I have be wanting the sleeve since June 2012 and now it is finally here. Feb 13th is my surgery date. Now I am so confused. I keep asking myself is this the right thing to do? I feel like I might be making the worst decision of my life right now. I am so scared. It brought tears to my eyes right now just typing out the word scared.

I am 28 years old and my highest non-pregnant weight is 305. I have been on my pre-op diet and I am currently 289. I am 5'3" with a bmi of 51 or 52.

I am conflicted for a few reasons:

1. What if I get a LEAK?!

2. What if I can't lose the weight or I gain it

back?

3. I will be some freak if nature with a stapled

stomach.

4. What is going to happen to me 20, 30, 40

years from now?

5. What if I live with the regret of doing

this to myself forever?

The reasons I want to do this is:

1. I want to lose weight

2. I want to reduce the weight on my joints

3. I want to fit in to clothes better

4. I want to fit in in general if you know what I

mean.

5. I don't want to get diabetes and heart

problems

6. I would like to feel better about myself

This is so hard! To top it off I have not even meet my surgeon! They said I'll meet him before surgery and that he would talk to me for a little bit. I feel like that is really not right. I should have been able to meet him months ago. HELLO he is going to have my life in his hands! He doesn't meet with pre-ops. Or even post-ops unless you have a complication. I did my initial appt with the PA (Physicians Assistant) and then did the six month diet with my PCP.

I just had my pre-op appt with PA and she was telling me the whole time how much she wishes that I would get the rny and that the people who get the sleeve don't come back for follow ups and she thinks its because they gain the weight back. She didn't even know what size boogie he was going to use on me. I asked how many sleeves he has done and she said not very many maybe a couple dozen! She said he hasn't had any leaks.

I called the hospital's OR and I asked some lady what size boogie does Dr. Coates use and she said it is something that he decides during surgery. That he dilates you and will adjust it until it looks right and then staple around that.

VSG Date: 2/13/13

When I had my gall bladder removed here in the US I didnt meet my surgeron until the morning of surgery and that was a quick hi and see ya....

PDXMAN,

I understand about not really needing the surgeon after unless there is a problem. I only see mine every couple of months.

But I would feel really uncomfortable to never met him until I was wheeled into the operating room. Wouldn't you?

I don't know it just doesn't sound reassuring the first person I met with was the surgeon and he talked to me and my husband and answered all of our questions himself.

I agree. Although I haven't met my surgeon yet, him being in Mx and me being Ohio and all, I've communicated with him...

Amanda Rae

Also, I do not see why you cannot insist you meet with your surgeon ASAP for some Q/A and to easy your concerns...

You have a very good list of reasons to have and not to have the surgery. Only you know your risk tolerance. While the risk is low, the outcome to that 1% of the population who gets the complication is devastating. I'm not saying this to scare you, but to encourage you to listen to your inner self.

I think that in all of your post, you identified the issue. You are afraid, and it is related to your comfort level with your surgeon. Whether his approach is right or wrong is not the point - it really boils down to how YOU feel about him. You said he will have your life in his hands, and I agree, meeting him is a good idea. Also, it's been proven that the more a surgeon/hospital performs any procedure, the better the outcomes.

So, having said all that, I'm out 7 weeks and I'm happy I did it. I went in confident that I was making the right decision, and that gave me the resolve I needed to get though the first few weeks, which I found were difficult. I also know people my surgeon operated on with good outcomes, he is very forthcoming with his statistics, including patients who had serious compications, and I met him twice before surgery. I even got a post op infection which is still not fully healed, but I beleive I'd still do it again (ask me in 2 years).

Our stats are the same, BTW! But I'm way older

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

I have be wanting the sleeve since June 2012 and now it is finally here. Feb 13th is my surgery date. Now I am so confused. I keep asking myself is this the right thing to do? I feel like I might be making the worst decision of my life right now. I am so scared. It brought tears to my eyes right now just typing out the word scared.

I am 28 years old and my highest non-pregnant weight is 305. I have been on my pre-op diet and I am currently 289. I am 5'3" with a bmi of 51 or 52.

I am conflicted for a few reasons:

1. What if I get a LEAK?!

2. What if I can't lose the weight or I gain it

back?

3. I will be some freak if nature with a stapled

stomach.

4. What is going to happen to me 20' date=' 30, 40

years from now?

5. What if I live with the regret of doing

this to myself forever?

The reasons I want to do this is:

1. I want to lose weight

2. I want to reduce the weight on my joints

3. I want to fit in to clothes better

4. I want to fit in in general if you know what I

mean.

5. I don't want to get diabetes and heart

problems

6. I would like to feel better about myself

This is so hard! To top it off I have not even meet my surgeon! They said I'll meet him before surgery and that he would talk to me for a little bit. I feel like that is really not right. I should have been able to meet him months ago. HELLO he is going to have my life in his hands! He doesn't meet with pre-ops. Or even post-ops unless you have a complication. I did my initial appt with the PA (Physicians Assistant) and then did the six month diet with my PCP.

I just had my pre-op appt with PA and she was telling me the whole time how much she wishes that I would get the rny and that the people who get the sleeve don't come back for follow ups and she thinks its because they gain the weight back. She didn't even know what size boogie he was going to use on me. I asked how many sleeves he has done and she said not very many maybe a couple dozen! She said he hasn't had any leaks.

I called the hospital's OR and I asked some lady what size boogie does Dr. Coates use and she said it is something that he decides during surgery. That he dilates you and will adjust it until it looks right and then staple around that.

VSG Date: 2/13/13[/quote']

I just turned 50 a week or so ago and regret I didn't do it at your age and since I waited so long why bother? We can make a case for any she! I have never lost it ans kept it and there's a 95% chance you won't either since diets succeed 5% of the time (long term) ans long term is the only way to prevent diabetes, heart disease or stroke! Do your babies deserve more? Mine did and still do! I have 4month old gbaby! She deserves this curse to be stopped now, with me!

I just turned 50 a week or so ago and regret I didn't do it at your age and since I waited so long why bother? We can make a case for any she! I have never lost it ans kept it and there's a 95% chance you won't either since diets succeed 5% of the time (long term) ans long term is the only way to prevent diabetes' date=' heart disease or stroke! Do your babies deserve more? Mine did and still do! I have 4month old gbaby! She deserves this curse to be stopped now, with me![/quote']

Reread that and i meant that to encourage you and not sure it sounded that way! Think of it as a locker room pep talk! <3

I live in Louisville, ky. My bariatric surgeon makes sure that you sit down and talk to him. He also does a pre-op EGD so he knows what he is getting into before the surgery. You see him at the hospital then 1 week and 30 day visit, and every 3 months until your first year.

Sorry I haven't got back to you all in awhile. After I posted that I was in my mandatory health education class for the sleeve. Anyways I'm feeling a little better. Dr. Coates is one of three surgeons at my hospital. Between the three of them they have done over 3000 bariatric procedures. I think they just don't want to waste time meeting patients when they could be making the big bucks using their time to do more surgeries.

I think I'll call tomorrow and see if I can meet with him at his office ASAP. I hope I get to see him. Thank you all for your support. <3

VSG Date: 2/13/13

I'm glad you are feeling better about it

My surgeon and his surgical partner did equal time at the informational seminar and answered questions there. I was very comfortable with him from that. I didn't see him again until 2 days before surgery, but his staff took very good care of me in the meantime and made sure I knew what was going on every step on the way. I didn't feel a need to have him holding my hand, but then I"m from Canada and we often don't meet the surgeon until minutes before we go into the OR, so it's not a big deal to me.

As for bougies, they are right. He has no idea until he gets inside you what size he is going to use. It all depends on the size of your esophageal opening and pyloric valve. He has to fit it to those. Dr. Alvarez does a good youtube video explaining this. It's worth it for you to go do a search on it.

When I looked over your pro/con list, I think your pro's were far more long term in thinking and reason and substance. Really consider which of these things matter the most to you.