To most people "I'm not THAT big", and they're right I'm not compared to someone most. My mother doesn't think or understand why I am getting this done. I'm 5'2 225. I carry my weight well in my opinion and hers but I'm just tired of the struggle. Wish me luck.

My parents and siblings don't agree or feel I need the surgery but have respected my decision. Wish you the best on your journey.

Good luck to you! Congrats on your decision to be heather! You will find support here! Have a fast recovery!

Sending positive vibes and praying for a speedy recovery!!!! Good luck!!!!

Girl you look amazing now and you will look amazing after.

Sending prayers up for you and you surgical team. ????

Good luck!!

Good luck to you!! Im right there with you. People have said im not that big, that i carry my weight well. This was coming from a woman larger than me. I say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Good luck!! Lots of prayer and good vibes sent your way.

Good Luck and let us know as soon as you can how you are doing.

I hear the same thing when people find out how much I weigh. I am tired of dragging the extra weight and adding to it to where I cannot function.

Congratulations! You are just one nice nap away from a new you.

And by the way, when I got my pre-op EKG, the tech commented that I did not need the surgery because I was not that big. I was 5'4" and 235 and my spine was collapsing from my weight with 17 herniated discs and needing a full lumbar fusion.

Geeze....people just can't see inside our bodies and our minds as to why we do this. I told her that she should call my surgeon and tell him that she disagrees with his diagnosis. That shut her up! And yes, I reported her by name when the Press-Gainey survey arrived at my door. I always commend the good stuff on other visits to the hospital, but she just totally surprised me that felt free to comment on a patient's condition.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and a complication-free recovery. The first few days are tough, but once you get past that first week (ok - the third week stall) you will start feeling much better. Hugs from Miss Mac in Chicago.

I've always felt like I was a big guy but "not that big"

I mean I can take pictures and Selfies and if I do the right pose, stand a certain way, I look in the picture, to me, like how I think I look. which is a big guy that "not that big".

But

every once in a while, I will be in a store, say a gas station and I'm waiting in line to pay. I happen to look up at the security monitor and I see this huge guy that is bigger than everyone else around him and I'm like "wow, now that is a big guy" then I start to look for me in that monitor to realize that the person I was looking at was me.

I have surveillance cameras at my front door at home. I still remember when I first set those camera's up, I had them set to where I would get an sms message when the motion detector triggers. so I leave my house one day and about 5 minutes later I get the SMS message saying that my motion detector triggered. I pulled over and grabbed my ipad and logged into my system to see what triggered my motion sensor and I see this huge guy walk out my place. my heart started beating real fast for a second till I realized that it was me. now I don't even look at the recordings anymore because I get that feeling every time I see me coming or going in those cameras.

I imagine I will probably have the opposite issue once Ive had surgery and have lost weight, where I will really be "not a big guy" but still see a big guy in pictures and in the mirror etc