Hi everyone,

My name is Sarah and I live in Connecticut. I am no different than all of you. Been On Diets whole life lose and gain back. I have been doing a lot of research on Bariatric surgery and would like to get advice. How did others begin their own journey to surgery? What was the best help for you guys in making this decision? I want to wish each and everyone here great luck no matter where you are on this hard journey.

Welcome. I simply watched a ton of youtube videos on other people getting their surgery and their journey Also watched youtube videos of the actual surgeries and made up my mind that way pretty much. From there i looked at different bariatric centers to get prices and read reviews and made my first appointment.

Hey Sarah, I'm Liz (but call me Rusty). I've had WLS before but I'm starting over with the VSG. I, too, am in the learning process. I had a friend get one about ten years ago and she's met her goal and maintained very well with no issues. I've also been following a lot of bariatric forums and Facebook groups to see what other people are saying and experiencing. I've drawn a few conclusions for myself, but I don't know how well they might extrapolate to others, because I also have experience with WLS, losing a substantial amount of weight, and then having "life get in the way" and having it return.

My first journey was because I wanted to have children. My second journey has begun because I have a severe health condition that cannot be remedied without surgery and cannot be corrected at all whilst I am obese (and I'm way past morbidly obese at the moment, so I have a long way to go).

Hey Rusty I understand how you feel, about the ups and downs. I have been on so many diets over the years that when I hear about people promoting them I find it hard to believe they work. Now I am trying to get healthy and have a fuller quality of life, I have been looking at videos of gastric sleeve surgery. My journey brought me here to this chat line in hopes of gathering more information. My prayers are with you as we take this journey. Rusty where do you live by chance?

I was lucky to have a friend of a friend who just had the sleeve surgery so I was able to ask her a lot of questions. I made up my kind to do it because when I exercised it causes knee pain at a BMI of 35. My doctor told me to take some time off of the treadmill and as a result I gained part of the weight back I had struggled to lose. I could just see how things were only going to snowball and the heavier I got the worse the knee pain and then I would get even heavier. I decided to stop the cycle the only way I knew how.