For me the final straw was when my son took a photo of me on my phone only showing me from the neck down when I saw that not knowing who it was straightaway I said omg what a big person this person makes me look like a really thin person. After a few seconds reality hit me and I realised this person is me. I was shocked to the extreme didn't realise I looked like this. So that drove me to have surgery.

For me it was the fact that I lost 80lbs once and gained it all back. My Dr always thought I could do it again myself but it just never happened. I have Gerd, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and am now diabetic. Lately my knees have been aching and I seem to have lost all the energy I once had even though I have always been heavy and was always active. I am 50 and have a great husband, job, and a good life. I wake up every day and the first thing I think of is "yup I am fat, yes I am achey' and let's take all those pills!! One month until surgery. I am 95% sure I am going through with it. Just scared.

When I realized it was getting harder to reach and therefore care for myself.

Yes, that was the one......

For me it was when I decided I couldn't live this way anymore. I started going to the gym and with the help of meds healthy eating and exercise habits I lost 90 pounds. But then it stopped coming off so u went back to the doctor to get put back on the medication to help my metabolism. Instead I go diagnosed with 2 heart conditions. My weight was starting to creep back up and nothing I did helped. So I started this journey.

I am 3 1/2 weeks post op and I've lost 28 pounds. However I have stalled and lost nothing in 2 weeks. I know its part of the process and I can't wait to get going again.

After my best weight loss success years before, that ultimately failed like all the others, I had given up. I was resigned to living fat for the rest of my life.

But then suddenly one day not long after I entered my 50's, my body declared an all out war against me. My joints, my bones, my back, my feet, were in constant pain. I began my day in pain and I ended it the same way. I no longer felt I had any quality of life and I was facing the very real dilemma of having to sell my condo because I was having difficulty climbing the stairs.

That did it. Now almost a year later I'm nearly finished completing my insurance requirements and expect to have surgery in the next couple of months. While my days still begin and end with pain, now at least they're encompassed by hope!

Justwatchme, You.Go.Girl !!!! And don't look back !!!

Me its my back condition I'm in 4 different pain meds hopefully loosing some wight will help me and I don't have to drink all those meds.. Oh and a month before surgery I have early stage of diabetes :/ scary i know so I'm happy is hard but is worth it!!

I can say it was the same thing so many people mention...and it is, but I hit an all time low. I guess my rock bottom.

My mother died..I spent the next 6 months of my life buried up to my neck in food...in all her recipes, trying to recreate each one over, and over, and over. Eating my way through the grief until I gained 40 more lbs, and then my heart started to not work right. I am in Grade 1 heart failure, blood pressure sky high, working my heart too much, all this excess weight....I graduate from a cane to walker, and then my blood sugars are out of control, Dr. put me on 2 oral diabetes meds, then 2 different kinds of insulin. I was giving myself 4 injections minimum, and taking over 20 pills, every day.

On an office visit to try to slap a band-aid on knees that need replacement, (which won't happen until I lose a considerable amount of weight), my Dr. looked me in the eyes, and told me if I didn't stop, I was going to die.

I knew then....I had to make some major life changes, but not just a surgery to make my stomach tiny.

I needed to work through all the many reasons why I used food, what it meant to me, what it had become to me and and why I was so addicted to it.

Those were the demons that were/are harder to deal with than the 8 month program, and the 4.5 hours I spent on that operating table.

I haven't had to take 3 of 4 diabetes medications in days......

They stopped 2 of my heart medications last night......

Already my health is improving. I did it for the right purposes, and I dug deeper than I thought I would, so I could also do it for the best purposes, because it was time for me to let go of my protection I had used for so many years. My fat.

I am taking this day by day. I can't even predict what the results will be.

I only know I am motivated, at 49, to change my life, and become the person I was meant to be.

My final straw was being diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure last June. I already knew I was big, but I thought I was a healthy obese individual, but that wasn't the case so that's when I decided its time to get healthy and lose this weight.

This was the EXACT same reason for me to finally take the plunge and go for the surgery...I saw my family suffering from the effects of high blood pressure and diabetes, and when I was diagnosed with the same, I didn't want to put my family through that, so now thank the Lord that I'm cured of those, and I can live a healthy life!!!

@@wascott,

I was looking for someone who had both weight loss surgery and cervical spinal surgery. I was wondering if I need to be worried about my diet at all given the required healing needed for a triple fusion with Corpectomy. They are actually removing my c5 vertebrae completely and using a donor bone to put in place.

I also wondered if I would get my inch of height back. I used to be 5'11" and I now barely make 5'10"

@@Djmohr That's a great question. I'd certainly bring that up with your spinal surgeon.

My triple fusion surgery was 17 months ago. (Where did that time go!) It took about a year before the bones were finished growing.

My sleeve surgery isn't until next month so I didn't have to heal those bones while calorie restricted.

Your surgeon might want to adjust your supplemental nutrients while you heal.

My sister is having a disc replaced with an artificial disc next month. I hope you both do well and get some relief.

To djmohr, I had a three level Anterior Cervical Dissection and fusion on February 14 of 2013. I was in a soft collar for six weeks. I had to be careful all year, but was able to have my sleeve surgery on December 23, 2013.

@@Caseylynn I am 52 and felt the same way - a little apprehensive but KNEW it was the tool I needed. Three weeks and 1 day post-op and so happy I did it!

the single most blunt reply i can give besides stepping on the scale at my doctors office and breaking the 400 pound barrier. I was having a hard time ( no pun intended) with sex, physically, you had to sort of guess at location and aim, if you understand what im saying.

several things...

hard to walk

couldnt stand for more than 5 min as my legs/knees hurt so bad

couldnt wipe my butt after going to bathroom

hub had to put my socks on

wearing a size 5x skirt and wonder do they come bigger

and the most important thing...my son saying i was to be a grandmother....

I realized there was a better way to live my life! I knew diets worked, but I didn't stay on them. And, life was about food. One day, I learned from a friend about the lap-band, and immediately I researched it. It's what's helped me lose weight and eat healthy for the last 12 years, and life has been a blast since then!