The Candidate

Congrats on the first day of your new healthy life!

A major transformation! You are beautiful! Congrats on your many successes!

We should all slow down sometimes and take stock of the good things in our life. Thanks for sharing yours!

Welcome aboard! And congrats on your soon to be surgery. Support is a keystone so that's great. It's common for those who love you to have fears. Your brother sounds like a good guy who cares very deeply for his sister.

I love people with a sense of humor and you've got it in spades. Your topic title had me in (non-surgical) stitches. ????

I am RNY and over a year out, so can't really offer first hand experience for the buddy position. But I'm definitely laughing so you're halfway there.

Something tells me you're going to excel at this. Best of luck!

Me too. I love it!

You should be over the moon with how far you've come. You are truly beautiful! Congrats!

I would let them know, but you'll probably be cleared. Congrats!

Try and get a good night's sleep! Congrats!

Congrats on an incredible milestone!

I think a small token gift would be great. But don't forget to put into words what a difference your surgeon and staff have made in your life. When I think of what my life is now compared to how it was, thanks to this person's skills, it brings tears to my eyes.

I've received many many small gifts over the years and I've had to start putting the person's initials and date on the bottom to remember who gave me what and when. But a handwritten signed sentiment will always be remembered. It really personalizes the moment.

You have a wonderful and heartbreaking story to tell. Thank you for sharing it with us. I was 54 when I had the surgery and I am 55 now. I struggled with my weight my entire life. WLS is definitely the best thing I ever did for myself. I know you're going to feel the same way.

It's never too late to change your life for the better, and you are living proof of that. I am sad to hear of your many sorrows, and equally happy to hear how you were able to move past it.

You are a role model and an inspiration!

Just remember you're never alone in this. Posting and reading other people's experiences definitely helped me get through it, and it can do the same for you. ????

I would definitely count the hospital stay as the worst part of my entire journey, so you're not alone in feeling this way. I broke down in tears more than once myself. My surgeon required a four day stay for all his patients, so even though I felt physically well enough to go home the next day, I couldn't. That was hard.

It's especially draining too because you might feel like you no longer have any control over your life. Now that you're out of that unrestful environment things should start to get better. Not all at once of course, but day by day. I think you might benefit from going to a support group as you mentioned. And I hope you have someone to help you take care of the kids for the first couple of weeks. You need to rest.

The best thing you can do to help your recovery is not to expect so much from yourself right out of the gate. Devote some portion of each day to pampering yourself. You've been through a lot, physically, emotionally, and mentally. The days and months ahead won't all be easy either, but believe me, it'll be worth everything you had to sacrifice to get there. WLS isn't instant gratification, but the rewards are well within reach.

Take care of yourself and best wishes!

I was very lucky in that I was totally supported by my family and close friends. But I also made the decision early on that I was only going to share my plans with select people, personally and professionally. It's a decision I haven't once regretted.

You have every reason to be excited. Congrats! ????

Hummus is great. I eat it on carrots as well.

One step closer to surgery. Congrats!

I am definitely a different person since surgery. And I have also experienced a better understanding of patience. It wasn't achieved just after surgery though, because it began to build over the entire year of the approval qualification for the surgery. WLS didn't just change my outward appearance, it also awakened and expanded my sense of self worth, allowing me, for the first time, to turn that compassion inward. What I was able to let go of was my own internal critic.

It also showed me that I wasn't alone. Being the only fat person in my immediate family caused a very isolated lifelong pain that I was never able to adequately explain to my thin family. And It wasn't until I began my research on WLS that I finally realized how many other people out there were going through the exact same thing. It was an immediate raw and palpable connection.

I would say that I've always been, or I've certainly have strived to be, compassionate. The biggest difference is that now I'm working on spreading that compassion to include everyone in my life who has ever bullied or ridiculed me about my weight, from childhood to adulthood. As well as the ones that now treat me kinder based entirely on my outer appearance. As much as I endeavored to lose the weight I also want to rewrite these bitter memories, but this time with my own ending.

As much as you shrink on the outside, you rise on the inside, which makes for an incredibly positive life changing experience.

The first month or so is the time when cravings and head hunger are at their peak. I remember I had to fast forward whenever fast food commercials aired. My body wasn't a fan of how quickly I was losing weight so it brought out the big guns, heightening my sense of smell, sight and taste. I was the human equivalent of Pavlov's dog, all but salivating over my trigger foods (pizza, Big Macs and so on, even though I knew inside I wasn't actually hungry. Instead I had been conditioned, after decades of eating anything and everything I wanted.

It was hard sometimes, I'll admit, but I made it without succumbing once. Then I discovered after awhile that those cravings and head hunger began to lessen, loosening their power over me. And now at 14 months out, they aren't even noticeable anymore.

Hang in there and stay strong because there is light at the end of the WLS tunnel.

Congratulations on your major accomplishments! You look terrific!

A roundabout victory over high blood pressure! Definitely worth celebrating!

Glad to hear that it all got straightened out in the end. Congrats!

It is exciting. Not all life changing moments are so easy to define, but this one definitely is. Your life is about to change is so many positive ways.

I'm very happy for you and best of wishes!

You will be missed. ????