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I have been creeping around here for months and finally decided to create an account and share. First though, I have to give great credit to my wife and family. My wife has been so supportive and flexible through the whole process. She has always been by my side, but during this process she read and learned about the changes, as much or more than I did. She has gone above and beyond with her support and care for me, all while still running a busy household. My kids are a constant reminder of why I did this -- so that I would be around for a long time. I wanted to be able to participate in life with my family. I also have to thank my surgical team and the care they provide. It has been great and truly lifesaving. I weighed 514-lbs on 9/12/22. I was a big boy to say the least. Shockingly, I was not in horrible medical condition. I did not take any medicine. Did not have diabetes or high blood pressure. I did have swelling in my legs, constantly sore/bad knees, and was very quick to be out of breath. I lived a very sedimentary live and limited my physical activity. I wanted to be able to be more active and be around with my family for a long time. I finally got up the nerve to discuss with my wife and she immediately got on board. I went through the program without an issue. Checked all boxes and completed all steps. Surgery was on 2/28/23 and it went well. I was up and moving that night, because that was one of the biggest hurdles to clear in order to leave. I was able to sip and keep liquid down. Discharged after one night! Incisions were sore, as expected. Gas was the worst, and not the good kind of gas that can clear the room when expelled (yeah, I am a guy), but the awful painful surgical gas, which took almost a week to fully go away. I was basically fully cleared by the doctor and back to work (in a nonphysical job) one week after surgery. My process was textbook, none of the complications that many have experienced, and I am lucky for it! This process has not been easy but has not been impossible. I have followed my plan, with the support at home, and it is working. I feel physically so much better. I am so much more mobile and active. I have never been happier. I have made changes to my daily life to support the process. My diet has changed but not radically. I eat a lot less and that is the biggest driver of my weight loss. I walk and am active in live, but I do not have a detailed exercise plan. I am still learning exactly what works for me, but most importantly I want others to know there are many routes to get to the same place. I try to get the big stuff right and not sweat the tiniest of details. My blood work at my six-month checkup was solid. Protein was on the low end in the range, but still acceptable. I was encouraged to keep on keeping on (shout out to Joe Dirt). They were comfortable enough to set my next follow up appointment out to one year. I was scared and nervous. I have had good days and bad days (constipation is AWFUL)! Most importantly, I wanted to share my story and I hope it can help others in some way. I never wanted to be skinny. I could care less what my BMI is. I wanted to feel better. I wanted to be able to participate in life with my family. And I am! I am no expert and I still have a long way to go, but I am happy and glad I had this surgery. As I have seen here, over and over again, we are all different, so what works for me may not for others, but I still wanted to share, and I hope it might be of some benefit to someone else. The non-scale wins are just the best! When I started this process, I was so huge that home scales couldn't hold me, so I would go months without weighing, but I knew good things were happening because of all the non-scale wins. Cherish those! This is a long (probably too long) post, so I will wrap. I recently weighed on my home scale (yeah, that's right, it now holds me) and I was at 288-lbs. If anyone has questions or wants more details about my journey, please let me know. I would be happy to share more.

Pre-op and post-op I wasn't really on a liquid only diet. I had to do a 12 day pre-op diet - 10 days of 2 protein shakes, 1 for breakfast, 1 for lunch and a dinner of a lean protein and non starchy veg. The 2 days prior was liquids including protein shakes and the last day was clear liquids only. I had broth and protein water mostly. I am not a jello fan so that didn't make my list personally lol. I tried to do Crystal Light, but I don't care for the aftertaste and just stuck with protein water. I also was able to drink sugar free Gatorade. After surgery, I was discharged on the pureed diet. So again shakes and broth or blended soups. The sugar free popsicles do help with a bit of a texture difference. Since you have bone broth you can add some unflavored protein powder to up the protein content. An easier to find on is the Isopure Unflavored. Personally it wasn't a favorite for me, but many many people like it.

Excitement!!! Good luck to you, I'm keeping you in my prayers too! May we have the most boring, routine, chill surgeries ever!! ❤️

I also regret it! You’re not the only one in time we will feel better. We gave up our best friend if your emotional eater like I was. It’s sad how much food made me happy. I gave up narcotics took me years was hard but is so much harder!!! Stay strong!

So far, so good. I had a gas bubble that simply refused to move. Been trying my best to walk it out

PERIODS: I had my WLS when I was 47 and i *thought* I was already menopausal, as I hadn't had my period in a couple (few?) years before that. Well. 2-3 weeks after surgery, I got my period...heavily...for like 8 days or something like that (which for me is an anomaly as when I used to have periods, they would only last 4-5 days max, and were very light). Then I got my period like clockwork every 4 weeks after that for about 4 years. Go figure...I wasn't menopausal at all, I was just fat, lol I am actually going through it now i think as my last period was in the spring 2022 last year (i'm 5 yrs post op now). So yeah, i raise my hand for weird period happenings. HAIR LOSS: Yep, i lost a significant amount of hair. It all grew back eventually, and I feel like its actually thicker now...but that may be due to the fact that my diet is better? I dunno. Bonus as well is that my hair now has a little wave to it, which i love. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent it. My advice if it happens to you, is to just ride it out. its temporary and just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. STOPPING WEIGHT LOSS: My not-so-surprising answer to this: EAT MORE. lol. It took me few months of increasing my calorie intake until i figured out what calorie amount i needed to maintain. I lost 10+ lbs while i figured this out, but at least i did, ha! Now in my case (and alot of others) my restriction was still very much in effect, so I had to invoke the strategy of eating more higher-calorie foods vs. just more food in general. It was a little bit of a challenge as I was still in weight-loss mode thinking so switching mindsets to allow myself eat things i avoided for 7 months was a bit of mind f*ck. I'm really good at it now though, lol. Good Luck! ❤️

I’m out of surgery everything went well got down 10oz of water already feeling good took 5 laps walking got a lot of gas but overall no pain yet little discomfort but happy it’s done

They will in time, but these drugs are only now becoming approved for weight loss use; they formerly were strictly diabetic drugs used off label for weight loss, and a darling of the Hollywood set, and followers of them, so that didn't give them a great image on an official basis. They are basically a lifetime use drug, so the cost is a big issue with those covering them, but that will decline as more competition comes on the market and they go off patent, and as they gain respectability in the "legitimate" medical world and not just the fly by night weight loss "spas".

Man, I was all over the place for a while, I actually bought pregnancy tests because I was so late at one point, then the next month I was super early. But I evened out around 6 months in. I was so freaked out, my surgeon made a point to tell everyone how much more fertile you are after surgery... I wasn't ready lol.

Okay, worst case scenario they find something. Isn’t it better they do, especially when it’s something to do with your heart, so they can treat you with medication, heart surgery, or what ever is needed to make you healthier & prolong your life? Remember going into your bariatric surgery with an undiagnosed or diagnosed but untreated heart condition would be very, very risky. When you can progress with your bariatric surgery & what approval process you may need to go through would depend upon what or if they find something. Best case they find nothing & you’ll know your heart is strong & healthy. Let us know. All the best.