Ready2BDone

I am trying to get this surgery and I am 25. I have seen younger people post on here before! It's not for older people!

You were beautiful before, and even more beautiful after! You really worked that sleeve. You are a huge inspiration to me, and I'm green with envy.

Aww did you let your nice looking friend hold your fish in the 3rd and 4th pics?

My favorite is the 5th pic down. She is beautiful! Congratulations!!

I have been trying to get everything straightened out for the surgery. I keep getting the run around from my surgeon's office. I went in for some pre-op testing on August 26, and haven't heard anymore from them since then. I keep talking about how my friend keeps asking me to go walking with her, but I have had lots of knee pain lately, so I tell her no. I mentioned something about it at work, and my boss just keeps telling me that if I lose weight my knees won't hurt me anymore... well duh! But you have to be able to exercise without hurting too much in order to lose weight! She just thinks I am trying to get the surgery as an easy way out. But I know better! It's definitely not an easy way out, but I know I can't do it on my own. I am just frustrated. I want to hear from the surgeon's office, and I want to get this over with! I want people to be happy for me and I want to be happy! Things just aren't happening fast enough for me. UGH!!

Pasquini, lookin pretty hot!

I am currently 5'9" and 330lbs. Waiting to hear from surgeon's office. But at least you aren't alone!

I can't wait until the day that I shower and the only fat rolls I have to worry about cleaning under are my boobs.

I actually watched a video of all of the three surgeries that my surgeon offers at the first seminar I attended. I was fascinated, but other people in the class seemed disgusted or acted like they were going to be sick.

I am on this site EVERY single day now. It is my new addiction. I haven't even had the surgery yet, but everyone on here is so inspirational. I love reading all of the stories and posts. I learn a lot from each and every one of you. I especially love reading the NSV stories!! Thank you all!

During the year of 2010 I started to pay a lot of attention to one of my customers that comes into the bank I work for. She had the gastric bypass surgery done. Her and I were/are about the same size in pants. She looks amazing right now from a size 24 down to a size 10. She has been a big inspiration to me. My oldest sister had the gastric bypass surgery back in 2000, then she had a revision, hernia, and tummy tuck all at once in 2002. Although she had the surgery, she hasn't kept the weight off. She was almost 500lbs and once she got down to a size 18 in pants, she didn't look healthy at all. She is now in a size 24 again, but she says she is happy. With that being said, my sister is a good person that I can turn to for support. Not because she has gained weight back, but because she has been there and done that. I have watched her go through her journey with the WLS and I have a good idea of what to expect. From watching the two of them and seeing their outcomes, it made me think "what if?" So I kept telling them that once I got insurance (I am 24 years old, and I have never had insurance of my own) that I would start to see my doctor and start my journey. After the first of the year, I made an appointment with my doctor for January 12. I went in and talked to him, and from reading posts I learned that I needed to put weight loss down for the reason for my visit and I did. I had my sister go with me so we could both talk to him together, since he is also her doctor. He told me to basically watch what I eat and exercise...well duh I know that! So we left and I pretty much didn't get anything out of that appointment with him. Then I made a 2nd appointment with him in March. This is when I told him that I wasn't getting anywhere, because he really didn't ask me to follow up with him. At the time I was really into walking, my normal walk was 2.5 miles around my town. I love walking. So after the 2nd appointment, he put me on a 1200-1500 calorie a day diet, plus keep walking. I really tried hard to keep with this diet, and I kept fluctuating with my weight no matter what I did. I kept going from 312lbs-329lbs. He asked me to just come in and weigh the following month, so I did. Then I heard nothing more after that. I have had a lot of different problems this year, Healthwise. I had three of my wisdom teeth pulled(the 4th was pulled a year prior), and one of the teeth had to be surgically removed, I had gotten shingles, then shortly after that I had a mole removed from my back which required 2 stitches (never had stitches before). I have been going to a prompt care because it isn't convenient to see my regular doctor because of my work schedule. So I have seen the prompt care doctor a lot. I then went back to him because two years ago I was at work and I fell on my knee. I didn't think it was a big deal, I scraped up my knee a little and it was bleeding some. It wasn't until I bent down to get some coin out of my coint vault at work that same day that my knee popped really loud. It was the worst pain I had ever felt. With my weight my knee hurts a lot more than it should. So here I am two years later and I finally went to see the doctor about it. He sent me to the hospital for x-rays (this was because I was too heavy for their x-ray table in the office). It turns out that all I have is Fluid on my knee which is causing all of the pain. I have been on Tylenol with Codeine for about 5 months. I made an appointment for the orthopaedic surgeon, but I had to cancel due to my work schedule. Let me tell you, it is VERY hard to take time off from a bank!! They couldn't get me in while I was on vacation because the doctor was booked. So I cancelled the appointment and tried to make a new one. Now here I am, this was in June and now it's September and I have an appointment Monday!! So anyway, doctor told me to not go to the ortho surgeon because my knee pain is because of my weight. I basically made the decision myself to go ahead and go because 1. I don't want to get addicted to a controlled substance and 2. I don't want to have to wait until next year to be smaller and not have to worry about my knee. During one of the many many appointments I went to, the doctor put me on phentermine (diet pill) because he said the surgery was too extreme, and there was no reason for my weight. I told him that I knew that and that was why I was trying to get the surgery. I later found out that the diet pill caused shortness of breath, so I instantly stopped taking it. All that time I thought that the gastric bypass was the way to go for me. I hadn't heard of any success stories from anyone about any other surgeries. So when I went to my visit with Dr. Salimath at the Methodist weight loss and surgery center in Peoria, Illinois, he told me that since I still want to be able to have children in the future that the sleeve was for me. I had waited for a very long time for the surgeons office to call me to let me know my next step. So I finally got a call August 22 to go and have my testing done. Mind you I still haven't completed my 6 months of pre-op supervised diet. I spoke to the prompt care doctor about my 6 months supervised diet, and he said that since he prescribed me a diet pill, and we talked about weight loss for those two months, that would count toward my 6 months. Which I hope he is right. He also told me that when my regular doctor referred me to the surgeon would count too. But I have another appointment with the doctor on October 24 to talk about weight loss. If my calculations are right, then I have 3 months of the 6 that I need. I just feel like this is all too good to be true! I keep reading everyone's blogs on here and I am so anxious! I really hope that the doctor is right and I am already half way there. My downfall right now is that I have to come up with $420 for the nutritionist, dietician, and exercise specialist out of pocket because insurance will not cover it. When I went for the testing, I did an ultrasound, I drank barium which I believe was the Upper GI test, and I did a chest x-ray. But while I was preparing for the Upper GI I mentioned that I hadn't even started my 6 months diet yet, so I was pretty sure that I didn't need all of my testing done yet. So they called the surgeons office and I didn't get the EKG or blood work done. I haven't heard anything about any results yet from those tests that I did, so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. So, tomorrow is my ortho surgeon appointment and I hope they do something to take away the pain which will in turn take away the meds! I don't want to have to keep taking these meds anymore!!

My brother in-law is a tattoo artist. So I have let him experiment on me. I have 3 tattoos, and I am scared that once I get the surgery, they will soon be deformed. I have a heart with wings with my dad's intials in the heart on my right ankle. I have the Good Luck Care Bear (the one with a clover on it's tummy) on my upper back, in between my shoulder blades, and on my right shoulder blade I have the Japanese meaning for sister and relationship. Anyone else have this?

I can't wait to shop for smaller clothes. I can't wait for my asthma to hopefully get better. I want my knee pain to go away. I can't wait to be healthy. I am really looking forward to exercise!!

I haven't actually had the surgery yet, but I have been reading lots of posts. At one point someone else had a similar issue with feeling hungry and someone told them that they may feel that way for a while because it takes time for your body to adjust to having the smaller stomach.

I am 25 years old, 5 feet nine inches tall, and I weigh 330lbs. I am in a size 24 pants. I look at myself all of the time and am just disgusted with the way that I look anymore. It brings me up when people tell me that something I am wearing is cute, but then I think to myself, "It would look even cuter if I didn't have rolls hanging out." I know people say big women (or men) are beautiful, but I beg to differ. Yes there are other beautiful women that are big, and they can look amazing, but I don't feel that I am one of them. I am sick of going into a bathroom stall and having to practically straddle the toilet to be able to close the door. I am sick of going to amusement parks with my family, and when my nephew asks me to go on certain rides with him, I tell him no, not because I don't want to, but because I am scared of being embarrassed that I won't fit. I am sick of not being comfortable when I sit in certain chairs because the arms of the chair dig into my sides. I am sick of having to pay a lot of money for clothes, when I really don't get a huge selection to choose from. I have a sore knee, and when I went to my doctor, he told me that the pain would go away if I lost weight. I hate going to the doctor to have my blood pressure taken and they have to use the larger cuff around my arm because the smaller one doesn't fit. When I fly on an airplane I don't want to have to make the seatbelt the biggest it will go, and still fear that I may have to ask for an extender. I want to be able to go to a baseball game and sit comfortably next to someone else without having to cross my arms over my chest so that we all have enough arm room. My doctor told me back in January that I am definitely a candidate for WLS. So he referred me to the surgeon's office. I called the surgeon's office and got the list of seminars in the mail. I attended a seminar, and then I was told that I could make an appointment to go see the surgeon. On May 18th, I saw the surgeon, and he suggested that since I still want to have children in the future that the sleeve is the way to go. Since speaking to the surgeon I was waiting months for a call from them to set up appointments for pre-op testing. No one really told me about going back to see the doctor for my required 6 monthly visits. I then went for SOME of the pre-op testing. And by some I mean that I had an ultra-sound, chest x-rays, and I had to drink barium. But I asked one of the ladies that was doing the testing if I was really supposed to be there, because like I said before, I hadn't seen a doctor regularly to even try to start the 6 months supervised diet. They then called the surgeons office, and I ended up not doing the EKG or the blood work. I will have to do that later. But if the surgeon's office knows all of this information then why did they schedule me to go? I still haven't heard anymore about my tests, but it was two weeks ago. I am really frustrated, because I know this is a long process, but it seems like with me it is taking extra long. I am really looking forward to doing the exact opposite of all of the things I mentioned before. I haven't been buying new clothes, because I feel it is pointless to spend all of the money on something new and I won't be able to wear it for very long. Although my mom and sister are excited for me to have the surgery because they will get all of my hand-me downs. They are also happy for me because they want me to be healthy. I am extremely excited and I can't wait until my surgery, but I feel like the process needs to go faster!!! To me it sounds like they are trying to tell me that I can't start the 6 month process until I start seeing the exercise specialist, dietician, and nutritionist. But I have heard otherwise. If anyone has any input on any of the information I have mentioned just let me know. I am not all emotional about this, yet. I am just trying to put down everything that is going through my mind right now. I love to talk about this and read what everyone has to say.

I am sick of going to my regular PCP and having these skinny girls that weigh me. I then feel like an idiot because deep down I know they are judging me.

Does anyone have the BCBS of IL PPO? I am really confused with this whole process. I met with my surgeon back in May. Then he told me that he wouldn't see me until one month before surgery. His office already had me do some testing, but it's my understanding that I am required to do the 6 months medically supervised diet. Can someone clarify this for me?

My sister had the gastric bypass surgery back in 2000. Then in 2002, she had a revision, tummy tuck, and hernia repair surgery all in one. She was almost 500lbs when she had the surgery. I do know that she has a larger bone structure, and once she got down to 190lbs she really looked like she was sick. She looked like all skin and bones and did not look healthy. This is something that I am really worried about. I am 5'9" 330lbs, and my goal is to get down to about a size 10 in pants. I am afraid that I will have the same problem she did. She was wearing a size 18 in pants when she was that size. Unfortunately, she has had some stressful events happen in her life since the surgery, and now her and I can wear the same clothes. She finds it somewhat depressing that her and I are the same size, she's happy at her size now, and I want to change. Any input on this? It would really help!!

I can't wait to shop anywhere but Lane Bryant. They are so expensive, and you only buy like two things and spend $100. I can't wait to be able to shop in regular sized clothes!!

I FINALLY got my appointment to get all of my pre-op testing done. It will take place this Friday morning. I am really worried about getting the surgery and missing work. I get two weeks of vacation time, and 48 hours of personal time. I am really worried that when I do finally have the surgery, that I will have to miss more than that. Can anyone give me an estimate on how long you had to take off of work. P.S. I don't have a good pain tolerance, if this helps any!

Thank you all for your input! I was actually told by my supervisor that since it is considered an elective surgery I am not eligible for the FMLA. But with vacation time that I have, and accumulated personal time, I am sure if I need it I can use it.

I am on the verge of trying to get the vertical sleeve gasctrectomy. I got referred to a surgeon from my doctor. I have also spoke with my surgeon back in May. I initially wanted to have to gastric bypass surgery, considering I have seen my sister go through with it, and I have a customer that comes into my job that has had it done. My sister was in a bad relationship. She was near 500lbs when she went in to have the surgery. After the surgery she got down to 190lbs, and looked awful. She had a large bone structure, so being at that weight made her look like skin and bones. My customer on the other hand looks amazing. She was in a size 24 pants, and now is in a size 10 and has maintained the same weight for quite some time. I have told her that she is my inspiration to have the surgery done. My doctor put me on a 1200 to 1500 calorie a day diet. I followed the diet, I lost 18lbs altogether. On May 18th I had an appointment to see the surgeon. Since I haven't had any children and I plan to someday, he recommended that I have the VSG instead of the gastric bypass. After the appointment with the surgeon, I was told by the nurses in the office that I would be getting a phone call within the next few weeks to schedule an appointment to have all of my testing done that I will need. Unfortunately with the dietician, nutritionist, and excerice specialist I will need to come up with $420 out of pocket since insurance will not cover those expenses. Money is tight, and I have had other obstacles along the way. I have problems with my left knee, that is causing me to not be able to exercise which I would like to do again. They said I have fluid on my knee, and I need to get it drained. Also, my surgeon's office that I originally visited closed on June 30th. So I have yet to hear anything back from them on when I can go in for the testing. If I figured it correctly I should be able to have my surgery around November or December. So with the office closing, and being rerouted to a new office, I have yet to hear anything back from anyone at all. It is really discouraging for me. I have had a lot of things happen within the past few months. I eat when I am stressed, and I have been under a lot of stress lately. The sad thing about this is that I actually got shingles because I was so stressed out. So needless to say I gained back the 18lbs that I had once lost. I am roughly 330lbs. And I am anxiously waiting for a call to come in to have my testing done. My question that I want to ask fellow VSG patients; is it unheard of to be my weight and want to be around 130lbs post op? Am I aiming too high, or in this case too low? Please someone I need advice! Preferrably something that can encourage me again!!!

Sorry I never specified. Yes I am a female. I am actually 5'9". I guess being as tall my goal may be a little too low for my height. But I don't usually talk to my friends about weight so I'm not sure what 130 would look like. My bmi is 49 right now.