't really seem like it was going to happen. I had my surgery cancelled twice, once because my psych wasn't too sure about my age and 'readiness' for the surgery, and the other because I got a cold a few days before surgery. The night before it hit me, and kind of freaked me out. and it was fear of my safety either, it was fear over the fact that I wasn't going to be able to eat large amounts of good food, which seems crazy to me now (I can eat small/medium amounts of most good foods). My doctor told me to arrive at the hospital at 5 am, and I didn't even leave the waiting room until 11, which didn't really help.

I was in a similar situation weight-wise, and the thing that did it for me was the thought that even if I was able to start loosing weight, at 2-3 lbs/week it would have taken me two years to get to normal weight. I absolutely did not have the self control for that. There's people that have done it, but I absolutely did not have the strength of mind to pull that off. 

I suggest just to keep doing what you're doing. You're never actually committed to going through with it until they put you under. In the mean time you can learn more about it and get all the testing out of the way.