LisaS73

My name is Lisa. I heard about this group from a video blog I watched on YouTube documenting a persons journey through the gastric sleeve surgery. I have considered having surgery for probably ten years now but kept rejecting the idea because of fear of complications/death and I believed it meant admitting failure on my part for not being able to get the weight off myself. However, now my health is really being affected and I have no choice, if I want to live I have to get it off and keep it off. I would like to be here for my children and someday grand children and even great grand children!!
 
Last year I moved to a new place and the nurse practitioner at my new doctors office was having the sleeve done and referred me to her surgeon, which put me more at ease for some reason. Her encouragement just made all the difference for me to finally make my decision. She eased my mind about all the complications I was afraid of and helped me to determine which surgery option would be best for me. It still took me 3 months to get in to see the surgeon because I kept rescheduling a few days before my consultation (I did this four times) until my husband finally reminded me they weren't going to do surgery on me at the consultation and just going to talk to them and get my questions answered would not hurt. So I went. That was April 15, 2015.
 
The surgeon was so awesome. I was so glad I went. And since then I have began the ridiculously long list of requirements by my insurance before they can send off for my approval. But I have finally finished them all I think, and assuming they have all turned in the results to the doctor, I am hoping they will tell me at my appointment this week that I am ready to be sent off for approval. I have no idea how long that takes but I have no complaints about it taking awhile because it is giving me time to mentally prepare. I am an information person so as much information as I can get about the surgery and the lifestyle afterwards, the better I will feel about it. And while my surgeons office offers a ton of support, this kind of group type forum is the only thing they lack so I thought I would check it out. I am hoping to just be able to learn about people's experiences and get any kind of advice about things that worked well for them or how they dealt with things as they come up. Because I realize as much as I would like to, I will not be able to perfectly plan ahead every single detail. But I am sure going to try!
 
Thank you for allowing me to join this group!