how did you know if you are mentally ready for surgery?

[Marie A.]

I think I want to have surgery but I love food, so I am not sure if I can succeed if I have it done. My insurance will not pay for surgery so I also worried about the cost. I talked to the surgeons office so I know how much it will cost. Everyone around me thinks it is a great idea that I start the process, I am not sure if I can do it. How did you know you were ready?

 

[Katzgettingthin]

I think I want to have surgery but I love food, so I am not sure if I can succeed if I have it done. My insurance will not pay for surgery so I also worried about the cost. I talked to the surgeons office so I know how much it will cost. Everyone around me thinks it is a great idea that I start the process, I am not sure if I can do it. How did you know you were ready?

Hi Marie
I just had the gastric sleeve on June 2. I started this journey on Oct. 8, 2015. My insurance required 6 months of supervised weight loss. Those 6 months really helped me to prepare mentally. I love food too, but what I now have is an off switch for me. I also kept a food journal to see when I was eating and why. You have to be really honest with yourself and figure out the why. After surgery, down the road a bit you can eat whatever you want just not a lot hence the off switch. I feel great and I've had no problems so far. For me this was the best decision. I've lost 14 pounds in 2 weeks since surgery and a total of 53 pounds overall. I'm thrilled! I knew I was mentally and emotionally ready when I was brutally honest with myself and my reasons for over eating. I just knew this was the right path for me.
Good luck with your decision and remember it is YOUR decision and to have a successful weight loss surgery you need to really want it and to be very ready!

 

[Ardelia Little]

I think I want to have surgery but I love food, so I am not sure if I can succeed if I have it done. My insurance will not pay for surgery so I also worried about the cost. I talked to the surgeons office so I know how much it will cost. Everyone around me thinks it is a great idea that I start the process, I am not sure if I can do it. How did you know you were ready?

If u want to be healthy and u have tried everything and nothing else worked for you then I think u should give it a tryear I have been doing all the classes and a lot of reading on this and I have to admit I'm excited to get it done,I wish u the best with your decision

 

[Saska]

I think I want to have surgery but I love food, so I am not sure if I can succeed if I have it done. My insurance will not pay for surgery so I also worried about the cost. I talked to the surgeons office so I know how much it will cost. Everyone around me thinks it is a great idea that I start the process, I am not sure if I can do it. How did you know you were ready?

For me the process was a little different. I am a nurse and have worked with bariatric patients for years now. I have seen the complications and I have seen patients who I knew would be unsuccessful from the beginning due to their non-compliance with the changes that they needed to make. Even though I have been overweight for years now I said for the longest time that I would NEVER have bariatric surgery and would lose weight with alternative programs. I would lose weight but always gained in back over time. Then last April I saw my Dr. for an unrelated matter and each visit they did the basic vitals including the weight. That visit I weighed in at 277 lbs and it freaked me out, I had never been so heavy before and being so close to the 300 lb mark scared me. I knew that as I got older it would be harder for me, and I was afraid that I would end up with diabetes (which I found out later I had already) among other things. At that moment I considered my reasons for not wanting to have the bariatric surgery, which included knowing that I would have difficulty maintaining the diet restrictions postop. I loved drinking soda, especially gingerale if I were sick. I also know that my eating habits were that I tend to graze rather than eat fewer but larger meals, and had a sugar addition particularly with chocolate. So knowing this, and knowing that after surgery if I continued to snack on chocolates then even though the food portions were smaller they were high in calories, which would be counter productive for weight loss surgery. But at this time I really reevaluated what was important to me. Was it really so important to be able to drink soda and snack on junk food, or was getting healthy more important. I decided at that time to pursue the surgical option. I realised that sacrificing soda and junk food really wasn't such a sacrifice after all and if that was what it took to become healthy again I would do it. Then I had to face my fear of the surgery from having seen patients with complications including a few who had died. I thought about those situations, those who had died where primarily due to the patient not following the post op instructions. One died from refusing to walk post op, she developed a blood clot after she was discharged home and died - so I made sure that I walked as much as I possibly could following surgery. Another died from complications of binge eating and essentially destroying her bypass pouch (this was over several years and lead to multiple other complications), so I made sure that I didn't over do it for my meals to prevent injury to my stomach. I also knew which surgeon I would choose to see, the one who I never saw his patients return with complications. So for me knowing when I was ready for this surgery was a different process from most people who I know who have had it done. Even right up to the time I walked into the operating room I had a vague nagging doubt that I was doing something crazy. But I know that this is the best thing that I have done. And I know that the changes I have to make are worth it to improve my health. My experiences from what I have seen other people go through just remind me that I really do have to follow the instructions, and it will be a life long process. I don't want to scare you out of doing this with my story, but I wanted to share how I had changed my mind regarding doing the bariatric surgery and how I have adapted my thinking regarding food. You will still be able to enjoy food after you recover, you just won't be able to have as much of it as before. I am still restricted to the pureed/soft foods currently and do look forward to the day that I can eat regular food once again without having discomfort. I still enjoy spending time with friends when it involves food gatherings, I will eat what I am able that the others are eating otherwise would have my own shakes or food prepared so I am not hungry while watching the others eat their food.

For yourself you would need to consider the pros and cons for why you are thinking of doing this and what your life will be like when you achieve your goals. Don't do it because other people think it would be a good idea, because unless you agree with them it would be harder and you don't want to regret having the surgery after having it done. To know if you would be able to do it try and do the pre-diet of liquid protein to see if you can do this (although don't be too hard on yourself if you need more protein shakes or real food during that time as it is hard to do sometimes). I found the first few days on the liquid diet hard and had to have an extra protein shake. I didn't eat food during that time though. As I said, I don't want to scare you away from having the procedure, I just want you to do this for you and not for other people. If you are not convinced that this would be a good thing for you do it would be harder to convince yourself to make the necessary changes afterwards. But it is great that you seem to have supportive friends as that is a huge asset. One patient I saw had told no one she was having the surgery. So an hour after her surgery her family came to visit eating buckets of KFC! Then her husband was constantly trying to sneak milk and icecream to her which make her sick, and despite the nursing staff telling her and her family that she couldn't drink or eat those things they continued to do so, and would then be mad at us because she was vomiting and we weren't doing enough to make her feel better. So by having people who can be supportive in your recover is essential to your success. I wish you all the best.