Where is everyone in their journey?

There are several people here having their surgery on the 10th or 11th.  You'll have company!

Karen

I have completed  the nutrition appointments, psych exam, sleep study, EKG (I had to do a nuclear  stress test, they found damage to my heart, stated that it seems I had a silent heart attack at some point) Got all my paperwork for my weight history for 5 years.  Once all of that was completed and my papers sent into insurance it took 1 week to get the approval. I started all of this back in August, surgery is set for Monday,  Dec 2nd and I started my liquid diet yesterday. I am ready for this.

I started all this back in May, when I had a personal emotional crisis about my health and my weight and decided that I'd take the plunge and do weight loss surgery. I'd looked into it several times in the past (I'm 54 and have always been overweight, since childhood) but always rejected the idea as too radical. At this point, however, I have high blood pressure, diabetes that I'm unable to control well, arthritis in my hips and knees as well as mild GERD and a few other minor things. Weight loss will help all the above as well as helping me feel more comfortable in my own body. At 345 pounds, I can barely walk up a flight of stairs, and I'm way too young to be that immobile and sick.

I had to do six months of nutrition counseling, per my insurance company. You know, because as a 54 year old adult, the idea of a diet had never occurred to me. /sarcasm  But now that that's all finished, I've completed a psych evaluation (Note: Do not get a copy of your psych evaluation if you're at all sensitive about how other people perceive you, LOL!) and all the nutrition counseling, the pre-op testing is mostly done and my primary care physician has given her approval for surgery. I have my final appointment on the 11th for the last of the pre-op tests, meeting with anesthesiology, etc. That day I'll start a week of clear liquids, and on the 18th is my surgery.

I'm committed to the changes I need to make, but I seriously need the surgery to help me with the jump start. Unfortunately I've been treating all this time leading up to the surgery as time to fulfill an eating "bucket list" of sorts. I've always been a foodie and a cook, and now I have to leave a large part (no pun intended!) of my life behind. Things will be very different for both me and my husband, and while I'm looking forward to forging a new and healthier relationship with food I'm still kind of in mourning for all the things I'll no longer be able to eat, but I have to face the fact that if I'd like to live long enough to see my son establish himself in his life and spend some time with my wonderful husband (we're both on our second marriages), then it's what has to happen.

It's a good thing I have a stubborn streak; once I set my mind to something it WILL happen. And my mind is definitely set.

I'm not sure how much I'll be participating here, but I'm glad to have found a bunch of people who are in the same boat I am, that's for sure!

We have a lot in common.  I may be 2 years older than you, but I have the hypertension, severe GERD, degenerative arthritis, and a few other issues.

I've been on a full liquid diet (self-imposed) since last month.  I've lost enough weight that I don't need to do any kind of prep.

Good luck!