When something goes well for us, we tend to become evangelists about it. I am going to a "seminar" about VSG tomorrow, though... and I want to know if anyone here wishes they hadn't had the surgery.

Thanks.

Good question!

I remember askings a similar question if anyone had regrets before getting my sleeve last October. Now over 3 mths out I can answer it.... absolutely no regrets. Like several people I too wish I had done it years ago. So far the worse thing about it is the hair loss. I was expecting it so it's no suprise but still hard to see it go down the drain. But everything else is good. I love that food doesn't control my life anymore. I love that my body is shrinking and my new energy level. There are so many great things about it. Sure everyone will tell you it's just a tool and you have to do the work, which is true but it's also the best tool any of us have had and I feel blessed that I put myself first for a change and did it.

I am ambivalent at this point. No major complications have surfaced, no issues with eating or nausea or throwing up, so that is all good. But right now, the scale isn't moving much. Its frustrating to be eating 600-800 calories a day and NOT seeing the scale move! But I am hopeful it will pass.

I have seen good benefits already but the majority of that weight loss that led to these changes occurred before I had surgery! SO hopefully we'll see the scale moving better soon.

Hi Karelia:

I started out immediately post-surgery (as in waking up from the anesthesia!) with a serious case of buyer's remorse. I was angry at myself for getting to the point where a surgical procedure was the best option for my long-term health--I was mad!! I also had a problem with throwing up for the first month and a half, until the wonderful people on this board encouraged me to try a PPI and I got enough of it in my system to solve the problem. I'm telling you, my husband dealt with a very tearful, very frustrated, very upset wife for a good 6 weeks after my surgery. I was losing weight, though, even through all of that.

Since the throwing up problem has been gone now for almost 5 weeks, I can truthfully say I am really glad I had the surgery. Yes, I'm admitting it. :-) I know for a fact I would never have lost the weight "on my own," despite my best intentions--I had tried numerous times in the past and had never managed it. Now, I eat tiny portions of "regular" food, am losing weight despite not exercising much at all, and feel pretty darn good. I'm enjoying having cuter, smaller clothes, and I'm looking forward to getting back to teaching in the fall with more energy and more physical stamina. I'm also looking forward to my blood tests and physician checkup in a couple of weeks, because I know my blood pressure will be lower, my weight is getting better, and things are moving forward health-wise.

So, no, I don't regret it at all now--if you had asked me this same question a few weeks ago, you might have gotten a very different answer, but even then I knew it wasn't a permanent thing. There are frustrations at first with learning how to eat and what to eat and when to eat and even then, sometimes things beyond your personal control happen that you have to deal with, but time makes most of those things better. I'll be interested to see how others respond.

Best wishes to you as you research!!

Meg

Hi Meg!

What is PPI?

What's PPI?

PPI is a proton pump inhibitor, a type of antacid. There are different kinds. Prilosec is a PPI. If you try one type of acid reducer and it doesn't work, try another type--ask your doctor or nutritionist or pharmacist. Prilosec worked for me! And wow, reading back on this post, I realize just how fortunate I am to have had this surgery. Back in July, I was still coming to grips with it; now, 9 months out, I am THRILLED to have lost 113 pounds as of today, be in a "normal" weight BMI category, and be only a few pounds from my first goal. :-)

'

I wouldn't even be able to consider this if I was self-pay. My insurance will cover it, or so they say.

There are a few things I want to make clear. One is that after four years of Intuitive Eating, I rarely binge or even eat to the point where I feel overly full. I am far from perfect, but if I hadn't had these four years where I've learned to see food as something that is a tool, but also something fun that doesn't have to control me, I'd never even consider this surgery. That said, the idea of a food "addiction" is plain silly to me. I realize that's an unpopular viewpoint, but you cannot be any more addicted to food than you can to oxygen. You NEED both to live. So, if you believe in oxygen addictions, well, that's another story. Nicotine, caffeine, heroin, whatever... these are things we do not NEED to survive, and therefore can be true addictions. Food is a necessary component of life. I definitely used food in the wrong ways, but that doesn't make it an addiction. I guess an argument can be made for a "psychological addiction," but I've been much healthier emotionally since realizing that food is fuel. It can - and should be - fun, pleasant and enjoyable. I love food, and always will. I've just learned to love less of it, to listen to my body. Sometimes, for example, my tastebuds may say "CHOCOLATE" but my body makes it very clear it wants - needs! - Protein. I eat the protein. These are the things IE has taught me, things that I imagine would be invaluable should I go forward with this procedure.

However, the reality is, fibromyalgia (like IBS) is a testy disease. I might be one of the unlucky ones who does not respond well to such a drastic change in diet. There's a chance that I have this surgery and feel even worse than I already do. There are no sure things, and that is very frightening to me. Yes, I might be lucky and feel fabulous, at least after an initial period of pretty freaking awful... but I might also never feel better, or may be even worse. Being thinner would be nice, but not if it means more pain.

The idea of a lot of vomiting is very off putting to me, too. I already deal with chronic nausea, and that's bad enough. I have to be really careful with what I eat, particularly where raw veggies and fruits are concerned. It sucks because I love them, but they're asking for trouble and feeling miserable, so I've learned to avoid most of them. Always made dieting fun, too...

I am unconvinced that a procedure of this extreme will actually lengthen my life. I've read studies that show that people who do gastric bypass and are diabetic often redevelop diabetes later in life, even when they've kept the weight off. I have concerns on how healthy it is for a heart to be put through such dramatic, rapid weight loss. But even if my life isn't extended, if the quality of it improves, then it's worth it. Problem is, there are just no guarantees, and anyone claiming otherwise is not to be trusted.

I could be MUCH happier and feel much healthier. I might be miserable and feel much worse. There's no way to know, and if I do this and it's the latter... I'm just screwed, because there's no going back. So it's more than a bit scary...

With all due respect, there is a growing body of research that suggests food addiction is very real. It has nothing to do with whether your body needs it or doesn't need it. It has to do with the neurobiology of addition -- things such as the release of dopamine and the activation of certain areas of the brain in ways with obese people that is not the same with those that are lean. If you're interested in some snooze-provoking reading ; ) this is a good place to start:

http://foodaddiction...h/new-research/

Also Karelia, I agree with you that in matters such as these there are no guarantees. You DON'T know if certain issues you currently deal with will be made better or worse. Yet with regard to the information you've found about people having WLS, eliminating their diabetes, and then having it re-occur, I would argue that is important when you read such things to know what percentage of people have had this happen. Is this just anecdotal data, or are there valid scientific studies that show this happens to a certain % of people who have WLS and who suffer pre-op from diabetes? You might be hearing about something that happens in 1 out of 100 or 1,000 cases. So sure there's a CHANCE, but how realistic is it that it will really happen?

I for one and very hopeful that this surgery will allow my blood pressure to return to normal levels without the help of Rx and that I will no longer have sleep apnea and have to wear a funny mask every night.

Jewel,

A website dedicated to the concept of "food addiction" is not where I'd go for reliable information on such matters. I will always maintain you cannot be addicted to something your body requires to live. You may be emotionally "addicted," but unless the definition of "addiction" changes to "needed for survival," you're not physically addicted to food anymore than you are to oxygen.

Everyone,

It's very telling and interesting to me how many people have "mourned" the loss of eating large amounts of food... and I was VERY harshly judged here in another post because I have used Intuitive Eating for the past several years and do NOT get weighed. However, I can say with absolutely certainty that I am mentally far healthier than a lot of you who've had this surgery when it comes to my relationship with food.

I love food. It's delicious, necessary and fun! And it should be fun. IE let me learn that... before IE, when I was yo-yo dieting I was MISERABLE. And what I realize now is that while, yes, some of the misery came from struggling with the scale and trying to figure out ways to eat what I liked - and what my stomach could tolerate - without going over my Points or calories, what really made me miserable is the fact that food was ALL I EVER THOUGHT ABOUT... ever. Now, I eat more healthfully and consciously than I ever did when I dieted. I rarely binge and I rarely eat to a point where I feel uncomfortably full anymore. My concerns about the surgery, despite what many of you seemed to assume, have NOTHING to do with not being able to "pig out" or being a "food addict." On the contrary, I think mentally I've never been in a better place to have a surgery that would prevent me from "pigging out."

However, dieting forces food to be the center of your life. And, at least in the beginning, based on your stories and my very extensive research, that's exactly how it is after WLS, too. It HAS to be that way because you have to train your body to eat in a bizarre and unhealthy fashion - because sorry, but 800 calories a day is NOT healthy. It's starvation. Medically supervised & created starvation.

My husband was very opposed to this surgery from the moment I mentioned I was considering it. He's terrified of me having a surgery that DOES kill. People die from WLS (and yes, any surgery)... either during, or after because of complications. He felt that it wasn't worth risking my life to MAYBE extend it. Because, let's face it, there are no guarantees. And particularly this type of surgery... it's still so new that there's not a lot of historical data yet to support it will extend your life.

I've talked to many people since I originally posted this who had complications so severe that they do regret it. One girl I know had complications (and admittedly NOT VSG) that caused her to become permanently infertile. The most ironic part of that? She had the surgery at the recommendation of her reproductive endocrinologist... he told her with since PCOS is usually related to being overweight, the surgery could "cure" her infertility. Well, a. she still has EVERY PCOS symptom she had before, even after over 100 pounds lost. B. the complications she had resulted in problems that ensure she can never have a child... even IF her PCOS goes away. I had a RE tell me the same BS story... but I didn't believe it because I already knew so many thin women who had PCOS, and many others who'd lost weight and it didn't "cure" them at all.

While I'm happy for all of you who don't regret it, and who've had success, I decided this is not for me. I've done a lot of research on both the surgery and the notion that being fat automatically means being unhealthy. It's interesting to note, when you pay attention to study authors, how many of the "obesity is EVIL" people are in the pockets of major pharma or diet companies. It's in the vested interest to promote the notion that to be healthy one must be thin. There is a book I highly recommend, especially to anyone that has plateaued at what they are being told is still an "unhealthy" weight. It's called Health At Every Size. I'd also recommend Intuitive Eating. Both books point out that ever body is unique and the "one size fits all" approach has got to stop because it promotes unhealthy attitudes and behaviors. The BMI charts are one of the worst things ever invented, and I've thought that for years. If I *had* done this surgery I planned to do it without ever knowing my weight, and without a specific goal set. I don't need to go down that disastrous road again, ever.

Now, I'm not saying that losing weight couldn't or wouldn't make my life EASIER. It certainly could. But given the method of weight loss in question, I don't think it would make it BETTER, and I am far more concerned about that at this point. In fact, the potential to make it much, much worse is just a risk I refuse to take. More to the point, I refuse to literally risk my life. And yes, I know you're all going BUT YOU'RE SO FAT - you're life is already at risk! Maybe... but no more so than someone crossing a busy street, at this point. Going under the knife is too often deadly... having to do surgery for emergency reasons is one thing. Doing it voluntarily is just not for me, especially given the high likelihood that I would struggle to lose much weight because of the health issues that prevented me from losing weight when I was dieting and following the program strictly.

I appreciate the answers, even if I felt awfully judged by many of you - and saw you judge others in your own community. I've spent the past six months debating this, and I've come to the final decision only recently. I hope that those of you who read this will respect my decision, even if you disagree with it, just as I respect your choice to have this surgery, even if I don't think the risks involved are worth it for ME.

PS. My husband would absolutely NOT tell me I couldn't have the surgery. He's just opposed to it.

I am 5 weeks and 3 days out. I have not regretted my decision a second. Has it been easy? No! There IS a mind adjustment that goes with this. But EVERY DAY gets better. I learn a little more about myself every day. I'm enjoying my journey. AND the people on this web-site have been amazingly helpful and friendly. I glad you found us!

Ok well it's jan 25, 2012 this thread was from July 2011. I'm doing it in march, but TAMz how do you feel now? You took a verbal beating though out this post. I'm so glad I found this thread from 7 months ago, how's everybody doing?

Yes I read every last one of your post's, I'm glad I did, I have been reading daly for two and three hours a day on this site and one other for the past two months. I feel as informed as one could be without knowing first hand. I want to thank everyone of you for leading the way,your trail blazers and I truly thank you for making this life changing event possible for me. Without all of you Telling the story of your journey I could not make the disicion I have. It's the right choice for me.

Surgery date early march.

Steve-what is the other website?