My First Post ~ no longer a lurker

[Dee Dee 3]

I have been lurking here for a while and it's time to jump in and introduce myself.

I started the journey in November of 2010 when I attended a meeting on the various WLS. I had been hearing a lot about the lap band and wanted more information. I had seen a friend who had lap band and lost a huge amount of weight. (unfortunately he has since gained most of it back.

After doing a lot of research I soon learned the lap band was not for me. I then started researching the vertical sleeve. This forum has been incredible in helping me make the decision. I wanted to hear the good, the bad and the ugly and it is all here on this forum.

I am much older than most on this forum. I am 64 but I have always felt much younger than my age that is until May 2010 when I found out I had 3 blockages in my heart. A stent has taken care of the two bad blockages and medications are helping the 3rd blockage. I have carried my excess weight pretty well for several years but now I am getting tired of it and I feel like I am carrying around an extra person and it isn't as easy to do anymore. At this stage of life I feel like I am facing two obstacles one is my age and the other is my weight. I cannot do anything about the number of Birthdays I have but I can do something about all of this weight that is dragging me down. BTW through the years I have tried "everything" to lose the weight and always gained back more than I lost.

My Dr has discussed my weight problems each year at my yearly physical and every year I leave positive this would be the year I could do it. This is basically my last chance to make a change.

When I first started this last November 2010 I thought my insurance would cover this but I learned in May it will not. That was probably the most dissapointing day in my life. Then I put it in prospective and though funeral or WLS? which are about the same price these days so I chose to make it happen.

My Dr and my cardiolosgist are behind me 100% and feel I will do just fine and this will really help me. So I am going to Dr Hoehn in the Kansas City area.

I have gone to the nutritionist, the psych eval, egd and everything else that is required. I have my second appointment with Dr. Hoehn on Monday, have blood work and chest xray at the hospital and also get the results of my psych eval all on Monday. Then the big day of surgery is next Wednesday July 20th!!!!

I am on my 2nd day of preop diet. I only have to do it a week. I am feeling tired all the time. I keep thinking about food. I have discovered I hate beef broth. I bought the Protein powder at Walmart and it is surprisingly ok. Sometimes I mix it with skim milk and sometime Water. I have the sf Jello and crystal light for my Water. I have discovered if I have the shake, sf Jello and broth I can fill up and then keep the water with crystal light close by. Not good to wait until I get hungry.

This last week I finally told my siblings and husbands family what I am doing. Husbands family took it well and were encouraging. My family had the "worried look" which is normal. I had thought about not telling them until it was over but then I would want to know if they were doing this. I have a close friend I haven't told as I mentioned it to her last winter and she said NO you don't ever want to do that because so and so did it and it was just horrible. Of course this was many, many years ago. So I have chose not to tell her until it is over and I am still alive and well. That will save us both a lot of stress.

My husband is very supportive. He just wants me healthy.

I am 5' tall and weighed 200 pounds when I went to see Dr Hoehn a few weeks ago. That is the most I have ever weighed.

I am naturally nervous about this but also very excited to start this new journey of my life.

I have put my picture on here and would like to know how to put the weight tracker, etc on.

[sugarmamma7 2]

Good luck to you sweetie. You should be proud of yourself for all that you have accomplished. I wish my mom would have the surgery she is 64. Good luck on your journey.

[Dee Dee 3]

oops! My surgery date is next Wednesday July 20th not May 20th. I changed it.

[FlyGirl 18]

Hi Dee Dee, I'm glad you decided to share your story. The support and all the information you get from this site is so helpful!

Some other people use other ones, I use tickerfactory.com for my weight loss ticker. Just go there to set up login/password and you chose your style of ticker and what you want it to display (lbs lost, bmi, waist size... etc.) Then once you creat it copy and paste the code it gives you and put it on your profile by going to...

-My settings

-Click on "profile" tab

-Change signature

Then paste the link from tickerfactory in the edit signature box. (they usually have 2 links to pick from, just chose one link an if it doesnt' work, try the other link.

You can also type any information like dates, starting weight, ect. If you want.

-Then click "save changes"

When you want to change your ticker just go back to you tickerfactory site and log in, once you make changes in there and press save, the next time you go to your profile it shoud be there, if not try refreashing you page.

Does all that make sense? I'm half asleep right now! it's like 335am.... lol

Good Luck on your BIG day!!!!!!!!!!

You can do it, just remember walk, walk, walk. ALOT, and drink drink drink! For me warn mint tea, and powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury chicken Soup and popscicles and very mportant, Proteins, and taking your Vitamins.. I couldn't take mine until about 4 week out because the made me puke and hurt to swallow

Please keep us updated!! Good Luck!! Smile