It’s been three days since I had Vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery (VSG).
I suppose I should have started this blog when I first started my VSG journey back in September 2017. The most common question people ask me is simply, “why?” There are too many reasons as to why. I’ve always heard that weight loss surgery (WLS) was taking the easy way out. In going through the classes to prepare for this, there is nothing easy about WLS. Nothing.
I know exactly when my turning point was. This past summer a friend and I had planned a trip. When I got on the plane ready for our adventure, I couldn’t get the seat belt fastened. It wouldn’t fit!! I had to ask the mortifying question to the flight attendant…”Do you have a seat belt extender?” By the fourth flight I knew I had to make some changes.
So in August when I was back from my trip I contacted my primary care physician (PCP) and asked to be referred to the Bariatric program. By September I had attended the initial workshop which I think is designed to weed out those who aren’t ready for such a lifestyle change. I was 279 lbs. I couldn’t believe I had let myself go. I had gotten to this weight in the blink of an eye it seemed like.
My life before pursing WLS was pretty care free. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I drank beer, a lot of beer. Although this had tapered down a bit since the previous year.
The beginning stages of pursuing WLS was to cut out all alcohol, caffeine, limit carb intake and sugars. It was a huge sacrifice. Was I ready? Absolutely.
My first meeting with my surgeon was to get my first goal weight. This was the weight I had to reach in order to go further into the program. The surgeon gave me the weight of losing 20 lbs. Once I was within 5 lbs of reaching this goal, I would then need to contact The Bariatric dept to schedule my psych evaluation appointment. By October 28th I was close enough to schedule my psych eval. My nutritionist appointment was scheduled for October 11.
The main purpose of the nutritionist appointment is to evaluate you eating habits and see what areas you need work in. I also had to start taking my supplements. I would take a calcium supplement 3x a day and a multi-vitamin twice a day. She said I was on track with my weight loss. The next step was the psych evaluation.
The appointment was set for November 27. The Friday before this appointment I got a call rescheduling me for December 5. No reason as to why. When I attended this appointment it was to see if I had anything that would prevent from succeeding with WLS. Did I ever purge? Did I ever binge eat? Basic questions. The only requirement to get cleared was to attend the WLS support group and report back.
After this it was getting my surgery date set. I was told they were booked until the end of January. Once I got the call, they said they had a cancellation and I was all set to go for January 11, 2018. The date my new life would start.
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