New here - surgery 6/18

[mrshall617 10]

Hi all - I'm new to the group and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Michelle, I'm 47, live outside Philly, married, no kids. I'm only 5'1" and I started at 241 lbs so my BMI is a little over 46. According to the charts I need to lose about 130 lbs but I'll be happy with 90. Although reading the boards I may be able to achieve the 130! I'm in the middle of my pre-op liquid diet, my Dr only has me doing 1 week. I'm thankful as I noticed some people have to do a lot longer than that! I'm already down 9 lbs in 4 days I didn't grow up heavy but started gaining weight during my first marriage as a young adult and have yo-yo'd my entire adult life. I never really considered WLS as an option, not seriously, until I went to a new pcp in Feb of this year. She suggested that I look into it at my first visit. I gave WW one last shot and was as successful as I had been on my last 30 attempts (obviously not at all!) so I went to the information session for the bariatric practice that I've chosen and liked what I had to hear. That was at the end of March. I had all of my pre-op testing done in April - bloodwork, ekg, chest xray, abdominal ultrasound (which showed a gallstone - so I'm also having my gallbladder removed during surgery), blood gas test, psych eval (15 mins, really?), 1 nutrition session. Had my consultation with the surgeon on May 2nd. Endoscopy/Colonsocopy mid May. Then I was approved for surgery and scheduled for 6/18! It all seemed to happen so fast! After reading what many people have to go through for approval I realize that I'm lucky. My insurance doesn't require me to go through a lot of hoops or red tape - they just require my BMI to be over 40 and for the surgeon to say that it's medically necessary. All of the testing was for the surgeon.

Anyway - here I am - in the middle of my pre-op liquid diet, just counting the days till surgery and the start of my new life. I pour through the before and after stories on here. They are so inspirational and encouraging to me! I hope to be that for someone else someday

My husband is very supportive of my having the surgery. I met him when I was heavy but not as heavy as I am now. He loves me no matter what size I am. He's actually doing the liquid diet with me to show solidarity He needs to lose about 30 - 40 lbs himself so he figures it'll help jump start him anyway.

I'm happy to be here and to get to know everyone!

[queenie47 45]

Welcome! My surgery is June 20th. The whole procedure went fast for me to and I am glad. I cant wait to get started with my new life! I have been soaking up all of the information on here like a sponge!