Hi guys!!! First time here. Surgery date is not far away and I think my nerves are trying to talk me out of this. I'm a single mom to a handsome 4 yr old boy. I am all he has. He is my world. I keep thinking of all the things that can go wrong. This is a major surgery! I have one of the best doctors in Chicago, but lately I am having palpitations and thinking of the complications--->mainly death. Did any of you experience this? When I was cleared by psych he cautioned to cover all bases and to have any desired wishes/plan readily available to my family.I am doing this to get my life back so I can be active with my son. Stressing. Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks.

OK - so if you pick an experienced surgeon and he/she does your sleeve at an experienced hospital, you have minimized your risk of a problem caused by the surgeon or the hospital.

The way you can minimize risk of problems post-surgery is be 100% compliant with rules your doctor lays out. The pre-op diet is there to shrink your liver (which lessions the risk of damage to your liver during surgery). The rigid post-op diet (Clear liquids, then full liquids, then mushies) is to give your incision line time to heal before you put solid foods into your stomach. Many patients who have problems post surgery bring it on themselves due to non-compliance with the strict after surgery diet. (Not all - some problems that the surgeon caused aren't discovered till the swelling subsides)

So if you choose your surgeon and hospital carefully and commit to following the program he/she lays out for you - can you eliminate ALL risk? No - but a high % of it.

Thanks for posting this. This is how I've felt all along but today is exactly two weeks till my surgery date and I've been freaking out a little. All of the posts have been really helpful but this was so logical it really spoke to me. Thanks.

Good Luck Bombshelly77!