I'm very very early in the process. I just made my doctors appt and I'm going next week. I am a little nervous but more excited to Finally be ready to get this done. I have a few Heart problems but my cardiologist has been pushing me to do this for 3 years now, I was just to scared to go. What finally pushed me was, my husband and I went to the beach for the week and not only could I NOT walk around the town and do some shopping at this very cute victorian mall there, I couldn't walk on the Beach! I Hate That! We scattered my moms ashes on the beach and I can't get there. I actually called the doctors office while on vacation. I was angry at myself for about 5 minutes and then not. Yeah, I made a mistake by Not doing this sooner but I fixed it and I'm getting it done now. My question though is, I know I'll have to loose some of this before the surgery and thats fine but I'm also reading theres exercise and number of steps and things. I have Heart Failure and I'm always running out of breath (some because of my weight I know) but a bigger problem is an abdominal hernia that is quite big and actually prevents me from lifting my legs when I'm trying to get up stairs or take a large step. This is also getting taken care of but this has to happen first. Is there a way to work around these obstacles that I can start now?