Flashbacks

I realized the other day that for a blog about gastric bypass…I sure don’t talk about it a lot. So, let me rectify that with a few flashbacks. *lol*

First one is my decision to have gastric bypass. Each person will be different, no doubt about that. You are going to come to this decision one way or another and you have to be sure about. You have to be willing to make that sacrifice to change your life and keep it going. So these are my reasons…

I had been overweight my whole life. Not just baby fat, but fat. I never saw anything wrong with it. I had a daddy who praised me no matter and mother who would make Sarah Palins Mother grizzly’s look like goldfish. Sure, I got some flack in school, but I brushed it off for the most part. Didn’t hurt that I had the largest bra size of ANYONE in school, including grown woman with breast implants. I was fierce and fearless and no one could stop me or bring me down.

It wasn’t until I became an adult that I started to realize what an issue the weight was. How hard it was to climb the stairs, how out of breath I was just bringing in groceries or just walking the dog. Still, I was not going to let that slow me down. Nope, nothing could change my mind about my weight…

Except my dr. and the fact that I had stroke territory high blood pressure. That…that kinda slowed me down, but not really. I still had that notion that I was invincible and could whatever the hell I wanted. Then…my father told me about his father, dying from not being able to get his blood pressure lowered…and my dr. told me I was literally 20-30 lbs. away from diabetes and at the rate I was going, I would be there before I was 35.

Uh…HELL NO! That was not going to be me at all.

So I started looking into surgery, weighed the benefits of all the surgery’s against what I knew were my weaknesses and came to the conclusion that Gastric was the option for me. The band would have been too easy for me to cheat, to never lose the weight. Insurance didn’t cover the sleeve at the time, so gastric was the best option of what was in front of me. I don’t regret that decision at all.

There were/are people who questioned me, wondered why I was doing it. I had the people who didn’t “believe” in because it was cheating or the easy way out. I just laughed at them. I had others who were against it because they knew someone who had left their spouse because of it. Them, I shake my head and wonder if they even knew what happened behind closed doors. Maybe the surgery wasn’t the reason, maybe it was what happened when the other person realized their life was going to have to change as well.

I know there are going to be questions, concerns, people who don’t get why you are making this decision. It’s okay to hear them out, digest the idea behind all of it and use to help your decision. But don’t let them push you away from something that in the end, might be the best thing for you.