Not being scared....

Hello Everyone!! My name is Mandi and I am from Cincinnati Ohio. I am 28 years old and a Business Professional. I have been on this journey for freedom from Obesity since I was a adolescent.  At the age of 9 I weighed 217 pounds. Now at the age of 28 I am pushing 500.  I have finally found myself in a place where I have the insurance to cover, the time to take off work, the support in my life to be there for me, Yet I am terrified.  Will this go away?  Will they help me to deal with the changes that are going to come? I love myself now....will I love myself thin? Can i control my weight loss? I know these are questions for the doctor....I am just looking for some wisdom. Looking forward to chatting with everyone! Happy Tuesday!

Mandi

Hello Mandi! Welcome to or group. You have many very good questions. And if you are wise, you will be sure you know the answers before you embark on this journey. You are the only one who truly holds the key to these answers for the most part anyhow. Especially, will you love yourself thin. 

I can tell you that you will feel much better and be able to do things you may not be able to now. I can also tell you that losing at least a portion of the weight will extend you life by a great deal and help prevent some very serious health problems in the future. I can't imagine you will ever love yourself less when you are feeling better and healthier. The biggest issue you may have is when or if you have lots of excess skin to deal with. BUT if you can afford it, there's a fix for that too.

As far as controlling the amount of loss, the surgery works great for the first year and a half or so. Not quite as long when you have less to lose. My daughter was 410 when she had RNY. She got down to 220 ish with RNY. She would have liked to get down further. She is now pregnant, which she never thought would happen for her, and it did thanks to the weiht loss. Usually an RNY patient will stip losing at around 70% of excess weight lost, but a few lose further. Typiclly to lose all excess weight, after the initial fast loss period it requires lots of hard work and dedication

 ALSO very important to note is that if you do not make healthy changes to your lifestyle during the rapid loss phase, you will not maintain yur loss, so unless you are willing to make these changes (many are not), don't do this. You will be very disappointed when you regain if you are not committed. You will have to go through psych evals so they can try to be sure you are a good candidate for the surgery. You may consider therapy too, if you feel the changes will be too hard alone. And of course we are all here to help you through.

This is something to be very self educated on and to feel aprehensive and even slightly fearful about, but if you are feeling terrified, I think educating yourself more on the whole thing is in good order. Once you have a better understanding, it is not quite so scarey. As you know more and have good support, yes, some of the fear should subside. But just please plkease do your homework and be sure you are ready to make the changes you must make for long term success before embarking on this.

Post any questions you may have, and your fears as well.. you will get ots of support from this great group of peple. We all know how it is.. we are either where you are, or have been there. We'll happily help you through.
Hugs!

mandi, welcome to the board.  hope u will find the support and help that u need here.  some people do experience loss of friendships and support after they start losing the weight. i'm not saying this happens to everyone, it doesn't, it didn't happen to me. but it seems to be one of the things u are worried about. i weight 154 pounds less and i  am really glad.  my health is better but not everything is perfect. i was hoping my knees would be better but alas, that has not happened. i had knee replacement on both knees and the doc screwed up before the surgery.  i am really disappointed in this but it is  not the surgeries fault.  you are wise to have these questions now.  i can say the surgery was worth it. hope u find your answers.  oh yeah, i love myself more now than i did before and i am not embarrassed about how i look except for the skin.  vick

Hi Mandi, welcome to the board- everyone here is so friendly and helpful!  Ok let me tell you that I was so scared and nervous to have my surgery that the week before I was ready to call my surgeon and cancel!!  But I am sooo glad I didnt!!  Now I only had my surgery (RNY) a week ago yesterday and I feel good.  I feel this is the best decision I made for my health and yes it is normal to feel scared, but I knew that being obese was a greater health risk and the positives outweighted the negatives of surgery.  Good luck to you!

Liz

Ladies thank you so much for your quick responses! They mean so much! I like you all agree that this is going to be a POSITIVE change in my life. A change i welcome with open arms! I agree that more education is needed and i absolutely intend on getting it! lol

Mandi, you have gotten great replies.  I agree with the others.  And wish I had had my RNY at your age instead of waiting till last year.  Do what you need for your best health.  I am here to answer questions, offer support, be a sounding board when you need to vent. 

Thank goodness the pieces are falling into place for you.  read as much as possible about your surgery options.  Make the best decision for you.  Come share with us, the more you share, the more you get out of the process.  There will be ups and downs, we are here to help you through both extremes and everything in between.

The doctors to surgery on our stomachs, not our brains.  The hardest work is the mental work to develop healthy habits to replace those that got us were we were in the first place.      Kathy