I feel compelled to start at the beginning to provide as accurate and thorough a retelling as possible. For those of my friends who are interested in taking the same route someday, perhaps I can help assuage some fear/doubt by mapping out my journey.

August 11, 2010

I finally attended the Weight Loss Surgery seminar at the Hospital. I had registered for it twice before in the last year but then cancelled at the last minute. I kept telling myself I wasn't there yet. That I didn't really need this.

There were about 35 people there to hear the lecture, and 2 post-op volunteers who came to share thier stories. The surgeon discussed the gastric bypass, vertical sleeve, and LAP-BAND®. He flat out announced that he's not a fan of the LAP-BAND® but I made my mind up that this was the surgery for me before I got there.

It took a lot to get me to this point. There's no way in hell I'm rerouting my intestines OR removing part of my stomach. The band is the safest weight loss surgery. I know he's worried I won't see the same results as I might with the others, but I know that all of the surgeries are tools, and that I will get out as much as I put in.

At first, being at the seminar was terribly uncomfortable. I was embarrassed to sit in a room where everyone knew I had come because I want to lose weight. I've made a lifetime habit of blending in, wearing dark clothes, and sitting in the back. I don't draw attention to my body or discuss my weight. The fact that the DR was so down on my preferred method didn't help either.

Despite it all, I liked him a lot. He is very frank and straightforward. I felt he was glib (almost to the point of rudeness) with some of the question askers but I appreciated his open discussion of some possible complications and even the possibility of death from the surgery. I've never had an operation and was really scared about the prospect of being cut open and talking about it upfront made it seem less sinister and more manageable, I guess.

One thing he said that really struck home was that... "if you go on living obese, there is a high likelihood you will need surgery in the future, hip replacement, hiatal hernia, open heart, etc. The mortality rates for these surgeries are 5-10x higher than the mortality rate for WLS." He almost convinced me right then and there.

As it was I took home all the paperwork he gave me to look over and filled out the health forms the next day on my lunch break.

I still wasn't conviced this was in my future but I figured it couldn't hurt to fill out the paperwork. :thumbup: