Got everything turned in today and they are submitting the packet to insurance. I'm hoping on a June date.

I've been reading a lot the last few weeks. I feel I owe it to myself to know all the ins and outs and all the things that can go wrong. I like to be prepared. Even when I was pregnant I read all about the things that could go wrong. Not to scare myself but to know that yes, things can go wrong but here is what can be done if/when they do. I came across this group of anti-weight loss surgery folks who do their best to scare people off it. The two leaders have bad experiences with WLS in the past and now they don't believe that anyone should do it. They both have had their bypasses reversed. One of them turned to the philosophy of fat and fit and claimed she was healthy and still obese until she just recently lost a lot of weight on her own. She has maintained it about 9 months or something like that. The other one doesn't talk about her weight much but I think she lost some on her own after gaining a lot after having her surgery reversed. But I get the feeling that she is still obese or at least overweight.

Anyway, they talk a lot about all the things that they have experienced and have seen in others that can go wrong. When someone points out a long-term success story they are quick to point out any horror story they can trot out at the moment. If it sounds like I don't like these people much it's because I don't. The tone there is hate and bitterness. I think it's because their surgeries did not turn out right and they can't stand it that other people have success where they didn't.

Yes, there are horror stories. There are deaths and long-term suffering as a consequence of WLS. But really, there are horror stories to anything. Like I said I read about a lot of pregnancy-related complications but it did not keep me from having babies. And while I had a minor complication or two I managed to produce perfectly healthy children and I'm not much worse for the wear (other than gaining about 100 extra pounds over the course of all my pregnancies). It doesn't make me start a website to tell people not to have babies because I have heard of people dying from it or having long-term health consequences from it.

For as many people who have had WLS, if it really were as horrible and dangerous as these folks claim, then we would be seeing many, many malpractice suits, and insurance would not be paying for it more and more. It makes people more healthy for the most part. There are exceptions and those folks at that site are some of them. I feel bad for them, because they have had such a hard time in their lives, even though most of it wasn't due to the surgery - if you hang around long enough you will hear about emotional abuse that started way before the surgery in at least one of them (the most hateful one). The fact that their old-fashioned bypasses failed them has become the scapegoat of their lives.

I keep going back there hoping for some facts to actually base my decision on but all I get is anecdotes and quotes from other websites with very little statistical backing. The clincher is that they claim to have a "panel of expert advisors" but the only doctor I see quoted is Terry Simpson, a well-known Lap Band doctor in Arizona. He only does Lap Band so he has a vested interest in steering people away from other procedures. That's enough right there for me to call BS on the site.

So anyway, I just needed to get that off my chest. I probably won't be back there unless I'm in the mood for a debate or to see what fresh nonsense they are spouting. It's a little pathetic really. But they are so hateful it's hard to feel really sorry for them.