Luck Opalcat. When in doubt, remember Admiral Farragut-- Damn the torpedo’s full speed ahead!.
Actually they were mines, but you get the idea. . .
Save money, since you’re going to be buying new clothes every couple of weeks anyway:
[ul]
[li] Set up a clothing exchange with other surgery patients (befores and afters).[/li][li] Shop at thrift stores and rummage sales.[/li][li] Shop at discount stores (Ross, Belz, et al) and consignment shops. No sense spending $100+ on an outfit that will be hanging on you in a couple of weeks.[/li][li] Make your own clothes (and give away the old, larger patterns to someone else - great excuse to buy new patterns).[/li][li] Have a garage sale of your old clothes.[/li][li] Give away the old clothes to charities or a battered women’s shelter - the tax write-off is almost as good as the warm fuzzy.[/li][/ul]
Do, however, keep at least one shirt and one pair of pants (jeans and underwear) as an example of your ‘previous life’.
Ok I’ll try to answer everything in one go:
<b>How long did it take you to decide to do this? </b>
I’d been mulling it over, but once I started doing serious research it took only a couple of months to decide.
<b>Does your insurance cover it? </b>
yes
<b>If no to #3, may I inquire how much? </b>
I think I’m gonna have a $10 copay or so
<b>What does your doctor say about it? </b>
He thinks it is a good idea. I’ve had a lot of problems related to my weight.
<b>How long of a recovery time is expected? </b>
Hopefully not more than a couple of weeks, but it varies.
<b>Adapting to the new body.
Actually I’m hoping that it will be re-adapting to the old body. I am still somewhat in denial over this fat one I’ve got now.
<b>Not automatically walking into Lane Bryant stores at the mall. </b>
I never shop at the mall and never have been into a Lane Bryant. I shop at Walmart most of the time. It will be nice to not walk to the Plus Size area though.
<b>Loss of girl ‘friends’ who see you as a threat to their mates. </b>
I don’t have any girl friends.
<b>Lots of folks who wouldn’t give you the time of day before now give you a second look and want to be your friend. </b>
It should be interesting to see if I make friends easier after this. I really don’t know anyone in the area despite having lived in this state for 6 years.
<b>The exhilaration of sitting in a theatre seat and not getting wedged in. </b>
Wheee!!
<b>Not going to “All-You-Can-Eat” buffets, since they are not cost effective for you ($9.95 for a bowl of soup?!?!). </b>
Never go to those anyway
<b>People see you as ‘more intelligent’ (fat = dumb) </b>
Hopefully
<b>Getting used to stretch marks </b>
I’m already used to them. They suck.
<b>The confusion of realizing your wardrobe ranges from 8 to 16, depending on the style, instead of a single number starting with 2 or containing multiple Xs. </b>
My wardrobe is so small right now anyway… I don’t even have enough clothes to wear a different outfit every day of the week. And it’s mostly sweatpants.
<b>Realizing you actually have a backbone and people take your opinion more seriously. </b>
I have the backbone already… I just won’t have the raging bull physique to back it up anymore! Hehe!
<b>Realizing that horizontal stripes can actually look pretty good on you. (still not gonna try ‘cow prints’ for awhile…) </b>
Maybe on top. I’ve always had too big of a butt to do horizontal stripes below the waist.
<b>Did you remember to add the cost of a new wardrobe to the total price of the surgery?</b>
I’m hoping that rather than buy a new wardrobe, I can just start wearing my old clothes again. I have boxes and boxes of stuff from “back then”
<b>My conception of the surgery is that people who do it are in a very different weight catagory than you are, although this is based on just this one person and a few websites she’s led me to. So, I’m wondering, did you have a hard time convincing the doctor that you were a good candidate for the surgery? What about the insurance companies? </b>
I’m in the “morbidly obese” category. I’m 5’2" 235 lbs BMI of 42. My doctor thinks it is a good idea. My insurance company didn’t flinch.
<b>Shop at discount stores (Ross, Belz, et al) and consignment shops. No sense spending $100+ on an outfit that will be hanging on you in a couple of weeks. </b>
Heh. I didn’t spend over $50 on my prom dress, and my wedding dress was under $300. I’ve never bought an outfit that cost over $100 in my entire life, let alone now ;D I shop at Walmart, make my own stuff, buy from thrift shops or buy used clothes off ebay.
There are lots of clothing exchanges online for surgery patients and I will probably join one of those.
I have sooo many really neat clothes that I haven’t been able to wear for the last 7 years. I really want to wear them again. I doubt I’ll ever be able to shop in the children’s section again, though. I used to be able to wear a girl’s size 12 in some styles.
Oh crap. :X sorry about that. Probably too much to ask a mod to change all those damn <b> codes.