I found this tid bit of statistical data very motivating when it comes to weighing the risk of surgery. 89% reduced risk of death in five years in one study. I can't seem to copy and paste. It's on page 1018 of this paper: http://weightloss.clevelandclinic.org/images/file/Articles/Surgical%20Approaches%20to%20the%20treatment%20of%20obesity.pdf

I had never been one to consider wls as everyone I knew that had the band was back to being morbidity obese again. 2 years ago a co worker who was 1 year older than me an much smaller than I was had a massive stroke at work. He will be on disability for the rest of his life and has 2 small children.( one hadn't been born yet)

I was taking 3 blood pressure pills daily just to try and keep it normal. I would get home from work and start checking my BP. Many nights I will would lie on the bed with it wrapped on my arm cuz it was at stroke levels. Asking my husband should be go to the hospital yet? What should be wait for before we go????

I couldn't do it anymore! My time was spent wondering if it was time to head to the hospital or wondering if my new life would be like my old co worker.... lucky that he lived but his body and mind will never recover from the damage from the stroke. I viewed my only choices were chance a surgery that could have bad outcomes or basically wait to die of the stroke I knew was coming for me. At 37 it sucks to make those choices but I wanted to live a normal life so I looked into the sleeve. It seemed the safest from my research. I had the sleeve Feb 21st, total weight loss is 120 lbs, tummy tuck was done sept 24 th. My favorite part of the tummy tuck surgery was when they took my BP and didn't need the jumbo cuff!!!