Hello!

I've been lurking on this site for quite a while and I figured, now that my surgery date is so close, it's time take a more active approach.

Never in my whole life have I been at an appropriate weight - my whole family is like this. About three years ago my mother had gastric bypass (the roux-en-y surgery) and even though she complains about it a lot (she's quite prone to dramatics) I could easily see that it changed her life. It took a while for me to think about it, but I finally decided early January that this was a step that I wanted to take in creating a long, happy, healthy life. I'm 24, and starting a new school in the fall, and I'm going to have a whole new life to do it with. It's like a huuuge brand new start, a chance to change my approach/outlook on tons of things, and I could not be happier. Honestly. I'm impatient by nature and I have to resist the urge to stamp my foot every once in a while because I want to get these changes underway!

I joined the site because, although I'm entirely optimistic about surgery, I'm also extremely worried. I've seen the struggles my mother has gone through, and even though she had a different surgery entirely, I wonder how I'll be able to handle the same things. I dont have a lot of people I feel comfortable broaching the topic of weight loss surgery with and it's a wonderful thing to find an entire forum's worth of people to chat with and gain insight from. I dont have to have all the logistical conversations with myself, and that is awesome!

My surgery is currently scheduled for August 7th. I'm worried I wont have lost all the weight by then (I still have 9 pounds to go, although I hear the pre-surgery liquid diet helps a lot with that) but I've come too far to muck it up now. I just can't wait to do this! I have grand plans of being able to ride a bike again, or rollerblade, or attend zumba class! I've been spending weeks looking up home-made meals full of veggies and what not... yay!

I also get carried away a lot. Anyhow, I just wanted to drop in and say hi I'm excited to read other peoples' journeys while I'm having my own!

Congrats on your pending procedure. It is a little nerve wrecking. It's nice to see younger people take advantage of this procedure. You will be fine. The best advice I can give is practice your small bites and 30 chews, along wih no drinking and eating at the same time.

Congratulations on your future sleeve. I wish I could've done it at your age. You're gonna see that the complications are going to be different than the bypass. Make sure to talk to your dr about how many patients have had issues and how many surgeries they've done. Those are things people forget to ask. Good luck. Time will fly these next few weeks.

Welcome! I am 1 week post-op and had some pain with my surgery, but it is subsiding, my best advice is to put on your GAME FACE when going in to surgery, realize you CAN do this, yes it will be challenging but YOU GOT THIS AND YOU CAN DO IT!!! Good luck and keep us posted with your progress! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask, or message me!

Haha, thanks guys! Just by looking around the site I'm already a lot more excited than I have been. And I'll definitely have my game face on - I'm sooo ready for cheaper clothing (I'm a poor college student - can't afford LB prices!) comfy air plane seats aaaaaand I knit, and tons of sweaters and such only come and look good in smaller sizes! So hurrah! I'm actually about to start one that's a couple sizes too small right now my mom says I'm going to be super cold this winter (which also means a new coat - maybe I can find a pea-coat that fits!!) so there's no harm in preparing!

It is wonderful to see you "taking the bull by the horns" at a younger age. Most of us on here have struggled most of our adult lives with weight and all the issues that go along. I just became a grandmother for the first time and it really put things in prospective for me. I want to be able to run and play, go camping and work around the house and garden with my hubby etc... I am plan on being sleeved during Christmas this year, as I am a teacher. Best wishes sweetie!