beccaconaty87

I just have a question. My hair is super long and it's the one thing that I love most about my appearance. I keep reading about people loosing their hair with gastric bypass Is this a common side effect? Does it happen to everyone who has gastric bypass?

I guess I will start off by telling you a little about myself. I am a mother of three beautiful children. They are aged 8, 7, & 5. My struggle with weight gain came after having my first child. With my first child I gained about 15 pounds. Not too bad. But when my second child came I got preeclampsia. U swelled up and retained a bunch of water. I gained 100 pounds during that pregnancy. Then 13 months after that pregnancy I got pregnant again. So the weight just kept piling on top of weight. My weight before my first pregnancy was a hundred and fifty pounds I am now topping the scales at 324 pound. Throughout my pregnancies and weight gain I developed a few medical conditions. I have fibromyalgia, GERD, and PCOS. The doctor has tried to put me on several medications. I was told that metformin would help with the PCOS and help me with weight loss. However taking it for a couple weeks I developed major headaches. I felt sick all the time. So I stopped taking it. I tried losing weight on my own going to the gym and eating healthy. I would lose about 20 pounds and then couldn't lose anymore. If I could do it on my own I would but I feel that I can't. No matter how hard I try I'm not going to achieve losing almost 180 pounds. Gosh it's mind-boggling just to think about how much I have to lose. I am only 27 years old. I want to get healthy and I want to lose the weight. I'm tired of feeling like I'm walking around in a fat suit. But the thing is I can't take it off at the end of the day it's always with me. I'm tired of laying around in bed all day watching TV and stuffing my face. I'm tired of not getting out and enjoying my kids. I'm tired of feeling like I'm an embarrassment to my kids when taking them to school functions or being out in public. Now my 8 year old daughter who should weigh about 70 pounds weighs a hundred and ten pounds. I worry about her every day. I don't want her to feel the way I feel and I don't want her to be bullied or made fun of. I know I need to do the weight loss surgery but I'm so scared. What if I don't lose the weight? what if die? What if I get a serious blood clot? What if I get too skinny and unhealthy that I look sick? What if I can't enjoy the holidays and my grandmas awesome cooking because everything makes me sick? Then I'm faced with the question do I do the gastric bypass or do I do the sleeve? I've heard the pros and cons of both. I thought I was set on gastric bypass but after having a support group meeting I started to question whether or not the sleeve would be a good idea. I need help. Which one do I do? Am I going to be safe? Am I going to come out alive? Are my kids going to have a mother? Am I going to be sicker after the surgery than before the surgery? Or is god going to watch over me in every step that I take and everything will end up perfect? Will I be healthy? Will I lose the weight? Will I be able to enjoy my life again? So many questions please help. All advice is welcome.

Parisshel if you don't mind me asking what was the complications?

Gosh I can name a lot of food I ate as a kids that were unhealthy. I remember my mom always making enchiladas with extra extra extra extra cheese I mean like two blocks of cheese. I remember her letting us go to the store and get candy all the time. I don't know if you all remember but those little candies that you squirt the pure sugar in your mouth. Or how about the fun dip. Now that's got to be good for you. Oh and don't forget the Slurpees out of the machines that come in a hundred different flavors. Kool Aid just cuz it's made with water doesn't mean it's good after u after a couple cups of sugar are put in it. My grandma always had dinner like it was Thanksgiving. We always had homemade bread tons of sides mashed potatoes you name it it was on that table. I went into my kids doctor office a few months back and I saw something that was disturbimg. So I usually would go to the store and get two of the 1.5 liters of Pepsi that were on sale. If it was a hot day I could drink it probably in 30 minutes. well I saw @ the doctors office they have these empty pepsi bottles, the one that I drink, but they were full of how much sugar is in them. Half the Bottle was filled up with sugar. It turned my stomach. I swear I could have ran to the bathroom and thrown up.You really don't think about this stuff when you're eating it or when you're drinking it. Its not unless you're tracking what you're eating and looking at the calories in the nutrition in it that you realize just how bad it is for you. That's why it's so important to be food journaling. Then you actually pay attention to what it is that you put in your body. I was at a seminar with Dr Korn who is the weight loss doctor here in my town. He was talking about how if you ate three bites of a quarter pounder with cheese it had 800 or so calories in it. I couldn't believe it. It just kind of turned your stomach and you feel disgusted when you hear just how bad things are for you.

Angela Williams it's nice to be able to relate to somebody. I wondered if there was anybody that was young they did surgery. Part of me felt like maybe I was too young to be doing it. But my doctor said that it's better than I'm doing it young. He says I'll have a greater success rate and recovery will be easier for me. Plus I see everybody saying that they wish they would have done it sooner. So I guess thats my sign right now is a good time to do it. Plus I know in my heart it's a good time to do it.

Cowgirljane I slightly disagree I think that the family all does need to change. I don't think I need to be making 3 meals just to meet everybody's needs. I'm not going to make my wife one meal my kids chicken nuggets and french fries and then me a healthy dinner. Everybody's going to eat the same things. I had talked to doctor korn about this, about how it's going to be a struggle to make food for everybody else and then make something separate for me. It's expensive and it takes a lot more time. The doctor said that's not how it should work. He said that everybody needs to get on board and everybody needs to eat healthy. Its not a diet its life changing, its deciding to make healthier choices. I don't in anyway look at this as a diet. I will never let my daughter feel insecure, overweight, or like she needs to go on a diet. However I will encourage her to eat healthy to be more active, because I don't ever want to see her in the position I'm in. I don't want her to go through school being bullied. Now on the other hand if my wife or my kids want to have a special treat here or there or go out to dinner or fast food or what not then that's okay that's their choice. I'm not going to make them have to follow the same rules that I'm following. I'm just saying that when I'm cooking I'm going to be cooking healthy and we are going to try to get active together as a family.

Thank u jane. This is process is definitely going to be a change for the whole family. Everyones going to have to start eating healthy and exercising more.

I didn't know that thanks for the info James

Letitbeales9- thank u so much for your post and advice. I will take everything into consideration.

Pink dahlia thank u for your wonderful advice. I do need to start looking at all the pisitves of wls instead of the negatives. I want to be able to enjoy my kids when they are young so I think right now is the perfect time in my life to have wls. Also we have a Disney land trip planned two year from now and I would love to be able to ride the rides with my kids

Thank you for responding to my post. Every time I get good feedback it makes my decision that much easier. My insurance company has already approved the surgery and I'm scheduled for February. That gives me plenty of time to get my head in the right mindset. I'm also going to do some counseling to help me prepare for this life changing experience.