hey everyone this site is awsome!!! im reading lots of forums and i cant belive that alberta is the only place where this surgury is free that would suck to pay that much. anyway i have 1 month and some till my sleeve surgury im getting nervous i hope im doing the right thing im pretty sure i am but theres still that feeling thats theres saying are you sure bout this is that normal? and is life gonna be different like is it gonna be painful afterwards for the rest of my life? all in all i guess im just scared of dying i dont wanna leave my 4 yr old boy i love him to much, i am a smaller patient im 5"2 and around 205-210, i was suppost to loose the 15-20 lbs prior to surg but still havin difficulty at that. anyway any advice or info is awsome thanks guys and good luck to all of you that have had or is having soon take care

melissa-from alberta

Totally normal. I get sleeved 8/30 in Mexico and although I don't have kids, I am scared of dying, too. Funny, when you consider my doc has had no leaks and he operates on people much heavier than I am on a regular basis. But fears aren't necessarily rational. Yet we have them, and we have to honor them and try to let them go. See you on the other side (and I don't mean heaven! LOL)

hey everyone this site is awsome!!! im reading lots of forums and i cant belive that alberta is the only place where this surgury is free that would suck to pay that much. anyway i have 1 month and some till my sleeve surgury im getting nervous i hope im doing the right thing im pretty sure i am but theres still that feeling thats theres saying are you sure bout this is that normal? and is life gonna be different like is it gonna be painful afterwards for the rest of my life? all in all i guess im just scared of dying i dont wanna leave my 4 yr old boy i love him to much, i am a smaller patient im 5"2 and around 205-210, i was suppost to loose the 15-20 lbs prior to surg but still havin difficulty at that. anyway any advice or info is awsome thanks guys and good luck to all of you that have had or is having soon take care

melissa-from alberta

Melissa,

I am one of those "self-pays" and whereas it would be nice if I didn't have to shell out over 10k for surgery and airfare, I am VERY thankful that I didn't have to jump through any hoops and wait forever to have surgery! I'm doing things on MY terms and MY time...considering co-pays and other charges, I'm not paying much more then if my insurance had covered it without the hassle!

Any surgery is scary. My mom had the VBG in 1990 and the doc "nicked" her spleen and she almost died. I'm not saying this to scare you in anyway, but sometimes we get so caught up on results and forget what it takes to get there and the risks involved. (FYI - in my mom's case the doc was later fired from the hospital a month later for drinking before going in the OR...not sure whether this was the case before my mom went in, but even the best surgeons make mistakes.)

I think the biggest thing is faith in your surgeon and to hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst. In general, this procedure has a low mortality rate and so long as your surgeon knows what he is doing, you should be just fine! Have you asked for your physician's stats for complications?

Best of luck to you!

If you're gonna be in Edmonton before your surgery and would like to meet up to assuage any fears, feel free to shoot me a PM.