Well I finally worked up the guts to make and post my first youtube video journaling my journey to a healthy weight. I must apologize in advance since I was super nervous and it was my first time recording myself (not to mention how much I hate to look at myself right now.) Any comments are appreciated!

LBeauty,

Your video was very good. i know you were self-conscious and nervous, you did great. I also hate having any type of pictures taken of me. You being brave enough for the camera for all of us to see, good for you.

Now you will have records of your most important journey for the rest of your life. How great is that! I wish i did it, but the truth is i don't know how to use Utube - anyways keep up that good work..

Glad you did so much research, its great that you have support from you DH and daughter, and maybe others. Sounds good about your doctor too that will perform your WLS, also very importantly the dr. that will follow through with you where you live.

I always wondered about people going to Mexico how they were helped when they came home. Nice to see you'll have assistance.

You are right, having WLS is definitely not the easy way out, this is a frequent conversation on the boards. Many "outsiders" sometimes sightlently or otherwise think this is vertually a cop out , but of course we all know better.

Good luck on your exams. I'm sure you will ace them.

Have a great flight to mexico, but more importantly have a terrific WLS. Things will go really well, i can feel it in my bones.

Anxious to hear about your new adventure, starting your great journey to the new you.

Best wishes

Good luck

kathy

Thank you Kathy, that is so kind of you :-) Congratulations on your weight loss, I see that you are over half way to your goal! I don't really know how to use youtube either LOL it took me a while to load it up, trial and error. At this point I will be good with at least Acing some of them and getting B or better on all of them LOL its though! I am sure I will be fine, thank you for your good wishes.

Thanks!

My name on youtube is beautyvgsjourney (note is VGS not VSG).

Your story is so inspiring! You said you are going to Mexico for your surgery? Does that make you nervous? My husband is extremely opposed to me going to Mexico, but that might be my only option. I know they allow you to finance, but I heard the fees were high. I know asking this is rude, but I am ready to change my life and am desparate enough for help that I'm willing to go into debt to try and have this surgery done.

Your story is so inspiring! You said you are going to Mexico for your surgery? Does that make you nervous? My husband is extremely opposed to me going to Mexico' date=' but that might be my only option. I know they allow you to finance, but I heard the fees were high. I know asking this is rude, but I am ready to change my life and am desparate enough for help that I'm willing to go into debt to try and have this surgery done.[/quote']

Tamarlarae, I absolutely understand, I feel the same way. Like I said in my video I contemplated doing my surgery here in the USA, but after much research opted for Mexico. I guess I forgot to mention that today after all of my research I would still go to dr. Ponce de leon in Mexico even if the cost was the same as the USA (I love the part that is much cheaper! $5500 compared to ~$13000 here in Texas) but his level of experience would be worth it. I am glad I do not have to go into debt to have my surgery, it's an stressor that I do not need! I would be more than happy to share what I have learned with your hubby so he might be more open to exploring the possibilities outside of the country. I am nervous, but not because of going to Mexico but because of having major surgery! My surgeon is a very well known and respected surgeon in his country and operates out of a fully furnished hospital. I am sure you will eventually get your surgery, keep up the faith and let me know if there is anything I can do!

Congrats hon on getting this posted and done! I think it was very well done, nerves or not. I bet you will love going back to look at this journey later on in your WLS journey! (and finally I got to see your face! he he)

Hope that you are doing marvelously and thank you for sharing this with us!

Congrats hon on getting this posted and done! I think it was very well done' date=' nerves or not. I bet you will love going back to look at this journey later on in your WLS journey! (and finally I got to see your face! he he)

Hope that you are doing marvelously and thank you for sharing this with us![/quote']

LOL 4ALongerLife, maybe one day I will get to see yours how are you feeling? I am looking forward to the day that I can look at these video and say "that was the old me!" Thank you for your comment!

New Video about blood clots.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWcu0oSpdmk&feature=plcp

Just saw your video, and I thought it was great! I totally get why you would be nervous, we probably wouldn't be posting on this board (at least in the "before" phase of surgery) if we were natural born camera subjects:)

I just wanted to say that you seem like a really amazing, strong person. To get to PA school - I know that is a very competitive process - after/while having a child at 17 and dealing with ADD and depression, that is just amazing. If you are tough enough to do all that stuff, you can get through anything.

Best wishes and luck with everything. Please update on how your journey goes.

Just watched your "blot-clot" video, again, excellent. Especially the recommendations for travel care and the thumbs up/down on heparin and aspirin, respectively. I didn't realize that aspirin could be an issue that way, especially since they recommend it for heart patients.

I think you are probably going to be a great resource for folks here, but to protect yourself, it might be good to put a disclaimer at the beginning and end of the videos; ie: "I am not a doctor; please discuss this and any other medical information with your own doctor before engaging in any conduct on reliance on it." Something like that, I have never provided language to someone in this case. Probably I am paranoid b/c I am a lawyer, but just don't want you to get screwed because you are doing a good thing.

Just saw your video, and I thought it was great! I totally get why you would be nervous, we probably wouldn't be posting on this board (at least in the "before" phase of surgery) if we were natural born camera subjects:)

I just wanted to say that you seem like a really amazing, strong person. To get to PA school - I know that is a very competitive process - after/while having a child at 17 and dealing with ADD and depression, that is just amazing. If you are tough enough to do all that stuff, you can get through anything.

Best wishes and luck with everything. Please update on how your journey goes.

Ah thank you that is sweet of you to say! Well like they say what does not kill you make you stronger! How about you, what stage in your journey are you in?

Just watched your "blot-clot" video, again, excellent. Especially the recommendations for travel care and the thumbs up/down on heparin and aspirin, respectively. I didn't realize that aspirin could be an issue that way, especially since they recommend it for heart patients.

I think you are probably going to be a great resource for folks here, but to protect yourself, it might be good to put a disclaimer at the beginning and end of the videos; ie: "I am not a doctor; please discuss this and any other medical information with your own doctor before engaging in any conduct on reliance on it." Something like that, I have never provided language to someone in this case. Probably I am paranoid b/c I am a lawyer, but just don't want you to get screwed because you are doing a good thing.

Oh I thought I did! I need to look at it again. I know I did say something about it in the middle somewhere. Maybe adding it to the comments would do it? I will definitely ad it to my next ones at the beginning and end.

I think I fixed it! Thank you so much, I thought I had done that but with finals and a million projects that I have been doing I completely missed it! Thanks again!

I haven't even *started* the journey really. I just (two days ago) officially found out that I have diabetes so am trying to figure out what to do. My BMI is right at 35% and my understanding is that my insurance provider (Kaiser SoCal) covers VSG, even at that BMI, with two co-morbidity factors. I also have severe obstructive sleep apnea and high cholesterol as well as the diabetes (yay, me!) so I am thinking of VSG as an option moving forward.

I know that the doc will want me to lose weight no matter what, so I am thinking that I will ask for a referral for VSG at the same time. I think Kaiser expects you to go to pre-surgery classes and lose a certain amount of weight before VSG. So if I am able to lose the weight and get my sugar levels under control by myself after a few months, great. If not, I will that much further along in the process towards VSG.

Genetically I seem to be exactly like my dad, who was diagnosed with diabetes at exactly my age (49). He was not overweight, so it makes me nervous that it might be difficult to control the disease even if I do get to a reasonable weight. That is one of the reasons I want to have VSG as an option, it seems like recent studies pretty much conclusively show that bariatric surgery is a really good option in that event. And those studies are credible - two of them were published in the NEJM, you have probably read them - see

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesTreatment/weight-loss-surgery-cuts-type-diabetes/story?id=16002552#.T5rRaNXUWSo

It is a hard enough process for me, a single 49 year-old without a family, a regular job (ie, no school), no other obligations. So I think you are really admirable for doing this with all your other stuff. I found your information super helpful, I am a smoker and knew I would have to quit because it creates post-operative healing issues, but didn't consider the possibilities of embolisms or CVSTs which are pretty darn scary and pretty much a conclusive argument that I HAVE to quit before considering surgery if the serious threat of cancer/COPD, etc, did not lie directly ahead anyway.

Anyway, sorry for babbling on, part of it is me thinking things through. I also take meds (Paxil) for anxiety and occasional depression, so it helps to do that before the doubts set in. So please keep posting!

One of my main reasons for having this surgery is my fear to get that diagnosis "Diabetes". I am terrified of that disease. Many people in my family have it, my aunt has been hospitalized several times in insulin comas!!! She also has problems with her kidneys, circulation and other things because of the damage diabetes has caused. My grandmother the same thing. Before I went back to college I was a nurse assistant for a while, and I worked in the telemetry floor, I swear it was the scariest thing ever when it comes to seeing what diabetes does. Many of my patients had limbs amputates, were blind, had ulcers and many other things. For me the fear of diabetes as well as the so many other things that come with obesity is greater than the fear of having a piece of me cut off.

Definitely it would be great if your insurance pays for it! Now don't loose too much weight because then they might not pay for it LOL its a catch 22 with insurance companies. Its really sad really, the whole insurance monopoly. Besides if you later decide you don't want to do the sleeve then you don't have to! if you think that you can loose the weight and keep it off on your own then I would say go for it! for me I have done so many diets, for so long that I am done with the yo-yo dieting. That being said, this is a "tool" there are many things I have to work thru on my own. I also have depression and take medications for it as well as ADD and school is supper stressful... We are expected to go thru 4 years of Medical school in 3! (our curriculum is very similar to that of the medical students). So I have used food for so long to deal with boredom, stress and so many other things, now I have to find better healthier ways of dealing or I will fail!

Yes I have read the studies and they are amazing, and every day they find more and more benefits with them.... But in all honesty if someone can loose weight and keep it off, with surgery or without that is really what matters. Its long been known that obesity is one of the biggest risk factors for diabetes, so if you can take obesity out of the picture for good (without the yo-yo dieting) the you have greater chances of taking diabetes out of the picture too. The problem with most diets is that they do not work! We loose weight and then regain it plus some (at least I have), with the surgery you are much less likely to gain it back (its still possible however).

I hope you quit, not only because of the risk of embolisms but also because the higher risk of prostate cancer and other types of cancer has well as the increased risk of heart disease and other disorders. I would suggest you talk to your doctor about ways of helping you quit smoking, some of the research I have read recently has shown that the nicotine gum and patch really helps people quit and stay free of smoking. I would suggest you do this as soon as you are ready, because you don't want the stress of quitting along with the stress of getting ready for surgery. I have heard it takes a while for the insurance companies to approve the surgeries so you have some time to work on it. I have heard quitting smoking is one of the hardest people can do, but you are an intelligent men and I am sure you can do it!

Please don't apologize for "babbling" I am the queen of babbling LOL..... Sometimes the "babbling" helps us by putting our feelings into words, and I know for me it helps me in figuring out stuff. I will keep posting! I just have been so busy with school that I have not had time to research Ghrenlin LOL its why I have not made another video... But I think I will make one this weekend and talk a little bit about it and more about what is going on right now. Hand in there and I hope everything works out! I am here if you ever want to went, chat or just share, that is the great thing about knowing people who are going thru similar things that you are!