facebro29

Wish I could love this post!!
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Perhaps that is because of the high membership of this group, the varying regions and quality of care or because people here are less fearful of reporting.
If you ask my bariatric team, they deem my surgery as 100% successful because I hit goal weight at 4 months out according to their records.
Because they only measure weight loss and not health, I am not reported in their stream as having "complications".
I keep a presence here to support anyone I can. If I can eventually recover, then other people with near fatal post op complications can.
The symptoms my team said were because I was "anxious", were because of a serious, contagious clostridium difficile infection that could have also been fatal. Not to mention passing the infection to dozens of other people.
I was left with only a diagnosis. I had to fight for meds, re testing and no medical person ever once supported me or gave me information.
It was devastating to be abandoned when you are physically and emotionally fighting to recover.
I have my faith, but so many don't and need support.
I receive messages here frequently, from people suffering from post op complications, who don't message publicly.
I even get messages thanking me for refusing to stop supporting other people publicly, thanking me for telling my story.
I want post op folks to know that it is okay to feel regret. And for people who are really sick, telling them how great they will feel about it all because the weight is coming off, is really not helpful.
Really sick people who are losing weight through malnutrition and illness, are not pleased about it.
People who may have known pre op about the nausea, baldness, etc may not have truly appreciated the degree of these normal post op issues and have regrets.
For example, If the reason you want to lose weight is so you can be more mobile, to be more social, yet your baldness now prevents you, regrets are normal.
Regrets don't magically disappear at 3 weeks, 3 months or 6 months.
But the issues do change. The way you eat does change. Some infections heal, such as incision sites and some you battle with indefinitely like c diff.
Some people lose hair, others go bald and some lose no hair at all. My daughter would rather be bald than to be fat. I wouldn't.
I wasn't worried about loose skin. I knew that I would have some and planned to have it surgically removed. Now I can't as I am an unsuitable candidate. The skin on my thighs now impedes me from walking comfortably and it limits the clothes I can wear.
So some of my personal reasons for having surgery were not corrected by my vsg.
Hearing all the wonderful stories of weightloss, full health etc makes me happy. I love seeing people blessed and living well.
This was not my outcome. I just want people's expectations and information to be correct.
And most of all, for people to feel accepted, supported, heard and understood.
Even when they are being silly, emotional, reckless, going off plan, there might be genuinely intentioned people needing help.
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Or they are even more common than is reported on forums like this.
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I'm scheduled for surgery on 12/19 and I've found these posts (and the subsequent encouragement by the community) invaluable during my prep. I'm expecting to feel miserable emotionally and physically and have prepared myself and my support team (husband, family, friends, etc) to just keep telling me that feeling terrible is normal and I can get through it.
Also I know that if I have complications or just normal emotional freak outs, I can come here and the community understands and will hold my hand.
These posts are great and no one should feel bad about making them.

3 months down and 60 lbs later. I feel like a whole new person. Life has never been so amazing. I seriously doubted my decision the first month. It was the hardest season of my life so far. But so so SO worth it. And I'm no where near where I need to be yet!!!

Here is my before shot and after shot. My one year mark is this Friday, March 7th. I have lost over 100 pounds. I was a size 22, now I'm down to a size 2,3. I feel great. I work out almost every day and I thank God every day for this surgery.