Hello all I'm new here I am 28 years old and a mother of three I've struggled with my weight my whole entire life currently I am for 11 at 350 pounds I need the surgery to save my life so that I can live for my children and I have a better quality of life I've been playing around with the idea of going in the surgery for about a year and now I'm ready to make that change this commitment to a better me. Definitely looking for Support as I've seen this process isn't the easiest process and I'm just starting out. I have an appointment for my second seminar I previously went to one at the mercy weight loss center and I was really interested but I didn't know that the main hospital here has a center is also a center of excellence so I'm gonna go there and check it out and see which hospital I like the best and then I'm going to choose what program I'm going to go with. How did you choose your program ?

Hello sweetie. I have Kaiser. They have a good program for their members. I went to classes for three months, did blood work, had a swallow eval. Saw the cardiologist, psychiatrist dr, and a bariatric dr before i was referred to a surgeon.

Being a Kaiser member allowed all of my drs and the drs in the program to communicate with one another. Also to be able to have full access of my medical history.

I am almost 9weeks post op. I have lost 44lbs. At my heaviest i was 398lbs. I lost 120lbs on my own but slowly gained back, up to 300lbs instead of being 398. I lost again on my own, down to 240lbs but would gain 10, then lose 7,then gain 5.....up and down. Then i had additional medical issues that was stopping me from working out....so i had a gastric bypass.

On August 5th 239lbs On surgery day August 12th 226lbs. Today October 16th 195lbs

Good luck on your journey.

I suggest going to the hospital that is Bariatric Center of Excellence. They tend to have better outcome statistics. Some insurance companies require you to go to these hospitals. First, does your insurance plan cover bariatric surgery? If so, most require either a 3- or 6-month attendance at nutritional meetings. You have to be careful here, if you miss one, you may have to start over. I attended an informational seminar in which the surgeon talked about the various kinds of surgery. Then I called the hospital and set up an appointment for my initial surgeon's visit. I had gastric sleeve surgery on Sept. 26th, mainly because there were less problems afterwards than the lap band and didn't require major re-routing of my insides with the gastric bypass. But you need to hear the differences and make up your own mind, or the surgeon may recommend one in particular.

Why wait the year when you could be on your way so much sooner?

@@dark n lovely wow you have done awesome so far. I hope I too can be successful

@@BeagleLover thanks for the insight. I called my insurance and there is no diet requirements but do require center of excellence...,. After my seminar I've decided to go with unity point of Iowa! I'm super excited

Thank u sweetie. Please keep us posted on your journey! Good luck....