M Ashley

This thread has been really reassuring. I worry about my hair. Sounds petty, I know, but it has always been the one pretty thing about me even when I couldn't otherwise stand to look in the mirror. My hair falls out like crazy now, and has since puberty. It also grows like crazy. I'm hoping this may set me up for an easier season of hair loss. Fingers crossed. My hair is naturally near-white. Has anyone found the thinning shows less with light or dark hair?

Hey All, I'm with Kaiser in SoCal, Inland Empire. I am taking the orientation on 8/17. I'm excited, but antsy. I've been through the Kaiser Healthy Balance diet program before and the classes were a little tough to take. Like someone said earlier: The same questions over and over! Oh well. Small price to pay. I hope it doesn't take too terribly long. I wish all of you luck.

I'm probably getting way ahead of myself here as I don't have a date yet, but: I've had two surgeries in my life, both on my eyes when I was a child. The first time, the anesthesia made me vomit explosively. The second time, I told my anesthesiologist about it and he said he would give me something to help the nausea (that was in 1988). He did, but I still had bouts of vomiting after, (nothing like that first time, however). My question is: If you have this reaction to anesthesia, will it negatively affect the surgery or cause complications?

All my best! I know it will turn out wonderfully for you.

@@Djmohr - Thank you for your kind words. Already I am happily overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone has been. This surgery seems to be an amazing thing. Although I've read a lot about loose skin and other not-so-great things, almost everyone says it's the best thing they've ever done for themselves. I so look forward to changing my life this way also. @@Cervidae - That eases my mind so much! I am VERY lucky that, besides PCOS, I have no other severe comorbidities. I am not anywhere near diabetic, no sleep apnea, and, if you can believe it, my blood pressure is actually lower than it was when I was 19 and 130lbs lighter. Weird. But the PCOS rages on. I'm right with you on the five o'clock shadow. Spiro was the third medicine I tried that I couldn't name. As you said, none of that even remotely touched the symptoms. If the surgery can relieve even part of that, I will be extremely grateful. And as for all my other relatively good health: I woke up about a week ago and realized that it IS strange and it WON'T last forever. One day there will be something, probably something tiny, that will tip it all over the edge. And that's it. If I am going to do this, I must do it while I am still strong. I went with my mom to physical therapy a little while ago and saw person after person confined to scooters because of their weight. That scared the hell out of me. When I weighed 330-ish, I was able to walk a couple of miles on the beach one day, then climb up the massive cliff to get back to the car when we were ready to go. Thirty pounds later, I went to a Halloween haunt thing at the Queen Mary and, for the first time in my life, I had to sit down between going through haunted houses because my feet, ankles, knees, and back hurt so badly. Slowly but surely, I'm coming to the tipping point. I need to do this now. Sorry for the rambling. So much is going through my mind right now.

Thank you so much. It's good to know I'm not alone feeling ALL these feelings when I'm just barely a few steps down the road. I also have PCOS and was wondering if I could ask a few questions about that: Did the surgery help any? I was put on birth control pills, then some pill I can't remember, and now Metformin for help with it and none of it made a dent. The only thing the birth control pills did was make my periods more regular, but at the same time, my mental health went in the toilet. Anyway, I was also curious if you had extra facial hair growth and if that was slowed or stopped by losing so much weight. I'm at 365lbs now and my goal, (pending what my doctor has to say about it), will probably be something around 150lbs.