Surgery is coming on Monday, Feb 14th. I'm getting gastric bypass.

I'm in a really dark mental space. I'm so scared I'm going to have complications. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I willingly make myself sickly with surgery when I feel great and healthy right now as I'm slowly but surely losing weight without it.

I know I need to and want to lose all my excess weight but I'm so scared that I'll be sick after. I've never dealt with long term health issues or feeling severely ill. What if it happens to me? I read about all kinds of terrible things and I panic.

I'm really trying to focus on the positives but as it gets closer, I don't know... it's like I want to scream to the sky. I'm on the verge of having a panic attack and I think it might happen when I'm in the hospital. I have a hard time expressing my emotions but something is seriously bubbling under the surface.

There's no way of knowing anything I guess yet. It's just so frightening. I feel like I'm alone and I feel sad and scared. I'm not even upset about food or eating. I'm scared of becoming sick, needing emergency surgeries or having chronic nausea or vomiting. I couldn't forgive myself if that ended up happening.

I sound like a broken record but I need to get it all out. Part of my weight loss journey has been learning how to express my emotions instead of numb them. I feel terrible and I'm a day away. How do you deal with this stress and panic?

5 hours ago, fourmonthspreop said:

I've never dealt with long term health issues or feeling severely ill. 

I know and perhaps that's the cause of your fear, but know this: being obese is the number one leading cause of long term health issues and feeling severely ill, weight loss surgery is the number one cure.

Believe it or not, we all got cold feet right before the surgery. It's a natural thing to be scared about being put under anesthesia and any complications. If you weren't worried, we'd be worried about you. ? But take comfort from the thousands of us here on these forums who survived and thrived after WLS and are here to share our experiences and information with you.

Take some deep breaths. Try to get some sleep tonight before your surgery tomorrow. It'll be a rough couple of days after surgery, no doubt, but a month from now you'll realize how much worthy it was to do.

There was a lady on here in the last 6 months who got as far as the hospital on surgery date and ran away, too scared of what she was about to do to herself. If she sees this I hope she contacts you. If not why not ask for another date. You need to know its what you truly want and need at this time in your life. Its is a big commitment to make and when you are in panic mode its not the right time for it. I feel for you and wish you well.

major complications like that are extremely rare. I had make myself stop reading the "horror stories" because they were scaring the daylights out of me - and I knew in my head that those rarely happen. The vast majority of us have no complications or only minor ones that are easily "fixed" (like strictures. They're the most common complication of bypass surgery, yet they only happen to about 5% of patients. I would hardly call something that only happens to 5% of patients "common", but there ya go... Plus they're an easy fix. I had one - it was easily fixed and I was on my way again...). Things like constant nausea and vomiting are also very rare.

you'll be fine. Having cold feet before a surgery is normal - and I think most of us have read those "horror stories". But there are "horror stories" with every surgery - even tonsillectomies and wisdom tooth extraction. But how often do those things happen? Almost never. Same with this.

I hope you can calm down. I was nervous before mine as well, but everything went extremely well and I don't know what I was afraid of. I'd do it again in a heartbeat -- one of the best decisions I've ever made!

I agree with the above post. I remember saying to myself that I’m going to “sleep” through it anyway. The horror stories are very very rare.

I didn't really consider the surgery until I had a health issue beyond obesity. Once I became diabetic, it was a no-brainer, and all fear was gone, because I've seen the bad ending with diabetes a couple times. Whatever happened on the table, I'd rather face WLS than diabetes. That I got to stay home for 6 weeks, play video games, and save on groceries, just helped seal the deal. ??‍♂️ I do wish I had done the surgery sooner in life, when I was well, as you are now. The decade, and more, prior to the surgery would have been so much different.

Best of luck to you.

I want to thank everyone for the kind words and encouragement. I'm just about 12 hours away from the first day of my new life. Scared but your words have helped a lot. I'm just going to keep my head low and get through it the best I can. I know I'm doing the right thing.
Much love!

Hi there,

I had my sleeve done last Mon (2/7) and spent Mon-Fri wondering why in the world I did what I did. I sounded similar to you. Friday was suddenly a real turning point for me. The pain diminished, and I felt so much better, and that helped me so much emotionally. Tues, We, Thurs, I literally could not see any light at the end of the tunnel and said I made the worst mistake. Please know this: I am now in a totally different place, and that happened over a 24 hour period. I woke up this morning, and while I do have one spot of pain at one incision site, the Tylenol really helps and aside from that I felt totally different. I also read too many horror stories about vomiting, dumping, horrible gas pains, and I had none of that. I retched and heaved a couple of times in the hospital, but not after that. You and I don't get to read the hundreds of people who have NO story, just the ones who reach out for help with horror stories.

I'll be honest- those first 72 hours I wasn't ready to hear "hold on, you'll get through this" bec I couldn't see myself even getting though the hour! But now that I'm almost a week out, I feel like I'm in a different world! And it's an amazing feeling!

Best of luck to you!!!!! Hang in there and stop reading so much...

Thanks for sharing your story. You're definitely right it's so easy to scare yourself. I've been working today on thinking about all the positives that come with this. I know I'll probably be in the same boat for a couple days, regret and dismay, but ultimately I will get better and love the change. I'm glad to hear you have too and you're getting along in the journey well. This will probably be my last post until I come back from the hospital. I will carry your advice with me there. Sending you love and healing on your journey.

I'm set up for surgery the day after yours. However, mine is a revision so I went through the process of having a sleeve in 2015. I too was concerned about complications. I have a family member who works at the bariatric practice and sees patients every day both before and after their surgeries. She was 100% supportive of both my decision for initial surgery and the revision which was comforting to me. I also realized that the horror stories we read online are a tiny percentage of all who have these surgeries. I believe the vast majority go smoothly and once they get past the initial discomfort of the early healing process most folks are glad to have done it.