What are you hoping to "gain" by losing weight with this surgery?

I'm having this surgery so that I can lose weight and have a safer hernia surgery in the Spring. I am a bladder cancer survivor. I had my bladder removed in a long 12 hour surgery in March of 2011. I started developing a hernia a few months after surgery, and it has now grown to be 14 cm in diameter. It could have it's own zip code. The surgeon suggested that I lose weight prior to fixing the hernia, for a less life-threatening procedure and higher success rate.

My real hope and dream is to eventually gain my life back. My husband and I have been foster parents for about 8 years now. We've lost three babies of our own, had four failed adoptions, lost our last baby when they found the tumors in my bladder. I am 45 years old, and would like to one day have a "forever child". We are trying to adopt. I want to be able to take care of and have energy and be able to play with our child, if we ever reach our fundraising goal to afford adoption! I can't do that now, with a 14 cm hernia. It hurts to walk any distance now.

We have numerous fundraisers going on right now. I have different online parties all the time, that my friends hold for us. Our goal, along with having the funds to adopt, is for both of us to be able to successfully parent a child of our own. And my hope is that this surgery is the first step to achieving our goal.

I volunteer as a CASA for kids in foster care, so huge kudos to you for being a foster parent. I know how hard my foster parents work at giving the kids in their care some stability and security. My biggest "gain" hope after surgery was to regain my mobility. The restrictions in my life due to my mobility had become unacceptable to me. I missed being able to participate in so many activities and fun things I wanted to do. I'm only about halfway through the weight I want to lose, but the difference in how I walk and move is already huge! I feel so much better & have way less pain than I have had in YEARS. I hope that everything you want to gain happens for you!

I volunteer as a CASA for kids in foster care, so huge kudos to you for being a foster parent. I know how hard my foster parents work at giving the kids in their care some stability and security. My biggest "gain" hope after surgery was to regain my mobility. The restrictions in my life due to my mobility had become unacceptable to me. I missed being able to participate in so many activities and fun things I wanted to do. I'm only about halfway through the weight I want to lose, but the difference in how I walk and move is already huge! I feel so much better & have way less pain than I have had in YEARS. I hope that everything you want to gain happens for you!

Have you had anyone accuse you of being vain or taking the easy way out?

I hope to gain 40+ extra years of life

Have you had anyone accuse you of being vain or taking the easy way out?

Nope, not one single person. I'm totally open about having surgery, including posting about it on FB. I have received a ton of encouragement from people in all areas of my life. Sure, there may be some folks who think that I'm vain or that this is the easy way out, but that doesn't really bother me. What somebody else thinks about me is really none of my business. If someone were to say that to me I think my response would just be to say "OK" and then keep on doing my thing.

I volunteer as a CASA for kids in foster care' date=' so huge kudos to you for being a foster parent. I know how hard my foster parents work at giving the kids in their care some stability and security. My biggest "gain" hope after surgery was to regain my mobility. The restrictions in my life due to my mobility had become unacceptable to me. I missed being able to participate in so many activities and fun things I wanted to do. I'm only about halfway through the weight I want to lose, but the difference in how I walk and move is already huge! I feel so much better & have way less pain than I have had in YEARS. I hope that everything you want to gain happens for you![/quote']

Southern soul, I love CASA. I was the director of our local program for six years. Hardest job I ever loved!!

Anyone else?