Just Curious, if anybody had a defininig moment when they made up their mind that the weight had to come off. I will start it off. I was at the playground with my son and there weren't many kids around so I decided to play with him. After chasing him around for fifteen minutes I couldn't go on. I was hot, sweaty and felt like I would pass out. I took him away from his fun in the sun so I could get back to my easy chair and the air conditioner. I wasn't gonna let my fatness ruin his childhood.

My defining moment was after I saw my friend who'd been 'banded'. She'd tried and tried to talk me into WLS of some sort three yrs earlier when she did it. I was very against it, scared of any problems. Let me preface this with another friend had her stomach stapled not quite 20 yrs ago, way before it became popular. She had many, many problems, so I was not going to do that to myself. Well, we all know how the stomach stapling turned out....things have improved since then. I saw my other friend who had not had ONE problem. She'd lost 63 lbs and looked wonderful. She didn't die, didn't throw up every time she ate meat....I started investigating WLS. The sleeve seemed like a perfect fit for me. I love it, I do not regret doing it, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!!

Just Curious, if anybody had a defininig moment when they made up their mind that the weight had to come off. I will start it off. I was at the playground with my son and there weren't many kids around so I decided to play with him. After chasing him around for fifteen minutes I couldn't go on. I was hot, sweaty and felt like I would pass out. I took him away from his fun in the sun so I could get back to my easy chair and the air conditioner. I wasn't gonna let my fatness ruin his childhood.

Hello Everyone-

I'm still pre-op. My Dr. has my folder and hopefully will send it to my insurance next week. My main reason for considering wls is my health. I'm 45, 5'0" and at my heaviest 227 lbs. I was diagnosed with hpb almost 3 years ago. My pcp says I have metabolic syndrome. My hips and knees hurt all the time. I have a 10 year old daughter and when she was younger and asked me to play outside with her I would be so winded in just a few minutes. She doesn't ask me to play anymore.

Like some other posters I take all the family pictures so I don't have to be in them. And as far as vanity goes... Around my waist I'm almost as wide as I am tall. I'm tired of my clothes looking like huge squares.

If I am approved I hope to be sleeved in December because we get almost 2 weeks off from work.

Like others here, I had a nasty wake up call when I had medical problems. I had pneumonia in May that led to a host of other problems, which I've listed in other threads, so I won't repeat them here. My PCP kept listing me as morbidly obese and "non-compliant with diet and exercise instructions" even though I worked my butt off last year and lost 50 pounds on Atkins. 50 pounds is nothing to what I NEED to lose, though.

I can't wait until it's time for my annual physical this year. I'll be that 50 pounds lighter and way more energetic than I've been in forever!!

My other inspiration is an aunt in her 50's who has had tons of trouble with her diabetes and is now all but housebound. She'll be dead in a few years, but she's already mostly blind. She's never clearly seen the faces of any of her grandchildren and she has to have someone wiht her constantly because she can't/won't do anything for herself. I'm too darn young to live that way!!! This is the aunt who used to be my party buddy. We'd go out on the weekends, take day trips just because, and think nothing of gathering up our kids (who are close in age) and heading off to do something fun. Now, she's an old woman living for her next meal. I don't want that to be me!!!

I was sleeved Aug 30, 2011 and I have more energy than I have had in forever. Reversing the health problems is primary, but I think I'll enjoy looking better, too!!!

Increasing heath problems. I was going down the same path as my mother. She was morbidly obese most of her life. She passed away at 57. Some nights I couldn't sleep, I would lay there thinking do I only have a few more left myself?

Great Topic.

I've been heavy my whole life and I thought about my weight everyday for as long as I could remember. I was fortunate enough to meet my wife in high school and she loved me for who I was, weight and all, so I was able to coast along for many years, gaining weight gradually over the years. We had three wonderful kids and life was going pretty well. My world came crashing down around me the night before Thanksgiving in 2004 when my wife was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of abdominal cancer. After fighting it with all she had for two and half years, she died in February 2004 and I was left as a single dad of our three kids ages 12, 7 and 6. I probably gained another 30 pounds over the next three years as I dealt with the lonliness, stress, sadness and anger and was just hitting my heaviest weight of 300 pounds. Each time I went to my doctor for a checkup, there was more bad news...high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, back pain, etc. When my doctor suggested weight loss surgery, I was highly insulted...I was not that guy. However, the seed was planted and I began to think about it more and more. I felt like I was standing on the railroad tracks facing an oncoming train of additional health problems, diabetes and maybe even early death. My children suffered so much with the loss of their mother, I just felt like I had to so something to lose the weight and regain my health so that I could be there to take care of them. I also felt like I needed a way to lose the weight and keep it off as I had been told or read somewhere that of people who lose 100 pounds or more with diet and exercise, only about 2% keep it off. I found that statistic chilling and thought that even if I could lose the weight with diet and exercise (highly unlikely), I could not take the chance of gaining it all back. I started looking for a doctor to do the gastric bypass as I'd read negative things about the band, but I was delighted when my surgeon, Dr. Mitchell Roslin told me about the VSG and suggested that I was an ideal candidate. The more research I did, the more I became convinced that this was the right decision for me. Now, almost 14 months ago, having lost just about 125 pounds, I am absolutely convinced that, with the exception of marrying my wife and having our kids, the decision to have this surgery was the best decision I have ever made!

AMEN! It is one of the top decision of our life!! I look at the other guys at work & I'm the same size as them now. Your children must be very proud of you! What a heart moving story! Thank you for sharing.

I guess I'm kind of an atypical wls patient....I was VERY thin my whole life until I got married at the age of 21, by the time I was pg with my first baby at the age of 23 I was 200lbs and it just kept climbing. I weighed 140lbs on my wedding day (May 30, 1998) and weighed 299.2lbs at my first dr's appt (January 2011). I have LONGED to feel like I did as a teenager...healthy and light! The final straws were going to Disney World for our third time and being MISERABLE at "the happiest place on earth"....I didn't fit in the plane seat either. Also, we'd been trying to conceive our third child for 5 years.....fertility meds, dr's visits, ultrasounds...more meds....I just couldn't do it to my body anymore. Every attempt packed on 10 extra lbs. So, we're giving it another year and if pregnancy doesn't occur naturally, we're going to continue being happy with our 2 girls! (but I'm hoping for one more baby and my healthiest pregnancy yet!!) I'm down to 229lbs at 6 months post-op and am LOVING my sleeve! Best gift I ever gave myself and my family!!