New Attitude

This past Tuesday, I attended an open house at the office of Dr. Capella, one of the best weight loss surgeons on the east coast and indeed throughout the country. I found out several things that I did not know, which was obviously the whole point in attending the Open House. For starters, the death rate is not as high as some would have you think it is. Also, the gastric bypass is NOT a malabsorption procedure. While there ARE weight loss surguries that do affect the absorption of vital nutrients, gastric bypass is not one of them. People who have gastric bypass surgery only have to take a multivitamin the rest of their lives, which is something that most people who would never even consider WLS do on a daily basis anyway. No vitamin cocktails.

I also found out what information I would have to produce for my insurance company to be eligible for the surgery. Compared to some other health insurance companies, mine is not demanding a lot. If I started right now, I probably could have everything I needed in the way of paperwork done by the end of the summer, and have the surgery before Thanksgiving.

The keyword to all of that is, of course, IF.

I have supporters on both sides of the coin. My "aunt" said that she thinks it would be good for me and that she will stand beside me no matter what. My mom, on the other hand, doesn't want me to have the surgery. My grandparents, however, think that if it will make me healthy, then it might be "worth the risks". One of my guy friends said that he thinks that I can lose the weight I want to lose without having the surgery, and said that he would be there every step of the way helping me in any way he could. One of my close girlfriends has said for a long time that she would never have WLS because she said the possibility of dying was not worth it, but that she would support me in any decision I made.

I am going to start getting all of my medical ducks in a row. My general practitioner will have to start keeping track of my weight loss attempts for a few months before providing a letter recommending for the surgery. I will also have to get a psychological evaluation (yanno--make sure that I am not thinking that having this surgery will resolve all of my various issues). Who knows what will come of any of this process. I might actually lose more weight than I think over the next few months. The psych eval might open up something within me that might help as well.
I have not made a 100% decision as to what I am going to do. But I do have a new outlook on where the next few months will lead me, and a new found attitude about making the decisions that will make me the best me I can be.