hi

I have been struggling for some time now and trying to overcome my fears of the sleeve surgery. I know its normal for everyone to have fears and I was curious what your biggest fears were heading into surgery and how some of you overcame the fear?

Hi there,

Great thread.

Well, my biggest fear is that I would gain the weight back. I'm still losing (very slowly but it is coming off), so I'm don't have my final answer yet. I am working hard to put good habits into place so that the weight will not come back.

Would I be able to eat? What if there was a leak? How painful is the surgery? I felt better by asking my bariatric support team to connect me with someone who had already had the surgery...That way I could ask her all my fears and hear her story..That really helped me..

my biggest fear was not losing weight, that the sleeve would fail to limit my intake...irrational I know, but fears can be that way.

hi

I have been struggling for some time now and trying to overcome my fears of the sleeve surgery. I know its normal for everyone to have fears and I was curious what your biggest fears were heading into surgery and how some of you overcame the fear?

Mine was worying about not waking up or complication of the surgery. I have to say as much as I love this website I think if I had known about it may have been a bad thing for me. I know this is not how all others feel but for me I can be a huge worry wort.

This was a hard battle for me. I read a lot about positive thinking and I weighed the pros versus the cons. I realized in the long run the pros won over the cons. At that time I decided that I knew enough and to put down the reading or I was going to drive myself crazy. I kept telling myself positive things and after awhile I stopped having the fear. Now here I am 8 months later and 108 ponds down. Keep those positive thoughts! You will do fine!

I think my biggest fear is not losing fast enough and getting discouraged. In the past in dieting, I would always get discouraged and "fall off the wagon" and gain everything back. Logically I know that it would be extremely difficult to gain weight back like I used to, but I fear having too great of an expectation and being disappointed or discouraged. I think that after surgery, the scale will need to be put away for a bit..my daily weigh ins will have to stop so that I don't obsess about the scale number and I only focus on how I feel

I truly had no fears, just excitement. My health was worsening with asthma, diabetes, high cholesterol, and HBP. Weight kept going up. I could barely walk. Knee replacement too. It has been everything I dreamed it would be. On the other hand, I was scared something bad would happen to my husband, who had worse health. He is doing great. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

I went in blind, basically, thinking it was going to be a piece of cake, man could I have been any wronger. But I've learned when something goes wrong, use it a lesson for next time. And share the lesson, good or bad. You end up with Do and Don't Lists(the cake is on the don't list!). What do I fear, at the beginning, that I would gain weight back of course , that I would still thought of that chubby girl, that I would still be that invisible person in the background trying to be in the shadows. As I've become confident in my body my wardrobe has changed, my make up, my attitude,, my outlook on life is so different. Even as I go through problems now (not being able to digest meat right now) I know that I will get passed it. What I fear now that I will not have enough time in life to do EVERYTHING that I ever wanted to do!, but I do not fear that getting the lap band was the wrong decision for me.

Good Luck!

Complications from the surgery. I read enough to not be afraid of it not working, but I was afraid of having to eat through a tube or something.

My only fear wasn't actually a fear as much as nervous anticipation. I wanted it done before some unknown issue popped up and prevented me from getting the surgery.

hi

I have been struggling for some time now and trying to overcome my fears of the sleeve surgery. I know its normal for everyone to have fears and I was curious what your biggest fears were heading into surgery and how some of you overcame the fear?

Mine was worying about not waking up or complication of the surgery. I have to say as much as I love this website I think if I had known about it may have been a bad thing for me. I know this is not how all others feel but for me I can be a huge worry wort.

This was a hard battle for me. I read a lot about positive thinking and I weighed the pros versus the cons. I realized in the long run the pros won over the cons. At that time I decided that I knew enough and to put down the reading or I was going to drive myself crazy. I kept telling myself positive things and after awhile I stopped having the fear. Now here I am 8 months later and 108 ponds down. Keep those positive thoughts! You will do fine!

I can totally relate to what you said about the fact that you read everything there was to know and you just had to lay it down and forget about the research aspect of the entire thing. I think thats what I need to do. I have been doing research on the for 2 years now. i am a huge worry wart too and as much as I find the information soothing and comforting, it can too drive me nuts! I love to hear what other went through and it helps to keep me strong and i validates my feelings. thats why i love this board!

My biggest pre-op fear was the excruciating 2 or 3 days of shoulder gas everyone was talking about. I had that problem with a previous lapascopic procedure last year with a different doctor at a different hospital. I asked my surgeon at the final pre-op meeting how he manages the build up of CO2, and he said he would extract as much as possible when they close everything up. Guess what???? No post-op shoulder gas at all. I had worried for nothing.

My post-op fear is the inevitable hair loss. As a pre-emptive strike, I am striving to keep up with my Protein and am also supplementing with Biotin. I bought some lightweight turban hats for if it gets too bad, but it is what it is. At least it grows back. If it makes me cry, I will just go wig shopping. The surgery was worth it. I feel better and my range of motion is improving. So, I will take a deep breath and keep chugginh along.

My biggest fears were not waking up after surgery and not losing weight.

I'm still I the preliminary stages but my biggest fear is starvation. Yes I'm a big girl but my habit is NOT eating. I don't eat all day long then I gorge at night. I know this is going to be a HUGE lifestyle change for me but what if I'm just never hungry? I guess I'll have to force it down so I get all the things I know I need. But that's what I'm afraid of.

My biggest fear is obviously not waking up from the surgery (single mom of a 7 year old). Second fear is not being able to make the mental change as quickly as I make the physical one. I know this surgery will work if i make it work. I just hope I can do that. I have failed at every other attempt to lose weight.

My biggest fears were not waking up after surgery and not losing weight.

and it seems that you have succeeded in both those areas. I see you did wake up and you are doing great losing weight!!