Sleeved on 19/10, The story of how I decided to do it in the span of 2 weeks.

[Ray92 91]

Hello all,

I would like to share my gastric sleeve story as it is a little bit of a bizarre one, at least for me it was. It feels like I have been riding a roller coaster for the past month and now I am finally getting off.

So a little about myself, I am a graduate student living in Canada and my family lives very far from me. Like Middle East far. Anyway, a very close cousin of mine got married on the 1st of October and since I hadn't visited my extended family in over 2 years, I decided I would make the long trip out to Amman, Jordan and pay them a nice, long visit. Little did I know that I would leave a part of my stomach behind in Amman. Over the course of university my weight kept ballooning from eating all the fast food, junk food and drinking. About 6 months before my visit to Amman I received a message from my uncle asking to consider getting the gastric sleeve. I was furious at his suggestion "how could he?" I thought. It was none of his business in my mind and after a failed lap band I was completely turned off by the idea of WLS.

I think it is important for me to establish a little background about my extended family. I have a huge family and we all have a nasty habit of being able to put on tons of weight. I guess it is a combination of genetics, environment etc. and it is very inherent in the females. While we all struggled with obesity at some point, all my cousins, aunts and mother managed to eventually control their eating and drop the weight. They now all eat very healthy. Seriously I have an aunt who probably hasn't had bread in over 5 years. My uncles were also huge players in this story. I have two uncles who happen to be doctors. The first one, the one that suggested the surgery six months ago is a pediatric cardiologist and is very famous in his field in Jordan. He has an obsession with healthy heart, exercises like crazy and eats very little red meat, hence his peaked interest in me losing weight. He was worried that at some point in my life, I would start to massively suffer from hypertension, cholesterol and god forbid, a heart attack. My second uncle is an obstetric and gynecology doctor and has helped treat my PCOS over the years. In retrospect, I should have anticipated that I was going to be bombarded as soon as I arrived with health, diet and surgery advice. Now I was very open to everything they said despite the fact that I would get annoyed from time to time but at the end of the day, I know they all love me and wanted the best for me.

So I was in Jordan for my cousin's wedding. My grandma would always harass me about my weight which was NOT fun but she is old so I didn't want to offend her. In the time that I was in Jordan I ate so much food by nature of a wedding coming up and because Jordan has a lot of good food. In the mean time, my uncle the gynecologist would keep suggesting the sleeve. Now I was at first apprehensive because I was worried about long term prognosis, risks and how much it would change my life. He managed to clarify all the information for me and I was starting to think about the surgery. While still being apprehensive, he asked me to just go in for a consultation with a bariatric surgeon that he was friends with. I went to the meeting and came out feeling confused about my feelings but a little more clear about the gastric sleeve. The next thing I knew, I was going down to the hospital lab getting pre-op blood work done but I still had not made my decision. EVERYONE and I literally mean EVERYONE advised me to do it and I knew in the back of my mind I really wanted to do it. The only thing holding me back at that point was how much of a scaredy cat I was being. So finally, my uncle told me that he would watch my surgery if I wanted to. I started asking around about the surgeon and found out that he is the most famous bariatric surgeon in Jordan, if not the whole Middle East. It was common knowledge that he had performed the most procedures in the Middle East and had a stellar record. This guy was a bariatric surgery beast and would perform up to 30 procedures a day. With that knowledge in mind, I booked my surgery immediately. A week later, I was laying down in a hospital bed, sleeved and my whole family (around 15-20) of them were around me. It was like they were throwing me a party for finally taking the decision. They were cheering and singing and literally everyone was ecstatic and this made me feel even more excited and comforted by my decision. I came to Jordan to basically attend a wedding and gorge on food and ended up leaving with a life changing decision. Now a lot of are you are wondering, what about the pre op diet?!!!? Well, my pre-op blood work came back with unbelievably good results and despite my weight, I was still relatively healthy because I had been trying to control my eating habits for the past year. As such, the surgeon felt more than comfortable performing the surgery knowing I didn't have any health risks.

So I just wanted to write this post and share my story as well as say Thank you. Thank you to my very large, loud family who in a way cared more about my health than I did. And also thank you to the amazing surgeon who did my surgery. He is a very kind, helpful doctor who answered all my questions and gave me all his contact info so I can ask him ANYTHING once I left Jordan.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Ray92

[blueEyez22 16]

Good luck great story

[whisper43 45]

Did you not have to do a pre-op diet?

[Ray92 91]

@@whisper43 Nope and I am now 11 days post op and I am completely fine. It varies from surgeon to surgeon and you also have to consider different health situations and body types. So while I was able to do the surgery without a pre-op diet, others may not be able to.

[The Candidate 3,215]

That's definitely weight loss surgery on the fast track. One thing you definitely don't have to worry about is a support system, as you have that in spades. I'm happy for you and best of wishes for your sleeved future!

[Ray92 91]

@ Thank you for the nice message! I fortunately do have a lot of support and I feel very grateful. The one thing I would just like to say is that I am not sure that fast track WLS is a brilliant idea. While I had the idea planted about 6 months in advance and took the leap with a fairly made up mind, I do feel like I didn't give myself enough time to process the complete lifestyle change that I have to adapt to as of after the surgery. Thankfully, due to my support system as well as the help of this site, I am settling in well. The only thing is that it is a major lifestyle change and if you are a food addict like me and also used food as an emotional crutch in life, the sudden loss of all of it can be very uncomfortable. Now I am 11 days out and I am slowly getting over my food addiction.

[The Candidate 3,215]

Yes, you did miss out on the information and adjustment period as a pre op. But it will get better day by day. Do as much research as you can.

I'm three months out from my RNY and I had to go through a year of requirements. So by the time I got to surgery I was well prepared. However you got there, you will determine your overall success.

Just stick to the guidelines you were given as to diet and exercise and you will do fine! I have no regrets and I'm sure you won't either!

[fefemanz 2]

This is crazy - I had the exact same story and did my op in Amman with Dr Khrais on the 21st. Only down side is I didn't have anyone with me and felt kinda alone in this.

Hope you're feeling better now, and that you're starting to see the difference like I am!

*hugs*

[Ray92 91]

This is crazy - I had the exact same story and did my op in Amman with Dr Khrais on the 21st. Only down side is I didn't have anyone with me and felt kinda alone in this.

Hope you're feeling better now, and that you're starting to see the difference like I am!

*hugs*

omg crazy!! I did it with Dr. Khrais as well. He seems to be very popular in Amman. I hope you are feeling better too. Please feel free to pm me! Maybe we can stay in touch and exchange thoughts and ideas since we are in the same region, same surgeon, same cuisine.