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The other day I ranted about my pants falling off and later I had to laugh at myself. lol At the end of the day you have a great group of friends and a tech that has never heard of VSG. Hopefully you will smile later. :-) PS. By smiling and saying to your friends "I promise I'm good" (or something like that) and changing the subject when they bring up surgery will take care of it eventually. Po-tay-toe, po-tah-to = HILARIOUS!!!!!!! LOL

Yup, people go "what do you mean they remove a part of your stomach?" Your friends are probably in a situation where they are dealing with alot of it too. It might be that you are hearing the same thing over and over, but it is different people. I doubt all of your friends are present to hear every conversation. It must be frustrating. My Mom passed away just after my surgery, and I went home and had to tell a few more people than I had intended to immediately, and I got alot of questions, even in that situation. Not by the people who didn't know my Mom well, and not by people just being crude - but people who wanted to reassure themselves I was OK. Many of us have already been the caregivers of the groups we find ourselves in. We are often the peacekeepers, the 'git er done's, the motivators, the picture takers, the event planners, the logistics, etc...Now we are admitting to ourselves we are not OK, we have flaws - big ones - and this can make our friends really lost and scared. But, yes, frustrating as all heck.

It's funny that so many in the medical field have not heard of this surgery. My sister-in-law had the Gastric Bypass 4 years ago and is a registered XRAY techinician in a hospital and she had no idea what I was talking about. Fortunately, I have complete support of everyone that I have shared with. My family and most of my friends know. And, fortunately they only asked questions in the beginning and that was regarding the procedure and if I was comfortable that I could remain healthy over the long term. This was my explanation to them: I have done my research for the last couple years and I don't want the by-pass or lap-band, however for about a year I was researching the lap-band and going back and forth on whether I would do it or not, liking that it was reversible. Not liking the re-routing of the RYN. But, then I accidentally happened upon the Sleeve and was at first freaked that they remove that much of the stomach, but it made sense to allow that restriction, since this is one of the main issues....too much food. I struggled with "Am I crazy to have them remove part of my body in order to win this battle?" But, eventually I came to the realization that I am trying to overcome my diabetes, high blood pressure, weight, over working my other body parts carrying the weight and become healthy overall. The Sleeve would allow me to do this. And......everyday doctors are removing parts of peoples bodies to improve their health situation.....gall bladder, appendix, etc. After that the questions were pretty much gone and they left it alone. My 16 year old daughter is funny, normally she allows me to fix her dinner and such, but since I started my Pre-Op she has insisted every night that she is good and can do it herself. How sweet that she is silently supporting me and understanding that fixing her food might tempt me! I will be praying that your approval comes fast and that your friends become tongue tied! LOL

Yeah!! Amen!! Thank you for posting this!!

I would have been pissed too! Make sure you set up all your future appointments accordingly so you don't have to go through this again. He should have believed you because your PCOS must be in his charts, but also understand a lot of patients lie, so they are incredulous. Once at your pre-op weight, if I was you, I would have a brief , nice but direct talk with him/her. It will benefit you greatly if he knows you are committed, so this doesn't happen again. Remember you will seeing this surgeon for a few years! Something along the lines of "I want to let you know I am very committed and serious about this surgery. Last time I reminded you I have PCOS and had my period so I gained X number of pounds and you didn't seem to believe me. I know some patients lie so that made you incredulous but I want to make sure you know I am not one of them. I am committed and I will follow your rules but I am going to need your understanding once in a while." I would then smile.

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!!!

you will show him! dont stress about it. I do the same thing with my tom!

Oh Lyra, We must be twins that were seperated at birth! You describe so perfectly my feelings about food! It has always been my BFF. Hey! Kathy, are you stressed out? Go whip up a batch of cookies and eat five or 10 of them (after eating at least 5 or 6 raw ones!). Hey Kathy, are you feeling nervous over something? Why don't you fix a huge meal, invite all your friends/family and pig out on Beef Wellington, Twice Baked Potatoes, Broccoli with cheese sauce, Asparagus with Browned Bitter and Cracker Crumbs, Creme Brulee, and a couple of wines to match each course. Poor Kathy, did you have a fight with the hubbie, you should make yourself a cheese cake from scratch and eat half of it while sobbing in front of the TV while watching your favorite chick flick. Etc., Etc., Etc....... And of course the praise and recognition I get from all our friends and family because I am a good cook/baker (or so they say) just makes me feel so much better about myself, until I get on the scale (well pre op anyway). I have been having a REAL struggle with emotional eating the last couple of weeks, cause my husband and I have been having some problems. in our marriage So I am making horrible choices about what I eat. It is constantly on my mind right now, how soon can I eat again? What can I eat? What am I hungry for? Oh the stress and pressure! And the thing that I really don't understand is, when I KNOW all this, why I can't get control of it!!! Of course, I knew all of this pre-op also, and couldn't get control then either! Such a puzzle! But now at least I can't go too far over the edge, as my sleevie stops me when I get full, and starts to protest LOUDLY (with pain) when I continue to eat after I am full. I just don't want to take any chance of stretching out my pouch/sleeve with overeating and start to gain weight. I have done so well up to now. (Have lost around 100 pounds! Only 8 pounds from goal!) And now the emotional eating thing kicks into high gear! Oh the frustration of it all. I am SO thankful for this board and web site, so I have somewhere to come to read, vent, question, talk, and get answers. Thanks to all for everything!!! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)