It's funny there are people from all different circumstances and walks of life on this website. Some people whose highest weight isnt even as high as I am with 64 lbs lost and people who are 200lbs or more above where I am now.

I also think it's interesting that there are people with no comorbities, tons of comorbidities, ppl who converted from sleeve to VSG etc

so my question is what made you choose this, ultimately???

I can say that at 33 and weighing 343 lbs, I had always been relatively healthy, even though I'd been overweight my entire life. And even though I was always big, I was comfortable at 250lbs...still pretty active etc. But i think 350 was my fear...the closer I got to that, the more I realized I had to put a stop to this.

Also some weight-related illness in family and the death of a family friend was a wake up call. I remember my aunt's ex boyfriend who was always overweight died of a heart attack last year, and she called me and begged me to lose weight. She told me to do what ever was necessary...and the irony is we were both named Sam. I remember i ended the conversation in tears, and thats when i resolved that no matter how afraid I was that I was more afraid to do nothing and die.

I was dx'd with type 2 diabetes November 30th 2010 I had the initial consult with the surgeon December 13th.

My Dad died 2 yrs ago this month from complication of type 1 diabetes. He was 52yrs old. He had nearly 20yrs that he could have used to get healthy and fight for his life. He chose to succumb to his disease and wait for it to kill him in his lazy boy...which is ultimately what happened. Heart attack while sitting in his favorite chair. I don't want to leave my kids prematurely.

My knees were giving out on me ...when I couldn't walk upstairs of my very own home, enough was enough. One of the best things I've ever done for myself.

I can't walk across campus without being out of breath. I am ashamed to go out with my friends sometimes because I don't fit any of my clothes. I feel sick all the time. I am getting older, and closer to the diseases that come with being obese and that run prevalently in my family. I do not want to be another branch on the diabetes and heart disease family tree. I have admitted I need help.

A lot of my family members are obese, friends, co workers, with severe co morbidities. I was my highest ever at 200 ish, even higher than being pregnant with my boys! I started to have sleep apnea and pains all over. I failed so many times at every diet, and no excuses because my family and especially my husband is so supportive and very active himself. I saw myself falling more and more in a rut of depression, inactivity, etc. I could not even carry my 2 yr old without feeling tired. The kicker was when my oldest son got teased at school because his mom had the biggest but. I know...he told this little punk off better than I could saying ,"yes, she does ....but so what ..she is the best mom ever and everybody likes to play with her, even you, when she comes to our recess". Ok brag moment... However, I did not like putting him in that position, wrong or right. I felt like if I kept up with my habits, my kids would think that it was ok or normal to be obese, and it's not ok for my sons! I want them healthy and happy living long strong lives. I knew I was one more day from being 300 plus lbs like my mom because I was making her same mistakes! She waited until she was over 300 lbs and 58 years old to have gastric bypass, and now it has changed her life! My mom and I both agreed we did not want to wait so long for me! I am 36, and at 37 I want to feel free from the signs and symptoms of this disease. I chose the sleeve because I always did great on phen untill it wore off and I was always hungry again. I was sleeved one month ago today, and it is amazing not being hungry or feeling deprived!

I was dx'd with type 2 diabetes November 30th 2010 I had the initial consult with the surgeon December 13th.

My Dad died 2 yrs ago this month from complication of type 1 diabetes. He was 52yrs old. He had nearly 20yrs that he could have used to get healthy and fight for his life. He chose to succumb to his disease and wait for it to kill him in his lazy boy...which is ultimately what happened. Heart attack while sitting in his favorite chair. I don't want to leave my kids prematurely.

I am sorry about your dad. I am happy for you and your kids! Great Job MOM!

When my pill count went up to 20 a day and I didnt know if I was ill or was experiencing one of the many side effects of the pills. That and a co worker of mine that I have known for 15 years has T2D also and I watched him over the years lose part of his foot, start going blind and is now on dialysis and he is only 4 years older than me. Over the years I had managed to get my weight from 280+ down to an average of 225 but that still didnt stop everything that was going on. I knew the only thing would be if I was able to curb the amount that I ate. Even if I eat bad things later on, I wont be able to eat a lot of it and portion control was my biggest advisary. So now I am sleeved and cant eat a fraction of what I ate before and still get that "full" feeling I loved after eating something great. I love my sleeve! It is saving my life!

I got married in August of last year. I know my husband loves me just the way I was (he married me while I was fat, after all) but I want to spend the next 60 or 70 years with him. And I knew, at 287lbs, that was pretty unlikely. I also have 2 young daughters who lost their daddy when they were 9 and 2, and I want to do everything in my power to live as long as I can for them!

Applesaucy I am so sorry to hear about your dad.

I suffer from chronic pain from nerve pain in my back and problems in both knees. It keeps me a near invalid. My pain management doctor had told me at every visit I could realyl help things if I lost weight. However activity was always the key for me to lose weight and I gained the bulk of my weight now after my back surgery, when I could no longer be active. Having tried every diet in the planet for years before I found woking out, I embarked on another diet last fall with dismal result even though I cut my intake back to extreme levels.

The other thing is that I stopped weighing ten years ago- I was active, ina size I was happy with, and felt good in my body. To say I was in denial is and understatement! When I went to my doctor in January to discuss my problems losing, she asked if I had considered weight loss surgery. I was shocked, both because I did not realize I was big enough to have it and because I thought of it as so extreme! I decided then and there to face up and climbed on the scale to discover I was 277 pounds. I believe all the blood drained from my face, Once I saw that weight and confronted the truth about myself there was no way I would not do ANYTHING to rectify this to save my life and hopefully to be among the living again.

I went to the next possible orientation of my surgeon and when he talked about all three surgeries it was clear immediately to me that I wanted the sleeve. A good omen happened for me when I discovered a friend in Water aerobics who was always raving about her surgeon for her bypass mentioned his name and it was my surgeon- he had recently moved to my health plan location PAMF. I finally met with him in February and he told me my insurance was wonderful about approvals and when I called my insurance they said they did cover the sleeve and that the only requirements were meeting the doctors requirements. When I actually met with my surgeon in Feburary he said I was a perfect candidate and that without the surgery he could see me in a wheelchair and then dead at an early age. He spelled out a bunch of hoops to jumo through in pre tests, nutritionists meetings, etc. and jumped through those hoops with strong determination, fighting problems that came up that might have delayed me more months and overcoming every obstacle. I even got a cold the week before my May 9th date and they said I should cancel and I fought them and insisted they let me wait a few days and be evaluated by my GP- and I got my surgery May 9th.

It is the best thing I ever did. In the time from my 2 week pre-op to now I have lost over 30 pounds already.

I could repeat what everyone has said above but my reasons are more emotional. You can read the first page of my blog and it will tell you why I chose to go through with it. http://ifonlyshewerethinner.typepad.com/

I have been overweight since I was about 9. I didn't really become unhappy with myself until in my early 20's. I was always really popular and outgoing. I did my first diet at 22 and lost 112 lbs. I am now 36 and have lost and regained that 112 lbs 4 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last time I lost it was a year and a half ago. I gained it all back in a year! I can never keep the weight off (that is why I had this surgery). But, this time when I re-gained it, I became a type II diabetic and got high blood pressure to go along with it. I had thought about wls in the past, but never wanted to do it because I did not want to have my guts re-routed. I heard about the sleeve and wanted to explore my options!

I went to my primary dr. and asked if wls was an option for me as I did not want to live the rest of my life taking pills and checking my blood and getting more complications. I went on the pre-op diet, lost 55lbs and I was sleeved 5 months later! One week after my surgery, my diabeties was in remission and I no longer have high blood pressure!!

The sleeve is the best gift I could have ever given myself!!

Kelly

Reading over my doctor's shoulder last year as he wrote in my chart and seeing 'morbid obesity.' That was a real wake-up call.

Good topic! Sounds like many of us have some of the same themes. I was actually slender until my mid-thirties and but then I had to have my thyroid removed. Even though I am on replacement thyroid medications my metabolism was never the same and I began to gradually add weight until I ended up at age 56 ranging between 190 and 200 lbs.

I have a lot of diabetes in my family and like Applesaucy...deaths from the complications. My younger, slim brother was diagnosed with diabetes about 5 years ago and became insulin dependent within 2 years. His life will undoubtedly be cut short by this disease and he does all of the right things and gets superb Medical care.

So...in February of 2010 my PCP told me I that need to lose 60+ lbs and that I was diabetic too. He suggested WLS. I was actually MAD...I wasn't "THAT" fat! Oh denial...what a friend you are! I was truly angry and knew I could lose the weight on my own. I joined Weight Watchers for the umpteenth time and lost 14 lbs over about 6 months. Then I spent the next 6 months gaining that back with additional weight.

In February of THIS year when I went back for my annual physical weighing more than I had the previous year I had to face the fact that I couldn't do it alone. My choice was to let my diabetes progress and die from complications or I could find another way to lose the weight. I went to the my first weight loss seminar intending to have the lap band but the more I listened to the details of that surgery I knew it wasn't for me. I knew nothing about the sleeve until that night but walked away knowing that it was a better choice.

My BIG goal is to achieve my weight loss goal by my birthday on March 6 of next year!

Thanks for the topic.

I have always been fat....since age 5, at least. My highest was over 300, and I cried. I thought about Lap Band surgery then...but chose a different approach. I dropped about 85 lbs, and have kept that off for many years, but over the last 2 1/2 yrs, I have been so active, literally living at the gym, doing 5k's extreme hiking, bench press competitions....I was happy with my body. But last November, I was trying to do a group class, and I KNEW that I had the stregth and endurance to do what everyone else was doing, but I couldn't do it effectivly. My big ol belly was contantly in the way from me succeding. I went to the car and litterally cried/screamed all the way home. (I went to the Dr the following week crying) Plus, whenever I did my runs, or anything super strenuous, (my weekend warrior) It took me a few weeks to recoup and recover from injuries that I might have sustained. It was frustrating and I was not loosing ANY weight!!!

So, in January, I began the process, and am now just over a week out, and 10 lbs down!

I have always been a 'big girl'...graduated from HS weighing about 175, which of course now, looking back, I would have given anything to stay in that weight range. I gained a lot my freshman year in college...most people talk about the "Freshman 15" and mine was more like the "Freshman 30" I had no idea how to cook a healthy meal, and of course didn't count calories or understand healthy eating. In my family food = love and my mom loved to cook, so much that she was a bit of a control freak in the kitchen. She would shoo us out and make a wonderful meal and never taught me how to cook. So I had zero skills when it came to cooking and even knew less about healthy cooking...I used to consider a bag of popcorn a meal.

I met my hubby my Junior year in college and when you gain 15-20lbs a year it really starts to add up. At the time I didn't own a scale and would grow out of clothes and just go buy bigger sizes. Denial is a wonderful island to visit but a very bad place to make a home. I have no idea what I weighed when I met him, but was wearing about a size 18 on bottom. He accepted me as is, we graduated from college and for the first time in my life I started thinking about dieting.

And so began what became an 17+ year battle of the bulge. I have done just about every diet in the book.

WW (more than once)

South Beach (more than once)

Medifast (more than once)

Hydroxycut

Simple Calorie Counting

Chiropractor Diet (was NO SUGAR and NO CARBS)

Meridia (lost 5lbs in 3 months...whoopee!)

Slim Fast

Choices (was a weight loss center, used to have to pee on a ketosis stick...blech)

Diabetic Exchange Diet

Low Fat

Low Carb (not necessarily Atkins plan, but similar)

Magazine Diets (you know, lose -10lbs in 10 days!!!!)

Met with Nutritionist for 1/week for 1 year

Curves Diet

40-30-30 Fat Burning Nutrition Diet

I would always *lose* weight, but it never stayed off for very long. I had tremendous success with my first go-round with Medifast. I did an ALL liquid diet, (remember Oprah and Optifast...yeah, that was me with Medifast) lost about -80lbs in a one year period that was 6 months of liquid, followed with 6 months of transition to liquid/reg. food and finally all reg. food. It was during that time that I met weekly with a nutritionist. I did somewhat well with keeping it off for about a year...bounced around with 15lbs that sort of crept back in the year following the Medifast success. Then got pregnant with DD #1. I gained 60lbs with my pregnancy. I will admit I caved in with my weakness for ice cream and had it just about every night during my pregnancy. Then I had my DD and lost -10lbs in the first 4 months. Oops. Maybe that wasn't all baby weight in there. DUH!!! Then got pregnant with DD#2 when first DD was 10 months old. That is what they tend to call a back-to-back pregnancy, and yes it is hard on your body (in case you were wondering.) With my second pregnancy, I realized that the weight wasn't going to fall off (duh!) and was more careful and only gained about 18lbs throughout the whole pregnancy (but was still playing with the 50+ lbs that never went away from the first pregnancy. Gave birth to a 9lb baby, so my net gain was 9lbs. SO I was def. more "aware" the second time around.

When my kids were 3 and 21 months old (they are now 8 (almost 9) and 10!!!!) I joined Curves. I started out 3x a week and slowly worked my way up to 5x a week. And guess what? The weight STILL did not fall off my body. When I would combine the Curves with "dieting" weight would come off but exercise alone did not = weight loss (for me anyway.) Over the years I would talk to my PCP about bariatric surgery. About once a year at my annual physical I would bring it up (so would my hubby) and we were always pointed in a different direction. We actually took the many suggestions from our Dr. and tried it. And we would lose, fall off the 'wagon', and of course eventually regain. Finally in April of 2010, I just had a lightbulb moment when I came home and told my hubby I wanted surgery. He agreed 100% (although it took him much longer to decide he wanted it too) but he was 100% supportive of my decision. Together we called our insurance and listened to the options. I picked Band. And for about 3 or 4 months (I had a 6 month mandatory wait time) that is all I wanted. Then when he got on board with surgery for himself he begged me to research the sleeve. We had never heard of it but our insurance coordinator had mentioned that it was 'covered' on that first phone call. (I say covered b/c we are on a "high deductible plan" so we shell out $5K per year to hit our ded. and then pay 10% thereafter.) So I did the research, we settled on the sleeve and the rest is history!

This wasn't something that I woke up one day and wanted to have. It was a culmination of many years of trying to control my weight on my own, and succeding temporarily and then failing. I had no co-morbidities, but in Nov. 2008 my mother was diagnosed with Diabetes (type II). And in 2007 my hubby was diagnosed with hypertension. I sort of felt like a ticking time bomb, and was maybe lucky due to my age (I'm 39 now) and the fact that I worked out regularly.

Now I no longer fear what the future may bring in regards to my weight. I may still get sick or have issues or cancer or you-name-it, but I can do everything in my power to make sure it isn't due to my morbid obesity.