jencomenz

So after thinking about it for months, and putting it off, I decided to join Curves (again) and got the support from my surgeon and even a WLS coupon for the sign up fee. This time I chose a location close to my work. The plan is to go on my lunch hour. This will a) keep me from feeling rushed after work and/or coming up with reasons I can't go c) keep me from eating out during lunch and d) keep me from, ahem, shopping too much during lunch. Seemed like a win win win win situation. I make my sign up appointment, walk in excited, and proceed to fill out the paperwork. One of my questions was if I would need a doctor's note to pause my membership during my first month post op. Well, I should have never said ANYTHING! The owner(?) proceeded to tell me that she did not support WLS and was going to talk me out of it. Kept saying things like "they are going to cut on you" and "that's just not natural" and "can't you just eat less" and, wait for it, "that's easy way out"!!!! It was all I could do to not get up and walk out of there. She even proceeded to tell me that her overweight son was signed up to have the surgery and she talked him out of it! Seriously? I got some digs in. Told her the statistics of perminant weight loss with surgery vs. without. Told her that being overweight just "is not natural" either. Told her that anyone that thinks this is the easy way out isn't educatated about the process. And I also told her that she should be ashamed of not supporting her son, that it isn't an overnight decision and it took a lot of courage for him to a) come to that decision and c) confide in her for support. She said he could lose weight other ways. I said has he? She said no. I said well those other ways aren't exactly working then are they. I thought about not going back there. But I need this. I need to incorporate regular exercise into my routine. I think it was good in a way. This surely won't be the last person I come into contact with that disagrees with my decision. And I feel like I held my own and knew the facts and answered back in an educatated and confident way. I'm just really hoping come July that I prove her wrong! Anyways the whole point of my rant is.....Isn't Curves for Women supposed to be one of the places that WLS doctors recommend? Maybe the employees need to take some information and/or sensitivity classes!

Laura I'm so glad to hear that you are home and doing well! Thanks for the update and keep walking walkng walking Jen

Seriously! The words you are using are so crazy similar to my own. Mono, flu, fatigue, achy. I have these constant feelings too! My skinny brain can't keep up with my fat body. It makes me feel so lazy. I constantly have a huge to do list of things that I want and need to do and I can't find the energy to do them. We get by. Somehow things happen, but I feel so unorganized all the time because I'm scrambling at the last minute due to procrastination. And my kids - I SO don't want to be a fat mom. I want to swim, bike, swing, run. I want to be active with my kids. But my activity level is practicly nil. It's a vicious cycle. And again with the skinny brain/fat body thing. I have good intentions and zero energy.

Laura this is totally me too. I was skinny (120 lbs or less) right up until the summer after my 21st birthday. I began to experience some medical problems and certain medications ballooned me up very quickly to 165, which at the time, felt SO fat. Add marriage, 2 kiddos, a desk job, major depression and 10 years of age to the equation and here I sit at 240. I avoid any and all social functions where I might see someone I knew from H.S. I un tag all pictures of me on facebook. Quite frankly I am still walking around with a chip on my shoulder from that summer. I find myself "hiding" in my own body pretending that I'm so fat that if I see someone at the store and don't say hi they won't even recognize that it is me. It only very recently hit me that most of the people I know now have only known me fat. It only very recently hit me that I have been overweight my ENTIRE adult life. It only very recently hit me that I can't just sit around angry and wait for the old me to magically reappear, that I have to take action. My ultimate NSV will be seeing someone from my past and having them say to me "you haven't changed a bit". Jen

Thanks so much for offering! Please add me to the list : JenCoMenz@aol.com Jen

Thanks everyone for your insite! I think that I knew in my heart what the answer was, but I didn't want to admit that I might be waiting until July for the first day of the rest of my life. I will set my cut off date at 12 weeks and that would mean unless by some miricle I'm approved in early March then I will be stuffing myself silly on this cruise

I've been on this journey since August and finally get to meet with the surgeon on February 24th! So needless to say: no approval from insurance yet and no surgery date yet. My family has a cruise booked for June 12th. I was wondering if I should have a cut off date in mind for surgery before the cruise vs surgery after the cruise? I don't care about being skinny for vacation (although it would be nice) I am mostly concerned about being healed and comfortable. It would be hard to pass up any surgery date at this point but I don't want to be miserable on the cruise either. Any suggestions on a realistic timeline would be helpful. Thanks, Jen