Surely you are someone outside of your surgery and struggles with our weight. You have interests and dislikes and families- jobs and hobbies. And honestly- yes it is exciting to have this stool and to be on the journey- but hasn't there been enough focus all our lives on just our weight?

I know VST is dedicated to our VSG stories, but I sort of think that who we are makes our VSG surgeries that much more meaningful.

So I'll go first...

I'm Danielle. I'm 27 and I have three sisters and one nephew. I am unmarried and have no children. I work full time running the office for a respiratory company. This semester I am also attending college full time via online classes. I'm now also trying to squeeze in going to the gym three times a week.

I suffer from PCOS and had this surgery to help increase my chances of having a family of my own one day.

I am a TOTAL girly girl! I love the color pink, I like Hello Kitty the way others like Betty Boop or Tinkerbell, and I HATE HATE HATE spiders! I'm not much of an outdoorsie person- my idea of roughing it is five girls and one bathroom. That being said I do love to garden and can't wait for spring.

I love anything to do with 16th century european history and am a total fanatical nut when it comes to Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I. My favorite movie and book of allllllllll time is Gone With the Wind. I love watching old movies with my mom- our favorites are Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, anything with Doris Day and the Tammy movies. We also make a point of watching A League of Their Own together whenever it is on tv. I'm close with my Dad but sometimes I feel like we don't have anything in common.

Prior to surgery I loved home cooked food! (Along with chinese and pizza hut haha) I still enjoy cooking for my family (One sister, my parents and I all live together for economic reasons) and resumed cooking them meals within a few days of coming home from the hospital. I have a dog, she is a chihuahua/yorkie mix. Her name is Gypsy and well... she is sort of a monster!! I <3 her tho!

Now it's your turn!! Tell us who you are!

Chen

What a beautiful positive lady you are!

Hello all,

My name is Omar I'm 34, single. I was born in the Dominican Republic, but been in the US since I was 6 years old. I work in a dental office as a dental hygienist. I speak English, Spanish, French and Italian, on the last two not as fluent as I would like to be.

Hello. My name is Peter and I am a Catholic priest. For years I struggled with being overweight and being a public figure I had numerous people pointing out to me when I gained or lost. After awhile I was getting tired of constantly being looked at when they should be focused on the meaning of what I was doing at the Mass. In any case I did the sleeve after much prayer and spoke to spiritual advisors and they all offered their support. I am only 7 weeks out and feel like I have more energy than ever and no longer seem to have back pains. I sleep much better and I lost a lot so far. I think 45 lbs. I'm happy I did this and pray that I continue to be a success so that I can live a long time bringing the message of Christ in the world.

This is not an easy thing and takes a lot of work. If you are a person of prayer ask the Lord to help and guide you and I promise you will be ok. The goal is to love the person God made you and me to be. Be well and I'm praying for all of you.

Fr. Peter.

How did your surgery go? I am seeing Dr. Wizman as well.

I am Sheila

I am from the UK. 38 year old female. Married with two children.i have been suffering from obesity problems for many years.i have tried various types of diet, exercise. However I could not maintain the lost weight. Currently I have reached a BMI of 49. After a long struggle with my mind I have decided to go for bariatric surgery. At first I wanted to do lap band surgery but after reading a lot of reviews I made up my mind to go for gastric sleeve surgery. I am planning to get it done in Lebanon. The doctor is Dr Nagi Jean Safa of the advance BMI clinic in Beirut.

If anyone has had surgery in Beirut with Dr Safa, can you please post a response. About your experience. I am planning to get the surgery done in about four weeks time.

Thanks

Hello all my name is Carol I live in Michigan and I have been married for 18 years and have 4 children 2 boys 2 girls 20, 18, 15, &13. I have the Gastric sleeve on December 5 2011 and I only lost 50 pounds and then started gaining it back slowly but surely. I then went to a different doctor to see what the problem was and he suggested to do a scope to look at the sleeve. He did that and suggested I have a revision called Duo Denal Switch. I just had this surgery on November 18, 2015. It was not as bad as I thought. Yes I was scared and almost said forget it but my doctor was the best ever. Once surgery was over my doctor told me the original sleeve was not done correctly so he fixed that and did the switch and he also removed my appendix and gall bladder because after these surgeries a lot of people end up back in hospital to have one or both removed due to issues song thank him for that.

I have only lost 25 pounds so far. I have to get on a schedule because I find if I eat every couple hours I loose more weight than when I don't eat. I can eat just about anything but only a couple bites of what I eat so I must eat good choices. I have been eating a lot of chicken and fish no fried but I am kinda sick of it I need to find creative healthy meals. Taking the vitamins really help me have energy because after surgery I had no energy and slept a lot. I don't go back to work until January 11. The doctor kept me off longer than I expected because he is so careful and wants to make sure I'm great before I go back.

Hello all my name is Carol I live in Michigan and I have been married for 18 years and have 4 children 2 boys 2 girls 20, 18, 15, &13. I have the Gastric sleeve on December 5 2011 and I only lost 50 pounds and then started gaining it back slowly but surely. I then went to a different doctor to see what the problem was and he suggested to do a scope to look at the sleeve. He did that and suggested I have a revision called Duo Denal Switch. I just had this surgery on November 18, 2015. It was not as bad as I thought. Yes I was scared and almost said forget it but my doctor was the best ever. Once surgery was over my doctor told me the original sleeve was not done correctly so he fixed that and did the switch and he also removed my appendix and gall bladder because after these surgeries a lot of people end up back in hospital to have one or both removed due to issues song thank him for that.

I have only lost 25 pounds so far. I have to get on a schedule because I find if I eat every couple hours I loose more weight than when I don't eat. I can eat just about anything but only a couple bites of what I eat so I must eat good choices. I have been eating a lot of chicken and fish no fried but I am kinda sick of it I need to find creative healthy meals. Taking the vitamins really help me have energy because after surgery I had no energy and slept a lot. I don't go back to work until January 11. The doctor kept me off longer than I expected because he is so careful and wants to make sure I'm great before I go back.

Hi Carol. I am from Michigan too. Who was your surgeon? I was banded in Oct 2008 by Dr Kevin Krause/Royal Oak Beaumont. Had a slippage in August 2013, so needed a revision for that. Now hoping I can do a conversion to the sleeve. Need to call his office tomorrow to get this all started again!

At first I wanted to do lap band surgery but after reading a lot of reviews I made up my mind to go for gastric sleeve surgery.

I wish I had done the sleeve instead of the band. I know it works for a lot of people, but it just wasn't for me. I see so many people around me that have had the sleeve, and have phenomenal results!

Hi,

I'm Yami and i'm 34 yrs old. Congrats to everyone who has made the decision to better their health and life. It took me years to finally tell myself that this was the best for me. I'm 34 yrs old and currently weigh 340 (BMI 53). I have been on a steady weigh gain since 1999 (graduated from HS). Throughout the years I did diet but I can honestly say I never stuck with it and often tell myself, "you didn't give it your all." I recently went from 342 to 315 in 10 weeks. This diet was supervised and with medication. I wasn't feeling to jazzy when I took the medication and once I came off I gained it all back, well almost. On Sept. 30th, I decided to go to Oband and find out information about WLS. I decided to go with lap band because I've been so afraid of possible complications from the VGS. Of course, the fact that it can be reversed really had me sold. I know about 7 people in my life who all but 1 have done the sleeve. The one that did the band looks amazing after 2 years. Three sleevers have gained weight, 2 look like skeletons (with sunken eyes) 1 looks great. I wanna be healthy and look great at the same time. During my 1st visit i asked why do some people look literally dead, they said, lack of vitamins to start. So that seems like it's something I can control post surgery.

During my 3rd visit, I was told I have Gallstones. They are under control so no issues. During this visit I had a moment to talk to Dr. Wizman (South Florida Doc), who by the way is AMAZING. I asked him if he had to tell me which surgery to go with, what would he recommend. He said, if it were up to me to decide for you, it would be the sleeve, considering how much weight you have to lose and your current BMI. He was very clear with me and said, i'm not here to change your mind and there is a reason why you chose the band. Do all of your research and come back to me. So here I am today, decided on VGS. After convos with friends, family and Dr. He's right. My insurance requires 6 Nutrional visits and this month will make it 4. I'm so nervous about this, i'm worried about how it will affect me long term, I tend to worry about complications but as one person told me, any surgery comes with complications, "you have had 2 C-sections." Things could have certainly gone wrong with that. Those words kind off put things perspective.

My first dr was Dr Katz out of Warren Mi who did not perform the sleeve correctly according to my new Dr Marek Lutrykowski

10 Square Lake Rd

Bloomfield Hills MI 48402

He performs the surgery at Hutzel/Harper Hospital downtown Detroit and he is amazing.

My first dr was Dr Katz out of Warren Mi who did not perform the sleeve correctly according to my new Dr Marek Lutrykowski

10 Square Lake Rd

Bloomfield Hills MI 48402

He performs the surgery at Hutzel/Harper Hospital downtown Detroit and he is amazing.

Thanks Carol! I just made an appt for next week with Dr Krause to see about a conversion. If he won't, I will see about checking with Dr. Lutrykowski then! Just trying to get a couple back up places just in case!

Hi my name is Carol. I am 41 years old and I've been heavy since I was 13 years old. I gained 15-20 lbs with each child...I have four; bringing me up to my highest weight of 244lbs. In the month of June 2015 I decided to get the sleeve. I didn't dwell on it a lot. I just made a firm decision...made the 1st Dr appointment, set the surgery date to 9/15/15, went to all the doctor's appointments until the day of surgery came and my life has changed since then. In three months I've dropped 60 lbs, went from a size 20W to a normal size 14. I hit challenges everyday but I've been able to overcome them easily now because of the sleeve. I'm looking forward to a longer and healthier life now. I feel extremely blessed.

I am 52 I have two adult children, and one granddaughter. Happily divorce for over 15 years! Wow it doesn't seem that long ago. I work in the IT field for over 30 years, which I enjoy. I was marry for 20 years. I do have someone in my life, however, I like not being marry. Don't get me wrong, I believe everyone should get marry at least once. But it's not for me. However, if it's to be then who am I to stop Destiny. In the meantime, I do enjoy traveling, photography. I love spinning, and not the exercise, but the actual making yarn from wool on a spinning wheel. I love using exotic yarn to knit, crochet, and weave. My most favorite of all my hobbies is sewing! Which is one of things I am looking forward to, which is, not having to buy so much fabric to make huge clothes!

I use to be able to keep between 130 to 150, but ever since my second pregnancy, I've never have been able to get down to that weight. The lowest I've reach is 168 and it was with the help of pills, which means that it all came back and then some. I have pretty much made my peace with my weight. Telling myself that as long as I am healthy it's okay, and besides, I was still pretty sexy curvy. Then soon, as it's to be expected, High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol all creep in. I have family history and know very well how all of these are destroyer of life, and I just love life too much to have to deal with health issue. So now on Jan 5, I am going to begin taking steps to a better me. I thank you all for the good advice we get on this forum. I feel better prepared for what is to come. Don't stop believing! Happy New Year!

Hello! I'm now 13 days until my surgery. I'm a 39 y/o mom of twin boys and a baby girl. I'm also a wife to a great guy and a bone marrow/oncology nurse.

I started gaining weight in 2006 when I tore my ACL and meniscus playing football on a co-Ed team. I was very active but that year I had plantar fasciitis very bad, and then tore my year. I had surgery and pretty much right after I got pregnant with my twins. Ended up in bed rest at 26 weeks and had them at 32 weeks. Stressful eating took over in top of all the weight I gained being immobile and then bed rest. I think had issues with my daughter once I had her. A year after her I tore my other ACL. This time no repair. Dr said there is so much arthritis and other issues he will need to replace my whole knee later on. (Which they remove the ACL I guess) my leg is very unstable. I started to work with a personal trainer to lose weight. I life sports so being in pain and inactive sucks. I ended up re-tearing my meniscus again. That required surgery and while I was at it, I got my plantar fasciitis taken care of. 2 surgeries 1 week apart. Gained more weight. Finally so tired of this and not keeping up with my kids, I decided to have surgery. I have chronic pain and I think the weight has made it even worse. I now have sleep apnea as well as increased BP. I'm excited to move forward in this journey. Have my life back. I use to be cute and skinny. (And I thought I was fat then!!! If I only knew what it really was!!) I want my kids and my daughter especially to be healthy and have their mom do fun things with them.

I'm hoping in honor of my 40th birthday, to do a backpacking trip without this weight on me in California. So here's to getting me there!

Other than that I love books, movies and music. I'm a fan girl! Love Harry Potter, Star Wars, Avengers, all the things nerds love!! ???? I love music. I went to 8 concerts last summer, ending in traveling to the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington to see Dave Matthews Band for the 3rd year in a row there.

I love sports, volleyball, baseball, football, basketball, hiking, kayaking.

Can't wait to get back to that again!!

Hi All,

I am a southern born and raised Louisiana girl and a tomboy...lol. I am a pipeline operater for a wonderful company. I have been happily married to my Jarhead turned cop for 9 yrs. We have no children but we do have 4 parrots that we love as our children. My hobby is my chickens, just love taking care of them, hey, fresh protien rich eggs given to me daily . I have been battling weight my entire life and while i loose fat it comes back and brings some friends with it. I am scheduled for my surgery on Feb 1st. My gift to myself when I reach 150lbs is to go skydiving again. I am so ready to live a normal life again. I already ordered a belt with a big buckle (those hurt when ya have a fat roll rolling over the top of them). I have it laying out on my dresser waiting for the day when I can wear it. Cant wait to share sucess with all of you.