Hi. I know that we all had our different reasons for having WLS. I did it because I was fed up with yo-yo dieting. I was on-off Keto diet for over two years. I've lost some weight and gained it all back in the end. The longest I've stayed on diet was 5 months and that paid off really well (lost 25 kg). But then Covid-19 hit.

I was about to go back to Keto diet in January 22 when my sister called to tell me she was going for the mini gastric bypass. That was the first time time I've heard of it. Fast forward three weeks and I'm on the plane flying to Egypt to have mine.

My "breaking point" was finally going back to work in the office and having to remove the arm rests of my office chair because it somehow "shrunk" and was squeezing my thighs.

How about you? What made you decide to have the surgery and what was the breaking point?

I felt trapped in my body. We went to Lake Placid NY this summer, and my family wanted to do hiking/kayaking/etc but I struggled to make the 5 steps up to the condo. I was worried and embarrassed that the seat belts on the plane barely fit. The seat belt fastener on my car kept digging into my hips. Just maneuvering around was more difficult.

I knew I was obese, but I would never allow pictures of me, because in pictures I could see how big I really was.

I had thought about wls previously but always considered it "the easy way out". Figured if I had the willpower and determination then I could do it on my own. I had gotten down from 235ish to 194 about 3 years ago, but I got off track and gained it back all the way up to 259 lbs.

After the NY trip, I started on my wls journey. I just had the gastric sleeve on Oct 11 (so just a few days post op). I'm still in the "what did I do phase" somewhat courtesy of these blasted stomach cramps, but I am excited for the journey to come.

Thanks so much for the transparency and openness of everyone sharing their struggles!

I have been researching (nurse brain here, lol) bariatric procedures for over 4yrs before finally being brave enough to seek out help. I’m almost 40 and have struggled with my weight my entire life. Have lost and gained back over 60lbs three times, but never in a truly healthy way. When all my scrubs were skin tight, and I was over the weekend gut limit for a bicycle, I realized I had enough - time wanted my entire life to change!

I used to love bicycling, hiking, and strength training, but have gotten so out of breath all the time which made me depressed, and then I had to have a hysterectomy and everything really changed after that!

so fast forward to now, I’ve lost about 10-15lbs since March/April and am scheduled for my sleeve provider in just three days!!

good luck to everyone

Edited October 16, 20223 yr by Rebecca-RN

18 hours ago, Rebecca-RN said:

Thanks so much for the transparency and openness of everyone sharing their struggles!

I have been researching (nurse brain here, lol) bariatric procedures for over 4yrs before finally being brave enough to seek out help. I’m almost 40 and have struggled with my weight my entire life. Have lost and gained back over 60lbs three times, but never in a truly healthy way. When all my scrubs were skin tight, and I was over the weekend gut limit for a bicycle, I realized I had enough - time wanted my entire life to change!

I used to love bicycling, hiking, and strength training, but have gotten so out of breath all the time which made me depressed, and then I had to have a hysterectomy and everything really changed after that!

so fast forward to now, I’ve lost about 10-15lbs since March/April and am scheduled for my sleeve provider in just three days!!

good luck to everyone

Congrats on the pending surgery!

I am also a nurse and struggled with the decision for years. Despite being a nurse, I still felt determined that if I was going to do it "properly" I had to do it on my own with willpower and determination.

Honestly, prior to deciding this summer that I was going to do wls, I had no idea the work that went with it.

I'm now 6 days post op from gastric sleeve. I'm down 20 lbs. I feel fine with exception of struggling to get my fluid (and now protein) intake up. I know lots of people struggle for the first month though, so I am keeping that in mind and pushing through.

Best of luck on your surgery!

Horrible quality of life - That's what got me to do it. Anxiety, Depression and eating disorder had taken over my life. I lost out on a youthful decade of mine and last 5 or 6 years were the worse of the worst. I legit stopped living, didn't feel like doing much of anything social. My life was more or less my family, that's all. I had isolated myself away from friends, work and anything to do with life per se. Life had legit stopped and seemed like a vicious groundhogs day, I couldn't come out of.

And yup, heard of WLS back in 2017, but didn't know if I wanted it for myself given the *easy way out* outlook of WLS. But finally gave in and I am so effing glad I did. I couldn't be more than grateful. I mentioned this before, WLS has legit blew a new life in me. I just feel super blissful to be where I am today and look a certain way I always dreamt of in the past. Dreams can become reality and WLS has proven that. So yes, for me it was the fact that I was giving up on life, which I didn't want to.

Diabetes. Saw how that story ended a few times. Didn't want to live it. Day after surgery they told me to stop all diabetes medication. Been good since. No heartburn, and no CPAP, are great bonuses.