Question:
Is it normal to have so many doubts?
One minute I'm so excited at the prospect of surgery and the next I'm terrified.Am I making the right decision?I know my health is far more important than whether or not I'll ever eat cookies again.Whats wrong with me? Is this normal? — Heather I. (posted on February 9, 2002)
February 9, 2002
It is NORMAL. If you didnt have doubts I would have to say you weren't
"informed". By reading the memorial site you know that things can
and do go horribly wrong. (0.2%). You surely wonder why you couldnt lose on
your own. Well, Oprah can't either and look at all the resources she has at
her fingertips. You wonder if you will have on-going problems, if you will
really miss the way you have been eating, will your friends & family
think you took "the easy way out". We all on this site have
these same doubts. Yet 99% of us do go on to have surgery and 1% are
probably sorry they had surgery. I have these feelings, my date is
2/25/02. The closer I get the more anxious I become. I am in a support
group that really helps. There are some women in it that have had a few
setbacks, there is one who even losing 140 lbs is sorry that she had it
done. So I hear both sides. Good Luck with whatever decision you make. It
has to be yours and yours alone. No one can pressure you to go either way.
— Connie M.
February 9, 2002
Having doubts is SO normal. I went back and forth so many times before
surgery, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to make the commitment.
I knew it would affect my ability to enjoy food for the rest of my life.
It took me months and months to finally make the decision, but I'm so glad
I finally went through with it. The surgery is my "best friend"
now and I know it saved my life.
— Terissa R.
February 9, 2002
It is very normal to have doubts! I actually thought I would back out at
the last moment because of my fears of having complications. I was
amazingly calm once I actually arrived at the hospital for my surgery and
the next thing I knew, I was waking up in recovery. I sometimes am still
amzed that I actually went through with it, but I am so glad that I did.
It has been the best thing I have ever done for myself. I am 3 months
post-op and 75 pounds gone forever and I feel wonderful. Every day I am
able to rediscover the ability to do things that I thought I would never be
able to do again. Losing the weight is being set free from pain, poor
health and depression, amoung other things. And, I don't miss any of my
old favorites as far as food is concerned. I went to a birthday party
today and I helped serve the cake and ice cream and never once did I look
at any of it and wish I could have some. I simply did not want any. It
held no appeal for me. You won't miss those cookies, so don't worry about
it. Choose to live a healthy, fat free life and the only thing you are
going to miss are the years it took you to get back to being healthy and
wishing you had done it sooner. Good luck!
— Susan M.
February 9, 2002
I think it's normal to have doubts, but I made sure that before I decided
on surgery that I really put those doubts to bed. I will be having the DS
in May, and for me, resolving my doubts came from researching all of the
different procedures available, making sure I understood what post-op life
would be like (so I knew whether or not I could accept it), talking to my
surgeon, and talking to other patients of my surgeon. A lot of people have
doubts and that's normal, but I would be wary about going into this with
too many rational doubts. It's a time to be very honest with yourself. As
for missing particular foods, this was a major constraint on which surgery
I chose. I know myself well enough to know that if I had RNY I'd probably
cheat every now and then even if it made me incredibly ill (not good). I
am also such a social eater that I think it would bother me if I couldn't
"participate" in a bite of something decadent on occasion. Good
luck to you in whatever you choose.
— [Anonymous]
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