I am ashamed of myself..After sitting in the hospital for hours with an IV in me ready for my Gastric sleeve, I backed out of the surgery..Sitting there waiting for someone to remove part of me forever got me thinking that I did not really think this whole procedure through.. I realized Im simply not mentally ready for it. Perhaps if they rolled me right in and took me to the OR I would have done it, but sitting there for 4 hours left me way too much time to think stuff over..

Perhaps I will regret my decision perhaps I will revisit the surgery, but I want to explore a few more options as of right now. Yeah Im overweight, but Im healthy for now and just couldnt bring myself to pull the trigger..I have been crying all morning and afternoon and am ashamed of myself cause once again I quit myself. But it just didnt FEEL right...

@JerseyJules you had too much time to think about it huh? 4 hours sitting there.... wow. just my 2 cents. I am similar starting height and weight. 4 months out, down 84lbs, running, active, energy, keeping up with my 2 little ones. honestly most of the time I forget that I have even had the surgery!!! I sometimes have to remind myself that I was knocked out and a large portion of my stomach was removed. I hope that you are not too hard on yourself and if you try again, I hope you are successful.

cheers mate!

Wow, five pages of you did the right thing or not.......Hey dude, it's not for you. We get it. It's really only your choice, so good luck with your future.

Now.......back to those that are getting it........

Oh, and BTW......I got it done and didn't die......

LOL! @@Recycled, good post.

I didn't die either.

For lurkers, most people who have WLS are NOT semi-dead, NOT in a wheelchair, NOT unemployed, or NOT unable to have sex.

Yes, I had my reasons why I chose WLS, but they weren't any of those reasons.

Just sayin'.

Edited January 16, 201511 yr by VSGAnn2014

This is a life changing event and you have to be ready if you are not it is ok. Maybe there is something else you can do that won't alter your body or maybe 6 months you will be ready. Ultimately you are the one that has to be ready to make the choice hard one hardest I have ever made. Best of luck on what ever you choose to do.

AWWWW only u know the feeling..and u went with it be strong in your choice...

Oh, and BTW......I got it done and didn't die......

What to do look like now? Any after pics?

LOL! @@Recycled, good post.

I didn't die either.

For lurkers, most people who have WLS are NOT semi-dead, NOT in a wheelchair, NOT unemployed, or NOT able to have sex.

Yes, I had my reasons why I chose WLS, but they weren't any of those reasons.

Just sayin'.

Actually I found his post quite smug and arrogant, kind of a quit whining that I didnt get it, and he is better than me cause he got it post..at least that's how I interpreted it.

Also what were your reasons? Just curious to hear what drives certain people to take the plunge..

JJ - I am just starting this journey and have my date set for Jan 29. One reason I am doing it now, at 44, while I'm in good health, while I am and can still be active, is because I don't want to be like that person you saw in the waiting room. My outlook for weight loss, recovery, chance of complication, etc. as well as my time to enjoy the benefits of the weight loss, will be far superior to that persons. I have tried various diets for the last 20 years and lost and gained it back. I'd love to think I can do a diet again, avoid the surgery, and get a different outcome, but for me, I don't think that is realistic. I see this is the best decision/tool to help change the course of that part of my life and am willing to accept the risk that comes with that decision. But I do hope I don't have to wait 4 hours for the surgery to start...

Yes. As someone who walks with a cane and leg braces, nutritional issues that werent dealt with, I sort of differ. I do have disability at work. I'm not the only one with issues. One of the people who told me to be careful on it was someone who had her niece die from it in the early 90's.

Do I believe in the surgery? Yes but I also believe in competant follow up care, complete and evidence based follow up care. Not something that is half baked, doctors who don't listen to patients or say that every problem is all in their head. Once you've had that, you change your tune when people need support in considering their options.

Lets take JerseyJules seriously. No ribbing guys please? That's something worthy of the Obesity Help forums, not the people here. I have seen people on this forum extend hands of friendship and support that I didn't see in even some in person support groups. Pushing someone into doing something is a form of peer pressure. I want to give my understanding to someone who I truly believe is going to take the journey seriously. We need people like JJ.

Actually I found his post quite smug and arrogant, kind of a quit whining that I didnt get it, and he is better than me cause he got it post..at least that's how I interpreted it.

Also what were your reasons? Just curious to hear what drives certain people to take the plunge..

I have found that many of us who are overweight, have control issues. Food=control & fat=disguise, for many of us who feel out of control in other aspects of our lives. That is not all of us. For me, the decision to have wls didn't come lightly. I have 3 children, and am just tired of being fat, and tired. The issue is not losing the weight, that isn't a problem at all. The issue is KEEPING it off. My surgeon explained that most of us can lose no problem, but more than 90% of us will regain the loss, plus additonal pounds. My choice to do this has nothing to do with the loss (that's a bonus) and everything to do with keeping it off, and living a long, healthy, active life for my family. In order to do that, I have to let go of my relationship with food. This is not something that should be done of you are unsure. I know there are things I will miss eating large amounts of, but I also know that I don't want diabetes, I don't want to die young due to obesity related complication. You simply do not see old fat people. I want to get old.

I had the surgery before I got to the point of the woman you described. Before surgery I had no aches, pains, or problems. I could run, jump, do martial arts, really anything I wanted to except lose weight and keep it off.

I decided to make the leap BEFORE my back started hurting, before I blew out a knee, before I wasted any more of my youth being FAT.

I always snickered at those women who came into weight watchers meeting with only 10 pounds to lose. Why on earth did they need to be there?

Boy, I sure wish I had done something about my weight before I had 50, 60, 100+ pounds to lose. I was definitely the dumb one there.

I didn't die either.

I felt that way when I went to do my endoscopy. If my mom and 8 year old brother weren't beside me, I would have pulled the iv out and ran. I did However still make a scene bc after waiting hours waiting to be rolled into the o.R., I could no longer keep my anxiety and nerves in check. I began to cry and it was embarrassing...I'm 25 years old. Lol. My surgery is scheduled for the first week in February and my biggest concern and fear Is the surgery and making it to the Operating Room. I don't know if it's possible to not have to wait so long before they roll you in and if they can knock me out before the roll me in. Something about being rolled down the hall into an open white operating room just terrifies me and I physically can't handle it. I suffer from anxiety and I will not be able to take my medication that morning so that's my biggest issue right now..

Tell your doc that. Seriously. They had me so doped up before my brain surgery on anti anxiety meds, they could have removed my face for all I cared.

I think I was singing the Scooby Doo song as they wheeled me in. I don't even like Scooby Doo.

Jules,

My earlier post was in response to your post (at #43 above), in which you seemed to be saying that you think a likely (not possible, but likely) outcome of WLS was that you will die (referencing your anecdote about your friend’s mom who died of WLS).

In your post #43 above, you also expressed that you didn’t think you needed WLS at this point because you are able to work and support your family, because you have a successful sex life, and because you’re not like the “very large woman” who could barely walk into your doctor’s lobby and who looked “defeated.”

My earlier post was to express that my view of WLS is different from yours. You expressed your view. I expressed mine. No more complicated than that.

You then asked what my reasons were for choosing WLS.

I chose WLS when I weighed 235 pounds (I’m a 5’5” 69-year-old woman) because I wanted to regain the physical health and vibrancy I had when I was younger, but no longer felt. I chose WLS because I want to have a happy, active retirement with my beloved husband. I chose WLS because I want to stave off knee replacement surgery for several more years (like most older people I have arthritis). I chose WLS because I look a lot hotter at 169 pounds than I did at 235 pounds and I will look even hotter at 150 pounds. I chose WLS because at my age I didn’t have the confidence that I could lose the amount of weight I needed to lose to become healthy again. But most of all, I chose WLS because I have lost and gained and lost and gained hundreds of pounds during my lifetime, but never been able to keep it off—and I have a strong hope that I will be among the 50% of people who have WLS who retain all or most of their weight lost via WLS. And that 50% chance to remain normal-sized for the rest of my life is one helluva better chance to lick that lifelong problem I’ve fought tooth and nail than through diet and exercise alone.

You have every right to make your own decisions and to regard WLS in any ways that make sense to you.

And I have every right to counter your observation that WLS is only for “defeated” people who can barely walk, who don’t have good sex lives, who can’t work or support their families, or whose health puts them in grave danger of dying from WLS surgery.

I wish the very best to you. I truly hope that all your dreams come true. I hope mine do, too.

Edited January 15, 201511 yr by VSGAnn2014

Oh wait! Are we talking about fat sex? My husband wasn't complaining. He's not complaining about skinny sex either. Yup. I didn't have to have WLS to have sexy time. I've seen plenty of skinnies that look defeated, too.