Newbie

Hi,  I just found your group today.  So happy to be here.  Here's a little bit about me.  I have been VERY anti-wls for years.  I have also been with an eating disorders thereapist for 2 years who is also VERY anti-wls.  Only 2 weeks ago my doctor mentioned the idea of wls.  I nearly bit his head off.  He patiently asked me to just go to the seminar so I have a complete understanding of all my options.  He handed me the surgeon's card.  I promised that I would go.  That seminar is scheduled for Feb 8.

Being the impatient person I am, I found another seminar only a few days later and attended that one instead.  Before I got there I had been googling and reading stories about people who have had it done.  I was intrigued.  Surprisingly, I went to the seminar with a completely open mind.  I took away the severity of my 53% BMI.  I remained intrigued and still unsure if it was for me.

I kept reading stories of people just like me.  They've tried everything.  They had the same fears about wls that I do now, but it worked.  It saved their lives.  They were just like me.  I even saw a Dr. Oz show on the subject.  I've found videos and websites that are incrediblely supportive.

Anyway, being not too crazy about the surgeon I had met that night, I asked around and found someone who may be a better fit for me.  He is the head of bariatric surger at a very well respected hospital in the area.  I have my intro consultation scheduled for this Tuesday.  I am so looking forward to understanding my options and what post-op life is like.

Glad to be here.

Chris

Welcome to the group Chris.  I needed to be in the right mental frame of mind before I could consider wls too.  In hindsight, I wish I had been in this right mental place twenty years ago.  But that is past history.  Life is here to be lived.  I had wls sept 2009 and would do it all over again in a heartbeat.   My life is sooo much better with over 100# less of me to cart about.  Keep researching, work with your chosen surgeon to do what is best for your health.  Looking forward to reading more thoughts from you.  Keep posting!!

Thank you!  I am really struggling to understand the post-op life.  I am intrigued by how many people who have had it done swear they'd do it again in a heart beat.  I'm struggling to understand a life of dumping, protein shakes, vitamins, and starvation meals.  Am I just really that addicted to food?  Does life ever return to "normal" where you're having 1200 to 1500 calories per day?  I think I may be getting the initial post-op life confused with life several years after surgery.

I want so badly to believe this is right for me.  I just sit here and cry for the successes of the people I read about.  I watch all the youtube videos.  Their pre-surgery stories are just like mine, and now they're so happy.  The only regret that almost all of them have is they wish they had done it years earlier.  OMG!  I just don't understand.

I hope to get my concerns answered at my intro visit on Tuesday.  I just don't understand.  How can so many people be so happy and proclaim they'd do it again in a heartbeat?

Chris

Chris, I do not feel like I am starving.  The small pouch works for portion control.  I go out to eat with my hubby, just get a take out box with your meal to put most of it in.  The wait staff likes to offer you different options or a replacement meal when they notice that you have barely touched your meal.  I have quality foods when I can.  One of my trigger foods used to be ice cream, thankfully, I dump on overly rich ice cream products.  I love sugar free popsicles, gives me the crunch and flavor with no symptoms.

I get most of my protein from real foods, using a shake a couple of times a month if I didn't get in protein with foods.  I don't count calories or carbs anymore.  Just focus on getting in the protein and veggies if I have room.  I do struggle with making smaller amounts of soups and hotdishes, I can only face the same foods so many meals in a row, lol.

When I was larger, I was unhappy, struggling to do things that everyone else does, achy joints, fatigue, the list goes on and on.  Now, I can and do walk as much as I want, no longer needing a cane.  Getting in and out of furniture is easier.  I don't worry about squashing flimsy chairs.  I fit into jeans again.  Just basic things make me happy.  Hard to explain, I am a happier person in general.  I hope your get your answers, keep asking, we will share out stories too.

WTG on keeping an open mind.  I too struggled with my decision to have WLS.  It took me several years to make the actual decision.  I had many doctors in the past tell me that I need to lose weight, but none made any real suggestions on how to do that.  So at age 35 and being recently diagnosed with high blood pressure, I decided to talk to a surgeon about WLS.  I had RNY on Jan, 03, 2011.  My only regret is that I wish I would have done it 10 years earlier.  Then I would never had raeched 360 pounds and I could have possibly have already started a family by now.  My BMI was in the 50's as well.  A year later I am 256 and I feel great.  I do not feel deprived.  I am not nor have I ever felt like I was starving.  The only foods that I have had off limits is white bread and white pasta.  I have just within the last month started inccoporating whole grain breads and pasta in my diet (but the servings are still half what a normal person would eat).

I do not have to drink shakes everyday.  For the most part I can get most of my protein through foods alone.  I add the drinks just to give me closer to 100g of protein a day on the days that I am working out at the gym.  Don't get me wrong, there are days where I feel like I could eat everything in the fridge and then top it off with the fridge itself.  LOL.

Oh yeah dumping is not normal and does not happen to everyone.  It occurs when u eat too much fat, too many carbs, and too much sugar.  I have found that I have only dumped on 2 occasions since surgery and both times were with ice cream and when I ate x2 greek yogurts back to back.

Hi Chris. Nice to meet you.

    I'm 1 year out from the RNY. I too am thrilled that I had the surgery. The first few months were a little bit difficult due to health problems not related to the WLS. 

     Now a year later I'm so thrilled with my new self and life. At 363 pounds I was missing out on so many things my friends were doing. Walking out the the mailbox was a struggle. I've gone from a wheelchair to a walker to nothing but freedom in walking. I routinely average 1 mile 5X's a week. Need to start going to the gym to build muscle and tone. I've been putting it off for quite a while now. Need some one to kick me in the butt and tell me it's good to do it. Sometimes tough love is needed.

    I haven't had a problem with wanting to over eat except a couple of times. Once I did it I sure didn't want to do it anytime soon. I haven't had an appetite for the best part of the year. Once in a while I want to eat totally due to stress not hunger. I just have to talk positive thoughts to myself or post and let my BB friends help me through it. To this day I keep track of when I eat. Otherwise I will skip meals cause I just not tuned in to eating as much. It is no longer in control. I am. It's a beautiful feeling.

     I only have 1 negative thing. I can't drink fluids when I eat. That's the only thing I didn't like. It's mostly just a memory now as I have adjusted fairly well to that.

   Hugs and best of luck.   Mag