How to reassure my kids?

[Judymday 9]

My 9 year old son is scared I'm going to die! I talked to him about the safety of the surgery and the benefits of a new FIT mommy but he said he loves me just the way I am. ???? I'm a lower BMI & have a lot of family history of obesity related co morbidities. I can and do still do bike riding & active things with him. However, my mom can hardly walk at 65 & I don't want to end up there! Any suggestions for what to say to reassure him??

[Pixie Dust 526]

That's a tough one....I'd be in the same boat, if I told my children. I chose not to tell either one of my children exactly for this reason. They also watched a program with me about a 693 lb woman who had bariatric surgery & died within a month of complications. The last thing I'd do now is tell them but I have told my oldest son (17) that I'm having "hernia surgery." My 11 y/o son is autistic so I'm not going to worry him so far in advance (still have no surgery date) but I will tell him of the "hernia surgery" maybe just a few days prior to my sleeve surgery.

With all that said, if my children DID find out in advance of my surgery plans, I was going to approach it with before & after pics of the wonderful people on this site that have shared their photo's with us. This way it's "visual" proof that not only did they not die from surgery but that they all looked so healthy in their "after" pics. We've learned to do a lot of visuals in my household due to my son. So that would be my suggestion, especially being that he's so young still. Pics might do the trick! Good luck to you! I'll be anxious to see what some other responses are!