Question:
Is it normal to have so many doubts?

One minute I'm so excited at the prospect of surgery and the next I'm terrified.Am I making the right decision?I know my health is far more important than whether or not I'll ever eat cookies again.Whats wrong with me? Is this normal?    — Heather I. (posted on February 9, 2002)

February 9, 2002
It is NORMAL. If you didnt have doubts I would have to say you weren't "informed". By reading the memorial site you know that things can and do go horribly wrong. (0.2%). You surely wonder why you couldnt lose on your own. Well, Oprah can't either and look at all the resources she has at her fingertips. You wonder if you will have on-going problems, if you will really miss the way you have been eating, will your friends & family think you took "the easy way out". We all on this site have these same doubts. Yet 99% of us do go on to have surgery and 1% are probably sorry they had surgery. I have these feelings, my date is 2/25/02. The closer I get the more anxious I become. I am in a support group that really helps. There are some women in it that have had a few setbacks, there is one who even losing 140 lbs is sorry that she had it done. So I hear both sides. Good Luck with whatever decision you make. It has to be yours and yours alone. No one can pressure you to go either way.
   — Connie M.

February 9, 2002
Having doubts is SO normal. I went back and forth so many times before surgery, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to make the commitment. I knew it would affect my ability to enjoy food for the rest of my life. It took me months and months to finally make the decision, but I'm so glad I finally went through with it. The surgery is my "best friend" now and I know it saved my life.
   — Terissa R.

February 9, 2002
It is very normal to have doubts! I actually thought I would back out at the last moment because of my fears of having complications. I was amazingly calm once I actually arrived at the hospital for my surgery and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in recovery. I sometimes am still amzed that I actually went through with it, but I am so glad that I did. It has been the best thing I have ever done for myself. I am 3 months post-op and 75 pounds gone forever and I feel wonderful. Every day I am able to rediscover the ability to do things that I thought I would never be able to do again. Losing the weight is being set free from pain, poor health and depression, amoung other things. And, I don't miss any of my old favorites as far as food is concerned. I went to a birthday party today and I helped serve the cake and ice cream and never once did I look at any of it and wish I could have some. I simply did not want any. It held no appeal for me. You won't miss those cookies, so don't worry about it. Choose to live a healthy, fat free life and the only thing you are going to miss are the years it took you to get back to being healthy and wishing you had done it sooner. Good luck!
   — Susan M.

February 9, 2002
I think it's normal to have doubts, but I made sure that before I decided on surgery that I really put those doubts to bed. I will be having the DS in May, and for me, resolving my doubts came from researching all of the different procedures available, making sure I understood what post-op life would be like (so I knew whether or not I could accept it), talking to my surgeon, and talking to other patients of my surgeon. A lot of people have doubts and that's normal, but I would be wary about going into this with too many rational doubts. It's a time to be very honest with yourself. As for missing particular foods, this was a major constraint on which surgery I chose. I know myself well enough to know that if I had RNY I'd probably cheat every now and then even if it made me incredibly ill (not good). I am also such a social eater that I think it would bother me if I couldn't "participate" in a bite of something decadent on occasion. Good luck to you in whatever you choose.
   — [Anonymous]