Ok, so I've been reading posts on here for like three months, and I joined and posted once before, but I do it from my iPhone so I can't find my old post and don't know if anyone replied, so if anyone did sorry I did not reply back. I think I'm getting better at this now though. In my last post I was saying how I didn't know if I'd be able to have this surgery due to a lot of medical problems(crohn's disease, Barrett's esophagus, severe GERD, tumor in the small intestine of unknown origin, I think that covers it) well, come to find out vsg is my only option which is awesome, because it's what I want. I am 29 years old 6'1 and now 450lbs. So I need this, I cannot keep up like this, but now I've done everything and am just waiting on the insurance approval, and my surgeon is hoping to get me in before the new year and I am freaking out big time!!! I am so worried that I will not be the same person after surgery, I mean I am ready to change but what if my personality is in the part of my stomach he removes, I know that's crazy, but I just mean what if I change in a bad way? Did anyone else ever wonder silly things like this? I think my nerves are just making me crazy, but I also have real concerns and really not much support. So here I am. My bmi is really high, will I survive this surgery? How bad is the pain really? Is it realistic to think I'll lose 215lbs? I think I know all these answers, but I guess I'm just looking for reassurance. Thanks for reading I tend to ramble when nervous.

Good luck with the approval. I have Crohn's disease too, and it has been a long process getting approved, first we tried for the band, got denied, then resubmitted for the band, got denied again, changed to the sleeve and got denied because my Insurance felt it was exploratory / Invesitagtional. I will be submitting my appeal on Friday, and feel like this time we may get it through. What insurance do you have? What state are you in?

Thank you and good luck to you too. I have united healthcare and I live in New York. My surgeon's office said I lucked out because my insurance just started covering the sleeve and are no longer considering it experimental. Again good luck to you and thanks for replying to my post.

I went through the whole waiting and denial and approval process with insurance and it worked out fine for me. I'm not sleeved yet but I have a date set for Feb. I am still nervous about the whole process and what it will be like and I ask myself if I really want to have 85-90% of my stomach cut out for good. But then when I look at the 3 high blood pressure meds I'm taking and when I strap on that damn CPAP mask at night and when I feel the strain on my knees, I forget all the other worries and realize that this weight is MORE likely to kill me than the surgery is. And that is a fact!! I've read as much as possible and I continue to read more so that I am prepared for what is to come but you can never be FULLY prepared. But at the end of the day, you are doing the right thing and the short term "pain" of the surgery and recovery will lead to the long term "gain" (or loss really) when it comes to the health benefits. Keep the faith and use the people here as support.

Thank you so much for putting things back into perspective for me, I just need things to move along and get this done so I can stop freaking out about it. Thanks again.