How I came to this decision

Many people have asked how come I am having the surgery. Well, there are many answers and reasons to this. For the last couple of years my Primary Care Doctor has mentioned it as an option. Weight has always been a struggle - for as long as I can remember. I spent much of my childhood on diets, seeing nutritionists, metabolic testing, you name - i've done it. After finding out that metabolically I am "normal" and trying everything from eating more, to eating less, to no carbs, to no sugar, to weight watchers, to LA Weightloss... no doctor could explain why I struggled with losing weight - i couldn't seem to lose more than 70 pounds ever. Whenever gastric bypass was brought up - i always said - I am too young, never doing that - surgery means I am weak. But then I got to experience someone going through the process pretty upclose and personal when my co-workers husband had it done 2 years ago. It was amazing! I also realized it doesn't mean I am weak - actually the opposite - one needs great strength and courage to go through this - as I am very much finding out right now.

In January, Tim (my co-workers husband) and I were talking and I mentioned that i was curious about it and that it had been on my mind a lot. So one cold Tuesday night, Tim and I drove into Boston to go to an information session at Brigham and Women's Hospital. I didn't tell anyone except Tim (and his wife) that I was going. I left there feeling 2 very different emotions - excitement and discouraged. I really felt like gastric bypass was something for me, but then I found out i have the health insurance which is hardest to be approved by. So I went home and prayed a lot about it and decided that it's will be at least a 6 month process before I were to be approved and decided that I would just begin the process and decide later. I had to enter into a 6 month program called "I can change" through Tufts Healthplan. Which really was a waste of my time. I got a call from a "health coach" every 3 weeks basically who just checked in. Sadly however I found out that if I lost anymore than 5 pounds - Tufts wouldn't approve me - I could gain as much weight as possible - but couldn't lose more than 5 pounds. Silly I tell ya! Anyways, I made it through those 6 months - luckily my health coach, Sarah was very sweet and I actually did enjoy talking to her. Sarah told me at my last call that Tufts typically only approves 1 out of every 75 people for gastric bypass - so I really didn't have my hopes up. Sarah put my paperwork in and within 10 days I got notified that I was approved for surgery and could continue forward with my surgeon. I called my surgeons office and they set me up with the pre-evaluations - psych, nutrition, surgeon - and off I went. After I passed the psych testing (yes I was deemed sane!!) I was given a surgery date - October 27th at 11:00 AM. That's when the nerves set in. Since then I have had a few more appointments - many with the dietitian to talk about the pre and post diet and here we are 17 days until surgery! I am nervous, excited, anxious, and a few more emotions that come up every now and then. Every day is different - I have good days and bad days when it comes to thinking about what I am about to undergo... but in the end - I am really excited about what's to come!