Beginning the journey.... lots of questions!!!

I'm a 25 year old mommy of one, step mommy of one, and happily married. I've struggled with my weight my entire life it seems. At 5'4" I weigh in at 252 lbs with a bmi over 43. I qualify for weight loss surgery, and I just found out my insurance covers it- as long as my doctor writes them and explains why it's medically necessary and they approve.

Here are some of my questions:

1. Was it difficult to get your doctor to approve of the surgery? I JUST switched to a new doctor because my health insurance was no longer accepted at my previous doctors. I do not know this doctor well, but she knows I struggle with depression and obesity.

2. Which surgery did you choose and why? I'm leaning towards Roux - en - y.

3. How did you choose your surgeon? How do you learn their qualifications?

4. I'm terrified of side effects - losing hair, teeth falling out - any advice?

5. Loose skin - I'm pretty young, but have been obese for a long time. In mid-20's is it more likely that your skin will be less saggy post surgery?!

1. Was it difficult to get your doctor to approve of the surgery? I JUST switched to a new doctor because my health insurance was no longer accepted at my previous doctors. I do not know this doctor well, but she knows I struggle with depression and obesity.

at 24, my cardiologist is the one that recommended the surgery so after i told my pcp that he jumped on board. i had been seeing my cardiologist for 2 years at that point and my pcp since i was maybe 15 or 16 and both knew that i had been struggling with my weight. dieting and exercising like crazy and still gaining weight.

2. Which surgery did you choose and why? I'm leaning towards Roux - en - y.

i wanted restriction and malabsorption (the malabsorption being more important) and my insurance only covered rny or lap band so it was an easy choice. plus ds seemed to drastic for me.

3. How did you choose your surgeon? How do you learn their qualifications?

again my insurance made this easier, i had to use a center of excellence, which left only university of penn in my area (my parents live outside of philly and i was living with them at that point). i went to their informational session and scheduled my consult that day with the nurse that ran it. she recommended my surgeon for me, based on my goals and age, when i had my consult both me and my dad agreed that he seemed great, and he was! 

4. I'm terrified of side effects - losing hair, teeth falling out - any advice?

most people lose some hair, it's more an effect of the anesthesia. for me it was a lot, but i had a TON of hair to begin with. my hair texture changed to but i'm not sure if that's coincidental since they say it changes every 7 years or so. my hair still hasn't grown back to the same thickness it once was (i'm almost 2 1/2 years post op) but i'm okay with it. if you didn't know how thick my hair was before you would never know, plus it's a lot more manageable and easier to straighten now! i haven't heard of anyone's teeth falling out, but i'm assuming if that happened they haven't been taking their vitamins, which is super important! 

5. Loose skin - I'm pretty young, but have been obese for a long time. In mid-20's is it more likely that your skin will be less saggy post surgery?!

this was probably my biggest fear about losing weight. they say age and genetics play a huge part. but a lot of us on the board have had problems with excess skin, and a lot of people have had plastics. i have my first consult with a plastic surgeon february 6th. in a perfect world i would have a lower body lift, boob reduction and lift (they're still DDD after losing around 100 lbs), arm lift, and inner thigh lift. right now i think i'm going to focus on the lower body lift, but i'm open to see what he recommends and says can be done at the same time, and of course the cost. but i'm lucky and my parents and grandparents want to help to cover the cost. 

hope this helps! if you have any other questions feel free to ask or pm me. i have some before/afters on my profile (don't remember if you need to be my friend to see them). i haven't updated in a while but not much has changed. getting surgery was definitely a great decision that i made. sure i'm still not happy with my body (but is any woman ever really happy with their bodies?), but i can physically do a lot more than i could before, and i am so much more healthy!

Wow, i just noticed that you got 103 views and only 1 reply. . come on people. . .we're here to help eachother!!. . lol ok sorry . . .now that I got that out of my system.

I was 25 when I had my surgery Gastric Bypass Roux-en-y, I decided on that one at the time because when I did it was what the surgeon suggested for me. . .it was either the RNY or the lap-band but I saw SO many people fail or not have any real results with the lap band. Now my doctor offers the Sleeve surgery, which is supposed to be so much better due to the fact that there is no absorption problem as with the RNY and the weight loss is slower so it gives your body more time to adjust.

It wasn't difficult to get me doc to approve the surgery because I did my homework beforehand and I picked an insurance that I knew already covered the surgery with very little requirements, I was on medicaid at the time so I had a choice of which insurance company I wanted and that really helped out. They approved me right away after I completed their requirements  of seeing a psychotherapist and a nutritionist and my primary care doctor.

I chose my surgeon because he is the best weight loss surgeon in the area of south Florida where I lived at the time and also because I had learned everything I knew about the surgery from his seminars And because he performed the RNY on my best friend. Try to find a few surgeons in your area and see if they offer seminars about the surgery where they tell you straight up what they do and how many people they have performed the surgery on and also their rate of success and failure. I really liked that about my surgeon he told everything to us straight he said he had 2 patients die, but he explained exactly why and also out of how many so it was a less than 1 percent rate.

Side effects. . . .well there is is side effects. . .dumping. . .in the beginning its bad as you learn what you can and can not eat. . its trial and error. . . I learned the hard way many times but now that I am about to be 3 years post op I know better. I can basically eat anything and everything. If its a birthday party I will eat cake, a holiday I will have desert, I will have that delicious frozen concoction at Red Lobster. . .the bahama mama. . .lol, BUT we just have to know our limits otherwise you will be in the bathroom throwing up! I know that I can only have a small piece of cake and I can only have 2 cookies instead of one, I share a drink with my fiance now. . .you will learn and you will not feel deprived. Now I know there are many people out there who will read this and say WHAT you are eating Cake!! How dare you after having the surgery!!! You should be only eating sugar free or nothing at all!!! Well. . .after everything I have read about these artificial sweeterners and how they are so bad for us and people are dying from them, I will take my chances on eating the little piece of cake made with real sugar thank you very much!. . .lol.

Loose skin. The ONLY loose skin that I have is on my arms, I hate it, but it has gotten better with exercise. It will not go away ever unless I have a surgery to have it removed, But its SOOOOOOOOO worth it, and its really not that bad. I have learned not to go lifting my arms and waving hi or I might smack someone in the face with my flaps. . .lol. Its perfectly fine and its only becuase my arms were HUGE I don't know how yours are. . .they might not even get loose at all. The loose skin all depends on each persons skin and how elastic it is.

Well I hope that my little bit of knowledge has helped. I am going to be 3 years post-op on March 2nd so I am still pretty fresh out of the gate but I have learned so much and like I said having this surgery was the BEST decision that I have EVER made for myself in my ENTIRE life and I would NEVER EVER go back to change it! I encourage people who are struggling with obesity and weight loss to go ahead and do the surgery! Whatever you decide, good luck to you and I hope that it all works out and you have great success. Please keep me posted, I love to see other peoples success stories too!!