So here is a funny thing that happened to me. This past Monday morning at 4 am I awoke from a sound sleep with pain in my chest centered just over my heart. At first I thought something that will just past perhaps, but it didn't. So to make a long story short, me and the wife headed to the ER. Now I will spare you several details like how many time they missed my veins etc.

now the first ER nurse I had asks me about my history and she sees my medic alert necklace and asks about it and I of course say i had WLS on December 16th etc. SO she says, "Oh i had a gastric bypass in October." So we hit it off talking about all things WLS etc. Just a weird coincidence right. So onward, I gt scheduled for a nuclear stress test. and the nurse in the stress testing room says" oh you had the sleeve done, my sister and my mother both had it done a year ago." then a nursing student who is there watching the whole thing says" my mother had it a year ago as well." Now I'm like huh, this is a very very big coincidence. However it gets worse. Before I was discharged I was discussing my symptoms etc with a very thin nurse practitioner who says" i had my gastric sleeve done 1.5 years ago at the same hospital you did by the same doctor."

WHAT ARE THE ODDS HERE PEOPLE?

Seriously, out of like the 6 nurses and staff i had almost all had either had wls or had a direct family member who had. I know WLS is more popular etc. But lets face it, i did not expect any of this. It certainly made this experience easier, and i certainly did bond with these people a lot more than any other nurse etc. My when the last nurse practitioner said she had had WLS with the same surgeon i did and the same hospital, ( which is not close to us at all, so its very weird) My wife looked at me dumbfounded.

Now just as an FYI, It turns out i have an inflamed area of my rib cage muscles centered just over my heart, due to stress and exertion ( all that spring cleaning and lifting bags of old clothes and tubs of books etc, plus i had stepped up my workouts a bit kinda pushed it too hard evidently.)

What a weird set of coincidences.

How many people have you met, outside of here or weight loss places that have had WLS? any of them surprise you?

And I had it too! . ( Couldn't resist) I actually only know three people who have had it.

At least six (that I know of).

I'm the 4th in my family and I know of someone else.

Two of my sisters have had it.

The nurse who did my pre op visit at the hospital had it in August. A nurse I work with (and did not know had WLS) + 2 more nurses who I knew had it before I decided to. For me putting it on Facebook and pretty much telling everyone was the right choice, and an acquaintance contacted me to say she had VSG in October. Another acquaintance contacted me to ask some questions because she is scheduled for next month. I guess it is so much more common than it used to be.

Glad you are doing well.

I know 10 people that have had WLS.

I work with 4 ladies that have the sleeve, and one that just had Bypass. My brother in law and niece had the sleeve done together 5 years ago. The last school I taught at I worked with 3 ladies that had Gastric Bypass.

I work in a large hospital and at least ten of my coworkers have had WLS. It is actually nice because we support each other. Also, the rest of our co workers have been very supportive too.

It has been discussed on here before that there seem to be a large number of nurses on this board. There seem to be some job related factors there.

Not too many, actually about 5, most nurses. Glad your situation wasn't more serious, take it easy on yourself!

It seems like most people I talk to have either had surgery or know someone who did. It has made my experience so much better. I really have quite a large group of people that I can talk to about it. I find that I talk to a lot of people who know of people that had the surgery, but weren't brave enough to ask them about it so now I am educating so many people on the process and the surgery. I love it.

I don't know anyone who's had it (if they are telling people, that is). Not even a 'friend of a cousin's girlfriend's neighbour' type thing.

I had a party at my home last month. There were six of us sitting around the kitchen table, and 4 of the 6 had had WLS. The others were amazed. Obviously, WLS is more common than I ever imagined!

At my last bariatric surgery support meeting, it turned out most of the individuals present were nurses who had bariatric surgery. This is probably a good thing because they see the effects of obesity up front and on a daily basis. And they seem to observe what works and what doesn't. So its a good sign.

When I was in the hospital, my nurse told me she had RNY and the radiologist told me both he and his wife had been sleeved.

I went out a couple of times with a guy I met online who had the band. And there is a coworker of mine who was very heavy and he's probably half his size now. I heard he had WLS. I'm pretty sure that most of the folks in my office are presuming I had surgery as well even though I only told a few of my closer friends here.

When you are truly obese and lose so much weight that you are virtually unrecognizable, people will make that assumption. No one has asked me directly except one person and I did not lie..I admitted I had surgery. If she told others, so be it.

No one in my family has had WLS though I wish my sister would do it. She's morbidly obese and I worry for her health. I don't care what she looks like, but I want her around as long as possible and I know her co-morbidities can impact her life.