tony179@aol.com

It's been 10 1/2 month since my sleeve surgery and have lost a total of 136 lbs. I started with 442lbs and now i'm down to 306. You figure i should be happy especially when my friends notice the journey i have travelled. To me i'm cant seem to get under that 300 lbs threshold and it make me depressed. since october i've only lost 3 lbs

medicaid pays for the entire surgery if you have medical conditions , if your over weight dont stress have faith and you'll have to do a bunch of test that can run for weeks so have patience

ok you can start lifting less then 20lbs until about the 8 week after your surgery. but you should be doing long walks

what type of exercise program you are incorporating along with your eating changes

try the egg beaters no cholesterol

i started with 3 mile walks and now im up to 6 mi walks but as the temp has changed im not getting out as often as i should but i compensate with a stationary bike for 30 minutes, 2 days on 1 day off the bike ,and i keep a journal of my exercise in a calender book

read this quick story Back in 2009 my medical Dr, told me while i weighed 350lbs. that i need to do something about my weight before i hit 50 yrs old, which at the time i was 46 yrs old and on BP Meds. So i was like yeah,yeah ,yeah. On July 3, 2010 i participated in a health research and was weighing 395lbs. Then moving forward to the early 2011 weighing 410lbs. and now had a new female Dr. for a while now. She had me do blood work-up which showed elevated cholesterol and sugar level rising. So my Dr. starts to mention about bariatric surgery to lose weight. So now I'm looking at my Dr. who looked like she weighed 350lbs herself(keep reading it get interesting). So I'm not convinced by what she was talking about, but agreed to attend a bariatric seminar at Jacobi Hospital. The same day i met with a nutritionist who impressed me and gave me a meal plan. As soon as i got home that meal plan went into the night stand somewhere.So i attend the seminar and walked away displeased by the noisy people in the audience and a post-op pt. talking about his ordeal while holding up his old trousers he wore prior to his surgery.(keep reading trust me). At the seminar i get an appointment for the bariatric clinic which i didn't bother going to. So now summer 2011 comes around and i balloon up to 442lbs, 90 degree weather outside and i'm wearing long pants because I'm embarrassed by my swollen legs. I make an appt. with my Medical Dr. and when i arrived at her office I WAS LIKE WHAAAAAAAAT. My Dr. had shed like 100 lbs and i was like WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY REGULAR DR. So she proceeds to tell that she had a Gastric Sleeve operation was the reason she had slimmed down. So i confess to her that i didn't attend the bariatric appt. So she gives me another meeting date for a seminar, i attend and receive my appt for Oct,2011. I attend the appt and weighed 331lbs. I receive a list of appts for various specialties which took from Oct 2011 thru Jan 2012. One of the Appts was for Sleep Apnea which i wind up having and get put on a sleeping machine call CPAP. Now i go back to my Medical Dr. who now looks like she lost 150lbs and i was amazed and went home that day and began exercising. So finally after completing a whole battery of test i receive my surgery date for March 1st. So i had to request a Leave from work for 6 weeks which was approved based on the Dr. notes i submitted from the Bariatric Dept. So the day before the surgery i go to finance Dept at Jacobi and was devastated when i was told that My insurance didn't approve my surgery because some nutritional notes were missing. I went home and began to lose hope and felt that the last few months were all in vain. So my wife and daughters begin to tell me not to lose hope and have faith. The very next day i receive a call from Jacobi and I recognized the voice as the Bariatric nurse Lynn who tells me how she is fighting with the insurance company and filed an appeal. This call does little to cheer me up but my wife does not want me to think like that. So on March 2 i get a call from Jacobi stating that i have been approved for surgery and if i wanted to come in on March 5th, and i was like WHAT TIME YOU NEED ME TO BE THERE. So March 5 comes around and i have my Gastric Sleeve surgery and i awake in a PACU ward and staff telling me all went well with the surgery. I then receive instruction on using a Morphine drip and feel a pain below my chest above the stomach which i was eventually told that is the area where a alot of cutting takes place. I also had a dry feeling sensation in my lips and kept requesting for ointment to be put on my lips. So my family and co workers begin to come into the hospital ward to see me, so i'm smiling when i see them but inside my mind is starting to ponder was this the wrong decision i made to have this surgery. March 7 i get discharged from hospital with a meal plan for the next 10 weeks and a load of prescriptions to fill plus vitamins and protein shakes i have to get. So prior to leaving the hospital i weigh myself and i was 415lbs. So the first two weeks go by and I'm on a liquid diet and I'm doing walks in the streets and parks.My wife and daughters start telling me that I'm trimming down' in my eyes i do not see it but I'm noticing that i'm not getting back aches and don't feel that heaviness that i felt with 442 lbs of weight on me. I go into my closet and i tried on a suit jacket i brought 12 years ago for my best friend's wedding and was able fit into it and that's when it hit me and i thought about the guy (remember earlier in my story) who held up his trouser at the seminar and now realized what that meant to him at that time and his accomplishment. Week 3 just started this Monday March 19 and i'm onto pureed food.So today March 20 i attended my first post-op appointment and my weigh was down to 386lb. I was elated that i began to text my family and close friends of my accomplishment. Although i'm just 3 weeks into my Post surgery i continue to follow the meal plans, drink my fluids, drinks my protein shakes and read on line anything i can find on the subject of nutrition and pass on tips to my friends struggling to lose weight. So far i have lost 56 lbs since Oct 2011, and 29 lbs. of that in 2 weeks since my surgery. My brother has also been an inspiration to me as well because he's trying to run 50 marathons by the time he's 50 years old. I now sit back and think of that Dr. who told me in the beginning of my story to get my act together before you hit 50yrs old because it get harder to do then. So Dr. i was listening all along.

get into the habit of buying everything LOW FAT-SUGAR FREE- cereals low in sugar......low sodium foods and you will be good

in your story you didnt mention anything about exercising. you need to start a walking program and alot of reading on line.about food that will benifit your goal of losing weight.

so far the best decision you made on your own is to not weigh your self constantly because it will just keep bringing your morale down. if you can stretch out your weigh in even further and continue your regime you will have better success. i have 6 month into my sleeve and have lost 116 pounds. in those 6 month i only weigh myself when i went to my follow up appts.

oh yea im up to 6 mile walks

you gotta be patient the weight will come off. keep doing your exercise i started my surgery at 417 and 6 month later im at 311.

Well its been 6 & 1/2 month since my surgery and sunday i got on the scale and weighed 311 lbs. i weighed 442 back on Oct 2011. By the time i had my surgery March 5th i weighed 417lbs, So now i have lost 106 lbs since my surgery and 131lbs since Oct. Many more to go

ok which procedure you choose