eazye

I am scheduled for July 23rd with Dr. Zografakis in Akron, OH. I'm excited but it still seems so far away....

I've only told my dad/step mom and my brother/sister-in-law since they are my neighbors (yes, we have the family "compound". My wife is actually a surgical RN and works with the doctor doing my surgery, might be a little tough to get that past her...haha. Like others, most will be supportive but not worth that one person who isn't.... Fortunately I have been sticking to a very strict diet over the last 2.5 months since getting in the program and I am down 35-40 lbs. My weight loss now will mask the effects of the surgery so quick weight loss post surgery will not really be noticed.

I like this topic because I think it may be one of the most surreal aspects of this whole process. I am not sure what everyone else's situations have been over the past but I was never a big guy, I'm 5' 11" and ranged between 155-185 from the time started high school up through the time I was out of the military (4 years active duty) and into college. Since then, I have ballooned to 315 at the beginning of Feb. It will be weird and I do not ever feel like I will ever think I am skinny even WHEN I reach 175-185 again. I will clean out my closet and it will be a strage sensation to shop for normal, in-style clothes again because being bigger, selections are limited, especially for guys!

I think my out of pocket is going to be around $2500.... And that is with my wife being an RN at the hospital where I will have my surgery.

It was at 10:00 am. It was such a quick procedure and I was "goofy" the rest of the day, or at least into the evening.

I just had to fast after midnight prior to the endoscopy, so not too bad.....

So this may be a hard question for me to ask clearly but I was curious as to real life loose skin stories. I know lots of factors are involved in having loose skin or not but I am trying to get a good idea if I will have a lot of extra skin if I reach my goal of roughly 185, which would be about a 115 lb drop for me (just under 6 ft tall). I'm still young (at least I consider myself young at 38) with no health issues other than being 300lbs @ just under 6ft tall. Just seeing what other's experiences were with getting loose skin, I guess, and what your pre-op and post-op factors were. This may be too personal of a question so I understand if people dont want to answer. Please just yell at me and tell me it is an inappropriate question!

I had mine last week and was told no driving, operating machinery, mowing the lawn, and not to make any financial decisions or write out checks of any kind....seriously, they actually told me no finanacial decisions or paying bills! I dont remember any of mine, I was out cold but was technically put in "twilight". Mine was scheduled for 10:00am and think I was being released just after 11:00am but was in no condition to do anything. I could not talk when I initially wok up, in my head I knew what I was saying but my mouth was not connected to my brain yet so I just stayed quiet...haha. Since it had been 12 hours since I ate, we stopped at Panera Bread to eat lunch and I was able to order my own food, but my wife had to ask me a few times if I was ok while eating because I was in a daze just staring at my sandwich! We got home around noon and I went to bed and slept hard until 5:00pm and then had no issue going to bed at 9-10 that night. I just had some bloating for about 2 days following and no pain of any kind from the biopsy.

I, much like a few of the posters in here, was not always overweight until a long stretch in my late 20s and early 30's at which time I packed on a little over 100 lbs. Now, over that time frame I have lost a few times, once in the 50+ range and another in the 70+ range (when my wife and I were having a beach wedding). And, each time I lost, I gained it all back plus some. I can still to this day lose weight at will but as Disney posted, I have to work out with both weights and cardio for about 1-2 hours EVERY DAY! I begin to gain almost immediately following breaking my routine....which to this day is not a realistic workout schedule! I have a family to support and a 9 month old that I would like to spend s much time with as possible before she grows up and I missed out! This last reason is my main reason for electing to go with surgery, I need to have some semblence of a life outside of the gym if I dont want my family life to pass me by.... I have learned that whil I can do it on my own, I cant maintain w/o losing major family time (because I have to work, no choice there). All that said and done, you need to evaluate your own reasons for wanting/needing the sleeve because if you are not comfortable in your own skin, no amount of advice given here will help you!

So, I had my EGD yesterday and the doctor talked to my wife following the surgery (apparently he talked to me but I dont remember any of it, haha). He said I had a lot of scarring from Acid Reflux, which I never realized I had. I know every once in a great while if I ate something spicy I would get a touch of heart burn but nothing dabilitating, so I never thought much of it. I now have a pepsid prescription to stop something I was not aware of and am not discomforted by in the least.... Anyone else have their EGD to find out they had acid reflux, and did it impact your surgery at all?

As I guy, I even feel your pain about the thighs in jeans. All of my life, even when I was skinny in my late teens and early 20s (military), I had a terrible time with jeans not fitting my thighs. I have always had larger thighs and very strong "frog legs" so I could never get the jeans to fit right w/o having to go up a waist size....which then presents a new set of ill-fitting problems. I have always been condemned to a larger waist that what was necessary, even as I progressed in size. I guess if that is my worst problem after I get sleeved, I will be now thankful for it!

So, since I started the pre-op program (3 months in my case), I have been trying to really limit myself on what I am eating, taking the nutritionist's advice on what to eat. Has anyone tried really limiting your caloric intake similar to what you would be limited to following surgery? I understand that you would really struggle with an all liquid diet or a diet of only 400 or so calories without the help of the surgery, but I am looking to see if anyone tried, successfully to approach it in this manner? I think it would be a great way to ease into the new diet following and not be such a shock to your system or daily routine disruption. I have been trying to stick with this philosophy and fortunately never had an eating disorder like binging or depressed eating. I am simply a case of being able to eat too much without feeling full, and eating all the wrong foods..... Initially in the beginning of this "experiment" the first week or two was tough becasue I had to fight all the cravings for sweets and carb heavy foods but now, 4 weeks or so from starting, it is MUCH easier. My cravings are gone, for the most part. The other day, I did have a craving for a PB and marshmallow fluff sandwich (sounds strange but tastes soooo good) so i made one....only to take a small bit and had it off to my wife who can afford to eat it! let me tell you how hard it was to have it in my hand and not eat it! But, I took a small bit of it and it completely satisified the craving and I no longer wanted it. At this point, I eat 1 Protein bar for Breakfast, a handfull of raw almonds for a mid morning snack, a cup of chili for lunch, another handful of almonds for an afternoon snack, and then a zero fat, high protein yogurt for dinner. I fill the rest of the time with about 80-100 oz of Water and that's it.... Anyway, let me know your experience with the calorie limited, high protein, low carb attempt prior to surgery if you have been able to follow through with it and if it helped following surgery.

I am going to shoot for a week off as well. I am an IT manager who sits at my desk on teleconference calls several hours a day and have free access and time to drink all day if I choose, as well as not having to do anything physical. I am generally pretty good with pain (back to work after 2-3 days with 3 fully broken ribs in 2008) so I am hoping I can survive this while at work. I would hate to have to be out 2-3 weeks!

My wife is actually a surgical RN and has worked tons of bariatric surgeries. She told me that they look at the gallbladder when they are in there and just remove it if it needs to come out. She made it sound not all that uncommon.... Maybe with the sleeve it is uncommon but with RNY it sounded pretty common.

So I am a complete hater of all things salad. The only items in a salad that I do like are the croutons and carrots. All lettuce is as tasty to me as going out and grazing in the yard, and tomatos, cucumbers, olives, etc may as well be considered the devil to me! So, that being said, am I really screwed with weight loss surgery and will be "forced" to like these things, or are their alternatives? Anyone else here really despise salads? If so, what have you done?

Bedhead, that may be the greatest answer to any question I have had yet! Thanks!

gmanbat, I am in the same situation as you although I have not had surgery yet. At about 2 months out, I have been in the "program" where I will have surgery and i have already dropped 15 lbs from changing my eating habits, down from roughly 315 to 300.2 lbs as of this morning. I can tell a difference on the belt I put on for work this morning and the new hole I had created is almost too loose to use. Funny thing about the belt is that it is the same belt I had 75-90 lbs ago but was almost too loose on the tightest setting back then. That belt and some shoes are about the only existing items I have been holding onto over the past 6 years because of the inability to fit anymore! Everything else was donated.....

Its funny, I told one person at work that I would be taking a little time here and there leading up to this surgery and he siad not to tell anyone becasue he wanted to start a "biggest loser" contest for the site and he would put money on me to win..... Nothing like inside information! Haha! I really am looking forward to it, not so much for me, but for my 8 month old daughter. I see how my brother interacts with his kids and know I am not able to do that at this weight, and I want to be there for ANYTHING my daughter asks me to do with her or be the inspiration to get her out and about doing stuff.