Why Getting Sleeved was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

[Julie norton 2,850]

Loved this thread....really lit up the boards!

Lots of good info, incorrect info, personal stories , some judgement.....

Heartfelt admissions, newbies and veterans....something for everyone!

Really interesting.

It made me, for just a moment, retreat to a 20 something year old mind....

Frankly, I don't know if I truly had the wisdom, long-term thinking and tenacity my 51 year old body had when I had WLS .

That is a TRULY interesting subject to me.

Seems like some of us more , ahem ,mature people here have a much different perspective and success than a 20 something jumping in 2 weeks to surgery..

Not defending any point of view ...

Just youthfulness has its innocence and naivitivity....

[BigViffer 3,545]

Everyone Else:

You weren't ready for the surgery.

You didn't do what you should have post surgery.

You would have if you followed directions.

Most of us don't agree with you

Yeah, no. If that's what you got out of some of the responses, then you really didn't read them.

Yeah, I read some. And that is what I got out of them. You've already called me an a*****e in one of my threads, so I am just going to chalk your reply up to another insult.

Do this for me, on the upper right side of your screen click on your user name Then click on Manage Ignore Prefs. Then type in BigViffer and click save.

Edited July 31, 2015 by BigViffer

[MarceMonster 161]

I believe I understand your intention with this remark, but I can't help but mention that those in the first 2 years post op have very little understanding of the experience at the longer term mark. I will be 4 years post op in December and this year has been much tougher maintaining then the first 2-3 years were. I keep asking myself, have I slipped back to old bad habits? Maybe a little, but i think it is more that I am living like a "normal" middle aged American woman and look around, alot of them could stand to lose 20 or 50.

I am bouncing around 5-10 over goal and not happy about it, but my efforts to knock them back off haven't been very successful...

I am very very happy that I still wear single digit clothing and look like a normal, not obese person though... and I am continuing to work it - with the first goal being to NOT regain any more...

I am sorry, but there is one more thing I need to add: if you are so sure about the right way to lose weight, why aren't you losing weight? You are three years out, if you followed those simple rules you laid out, why have you gained 25 lbs?

Hey cowgirljane, my comment wasn't meant for al people who are not at goal. Floating 5-10 lbs over goal is something to be proud of!!! The only reason I asked the question about why that women wasn't losing weight is because she spoke as if she knew some secret truth. I think her post was inaccurate at best and detrimental to others at worst. I understand that after the first year to 18 months it will be MUCH harder for me to lose weight, I understand this because I did a years worth of research. I would never put anyone down who is trying to lose weight and working their program, but that women surely was not.

[FocusOnMeNow 599]

First, I have not read all the replies to this story, but having read this story. If the statistics on the left were true. That you are 5'3" and your starting weight at the beginning of your journey was 210, that would leave you with a BMI of 37.2, which in fact does NOT make you an ideal candidate for the sleeve surgery unless you have significant co-morbidities. The recommendations are for those with a BMI or 40 and up or those with a BMI of 35 and up with co-morbidities like diabetes. And yes you probably could have lost 51 lbs through diet and exercise.

Many of us are older and/or quite a bit heavier (my BMI is 42). My blood pressure, blood sugar etc are perfection (this is nothing short of a miracle and quite a bit of good luck and yes I know it is only a matter of time until these both started inching upward). In my case, my primary co-morbidity is very painful osteoarthritis of the knees, which, of course, is exacerbated and was probably caused by....you guessed it.... my weight. The more my knees hurt the less I exercise, the less I exercise the more weight I gain; the more weight I gain the more my knees hurt, etc etc. My knees hurt so bad that I was going to move out of the house that I love and into a ground floor condo because I simply cannot stand the stairs in my townhouse anymore, and my knees now making a crunching noise with each step...ouch.

Then I decided that instead of using that money I was going to put down on a ground floor condo so that I could become even more immobile, I would put towards vertical sleeve gastrectomy instead. I can still move to that ground floor condo later if I still need to but I just had to give it one last try before possibly becoming more immobile and putting on even more weight, also knowing that I would probably need to lose a significant amount of weight before I would ever be a good candidate for knee replacement surgery. But again, that would only be a band-aid and not addressing the root cause of the issue. My weight.

I have also educated myself through these forums and listened to the other posters and those who have successfully kept the weight off and what is the least common denominator: exercise. @ I'm not sure who told you that you didn't need to exercise or didn't need to do strength training to build muscle mass but a quick search of gastric sleeve on you tube plus a cursory review of these Bariatric pal forums will give you a quick education there. I think that for most of the rest of us going in we knew that sleeve surgery was a "tool" just like diet and exercise to be used in combination with diet and exercise rather than a substitute for either. You will see folks who just let the weight come off the first six months to a year and do not exercise and they are at higher risk for weight regain precisely for some of the reasons that you stated. As far as I am concerned I have a six month honeymoon period during which I can build much better habits to last a lifetime and be successful or not. Now is the time to step up your game and incorporate strength training and perhaps some cardio and try to get back into good habits. As you stated you are young and you can still rapidly build muscle mass compared to many others who have significant co-morbidities on this forum.

As we frequently say on these forums they operate on your stomach not your brain, which is what really needs to be re-trained in good habits. So set your mind to make the most of your sleeve, play the hand you've been dealt, and live a happy and healthy life:-)

Good luck!

[maggie409 765]

I want to start by saying that the personal insults really are unnecessary. The young lady seems to have enough issues without everyone here beating her into the ground.

When I was in Mexico getting surgery there was a 16 year old there with her mom who probably only has 30 BMI and that young girl was getting surgery. I thought what a shame to be having such a life altering surgery at her age. She wanted the surgery but you could tell it was mostly at her mothers insistence. Her mother had never been overweight, her two sisters already had the procedure and the mom was saying "just think how beautiful you will look in your prom dress now." I wanted to tell the mom "your daughter is gorgeous, she would look good in a prom dress is she weighed 300 pounds!" But I didn't.

My point here is that some people are just too young for such a huge decision.

As for the original poster... Follow your own advise. Having the small stomach doesn't stop you from implementing a strong exercise routine, lifting weights, and eating healthy. Start those things now. Get back on track. Be healthy for you.

Mostly be happy NO MATTER WHAT! Don't let your ego control your thinking. I have faith that you can overcome what demons battle with you daily. Good luck!! And God Bless!!

[laguerr13 993]

Although I never insulted anyone on my post directly, I can understand the frustration and passion behind it, in the original post there were way too many inconsistencies and holes in the story, and if some poor misguided 17-25 something read it and decided to take it to heart there could have been a tragedy, I have worked 17 years in psych in very acute units, and you quickly learn how powerful words can be and how easily you can persuade people in a time of weakness that what you say is the truth, my benefit is that I can easily spot "BS" and this story was just that, something just felt very wrong about the post especially after reading the parts concerning muscle loss, I didn't go into this thinking life and health would take care of itself if I had this done, I went in with knowledge, information, and a strong desire to prolong my life through better choices, exercise, and to keep learning as much as I can after the surgery, I used to teach an evening class to my patients called "the 50/50 group" and what it means is that we take for granted that much of how we live and function is 50/50, the first 50% is easy "gastric surgery"our 50% is hard, diet changes, exercise, following the program........ See where I'm getting at? Read carefully through the original post again remembering this and yeah it's gonna smell alot more like cow patties!!!!!!!

[p1Sz 52]

I actually don't think the original post is detrimental to information seekers. The point of the forum is to hear multiple viewpoints. If reading this one post makes someone decide against surgery, they're probably not ready, otherwise they'd continue seeking.

I also think it is just these kinds of posts that can stir the most interesting conversations. For me, it's made me think about:

1) What this process is like for a teenager or young adult. I've always thought "I wish I'd had this when I was 18." Now, I'm not so sure. As others have said, I'm not sure I would have been equipped then to be successful.

2) The downside of having surgery done far away from your home. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Mexico option is out there. But I now think the ideal is insurance covers everyone, so you don't have to go out of country. I gotta think having your care team and support group nearby is a good thing.

3) I don't think even the best US providers are doing as good a job on follow-up psych care as they should.

4) Even though WLS has been around a while, patients and doctors are still "figuring things out." For example, there are new studies that suggest combining WLS with obesity drugs to improve results. Or a study suggesting treatment with growth hormone for six months post-op to prevent muscle loss. Or studies that indicate WLS does not impact depression. Conflicting studies about whether surgery leads to longer life for severely obese and/or those over 65. Or medical opinions that the BMI cutoff should be lowered to 30. There's just a lot we don't know about why this does and doesn't work.

My point is, these bigger issue questions are interesting (to me) and are usually only stirred up by raw posts. I'm glad we can also get advice from each other on cheapest Vitamins and share NSVs. But I'm also glad people feel free to share real fear and pain and anger. And I hope that doesn't change.

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@p1Sz - I agree that people are complicated and weight loss is a difficult subject with new discoveries being made all the time. Those are facts.

All said and done, WLS was an absolute game changer for me for the good. And that my friends is a personal opinion based on personal experience.

Not confusing facts with opinion and experience is an important skill, however I did the math and figured out half the population is below average, so I have learned you do need discernment to figure out where the lines blur.

[Babbs 14,681]

Everyone Else:

You weren't ready for the surgery.

You didn't do what you should have post surgery.

You would have if you followed directions.

Most of us don't agree with you

Yeah, no. If that's what you got out of some of the responses, then you really didn't read them.

Yeah, I read some. And that is what I got out of them. You've already called me an a*****e in one of my threads, so I am just going to chalk your reply up to another insult.

Do this for me, on the upper right side of your screen click on your user name Then click on Manage Ignore Prefs. Then type in BigViffer and click save.

I don't put anybody on ignore. No need. I don't let people get under my skin like some people do. Life is too short.

[CRNA 32]

If you guys are interested in reading some actual scientific, evidence-based information regarding Weight loss surgery and fat-free mass loss, read this article.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26215245/?i=1&from=vertical%20sleeve%20gastrectomy

You an impulsive decision, which now you regret. I don't think you can apply your logic and reasoning to everyone else on this website.

[Sharon1964 2,530]

@

What I do have an issue with is you coming onto a site that offers support to so many who are reaching out and spewing falsehoods and flat out lies about WLS and claiming it to be gospel. If you would have just said "Look guys, I screwed up. I didn't know what I was getting into and now I'm over my head and think I've made a huge mistake", you would have gotten a completely different response.

But you coming on here and basically telling people who have had or are going to have WLS that they too have made or are going to make a mistake is where I draw the line.

Good luck to you.

This. Totally.

[Elode 8,093]

Sorry bout YOU! Having surgery doesn't stop hand to mouth action, you still have to handle that s**t

[laguerr13 993]

I guess this like a few other posts will possibly go on for weeks, the reasons I got angry at the person who posted was mainly because there was definitely a lot of misinformation posted, a lot of misleading numbers were thrown, but mainly because I chose to advocate for others wanting it, I don't know if I posted here or to my friends on FB but last week I asked by my surgeon if I would be willing to do a testimonial and maybe speak to some people about my experience, I am considering it with modesty and seriousness because words carry more power than people think, and because of that dumb post someone reading too much into it and taking it as gospel could be swayed not to have the surgery, causing many more years of problems or even death.......... I think as this is my final post on this thread I chose as my last words to that person or anyone else that may in the future Rey to post similar misleading statements

" You can only play the victim so long......"

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@CRNA - Can you translate this? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26215245/?i=1&from=vertical%20sleeve%20gastrectomy

I think it says: People who had the surgery had an increase in non-fatty tissue, so in short, there was not a loss of muscle. Am I close?

Edited August 1, 2015 by OKCPirate

[CRNA 32]

Exactly, at least to an extent significant less than those who get traditional roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. Scientifically speaking, she's full of shit. Bye Felicia!