I'm almost brand new!
I saw "The 627 pound woman" on Discovery the other day and the bariatric doctor said that many people take their surgery day as their new birthday because they feel it's a re-birth for them (to paraphrase).
So, that's what I mean when I say, I'm almost brand new!
My RNY surgery is tomorrow.
I had Lapband back in October 2007, but had emergency surgery 2-weeks later to remove it. I've had to spend 4 to 5 months to recover from that before I could do the RNY (which I decided to go ahead with in January).
And here it is and I'm kind of nervous and excited at the same time.
Frankly, if I had found this forum before I had the Lapband I think I may have reconsidered. The Lapband went great, no pain post-op, I felt great. I lost 16 pounds in 2-weeks, and then... (I won't go into that) because I have a few Lapband buddies and gal-pals and it's working very well for them (and yes, I am jealous sometimes because it didn't work for me).
I chose Lapband because I felt funny having my insides re-routed. Also, my husband was against RNY because "he heard horror stories".
Along my journey toward this surgery, which began in February 2007 with the first seminar I went to, I have met many people who had RNY (none who had Lapband until I went to a support group). RNY people were everywhere: my dental hygienists mother, the billing clerk at the hospital, 2 people in church, etc. and none of them ever regretted having the RNY - which made me feel better about my decision BECAUSE, I can't do it on my own -- I needed a better tool than willpower!
So here I am, the 7th day of my pre-surgery fast of a week going by very slowly, weighing between 340 and 345 (my highest was 349) waiting for my new birthday (although I'll probably take the plastic surgery day as a birthday as the day I removed my hanging belly).
So wish me luck... today will be a very looooonnng day!
Marella