BigFrank

Sorry I have been away from the forum, I have been busy. Here is an update: Tomorrow I will be 4 weeks post op. Here are my stats: I am a 35 year old male, 6' 3" tall. On 11/23/12 I was 445 lbs. I started my pre op all liquid diet that day and lost 49 lbs in 28 days before I had surgery. 12/21/12 I was 396 and had surgery. 1/17/13, and I am 1 day shy of being 4 weeks post op and I have lost 24 additional lbs for a total of 73 lbs in 56 days. In summary..... 11/23/2012- 445 lbs. BMI= 55 (Taking Metformin for pre diabetes and Lisinopril for borderline high blood pressure.) 1/17/2013- 372 lbs BMI= 46 (NO MORE LISINOPRIL, BUT still taking Metformin.....FOR NOW.......) The bottom line.....I feel freakin AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I can do SO much more then I could do just 2 short months ago! EVERY DAY is a new adventure of something new I can do, see, less pain, etc. I can eat ANYTHING! (I am making ALL healthy choices.) I have had NO complications. NONE. EVERYONE that sees me is saying "WOW, are you losing weight?" My response.....Why yes I am! Bottom line........don't waste anymore good years/months of your life. My doctor told me I wasn't going to live very long pre surgery. Now I have a new lease on life. JUST DO IT!

Is WLS good for everyone? I guess not BUT the majority are successful. If you are reading this thread and are considering it, DON'T let this person or iggy scare the (bleep) out of you! DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE and get busy saving your own life! Tomorrow I will be 4 weeks post op. Here are my stats: I am a 35 year old male, 6' 3" tall. On 11/23/12 I was 445 lbs. I started my pre op all liquid diet that day and lost 49 lbs in 28 days before I had surgery. 12/21/12 I was 396 and had surgery. 1/17/13, and I am 1 day shy of being 4 weeks post op and I have lost 24 additional lbs for a total of 73 lbs in 56 days. In summary..... 11/23/2012- 445 lbs. BMI= 55 (Taking Metformin for pre diabetes and Lisinopril for borderline high blood pressure.) 1/17/2013- 372 lbs BMI= 46 (NO MORE LISINOPRIL, BUT still taking Metformin.....FOR NOW.......) The bottom line.....I feel freakin AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I can do SO much more then I could do just 2 short months ago! EVERY DAY is a new adventure of something new I can do, see, less pain, etc. I can eat ANYTHING! (I am making ALL healthy choices.) I have had NO complications. NONE. EVERYONE that sees me is saying "WOW, are you losing weight?" My response.....Why yes I am! Bottom line........don't waste anymore good years/months of your life. My doctor told me I wasn't going to live very long pre surgery. Now I have a new lease on life. JUST DO IT!

Sleeved 12-21. Weight day of surgery 396, weight as of this morning (day 16) 380. Lost 16 lbs in 16 days, I lost 3 lbs in the past 2 days. I did a 28 day liquid only diet and lost 49 lbs plus 16 post op for a total of 65 lbs since 11/23. Starting weight 445 down to 380. By the way, I have been on purée for 9 days with 5 more to go before soft foods.

I told VERY few people. I am 15 days post op and only a hand full of people even know.

All I have to say is that if you are 80-100 lbs overweight, who cares about excess skin. PLEASE consider this surgery for your health and well being, not for some unimportant issue that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things! I would rather lose 100 pounds and be healthy then worry about any left over skin.

My goodness, the replies to this thread have been overwhelming! I am so glad that I posted this thread, I think it's done a lot of good for this site. I am particularly touched by all of the "you made my day, and inspired me posts!" If I don't thank each and every poster for their kind words, please forgive me! For the good news, today I am 14 days post op! I weighed myself this morning and here are the stats: 62 overall pounds down, 49 from my 28 day pre op liquid diet and 13 down since surgery. (I gained back two pounds in the hospital after surgery and lost those in addition to the 13 but I'm not going to count those.) Basically I have gone from 445 to 383. I am feeling better every day and even went to the YMCA today and walked a mile in addition to all of my other daily activities. My first post op doctors appointment is next week and I am looking foreword to meeting with my surgeon. I was instructed to eat a liquid diet (clears and fulls) the first week and puree for the next two weeks after that. I have one more week of puree and look foreword to being able to eat "soft foods" starting next Saturday. I'm going on 43 days of not eating "real foods" so I am looking foreword to it! Thanks for addressing my protein concerns. To be honest with you, I'm NOT drinking/eating enough protein. I am probably getting at the most 40 grams per day. I haven't noticed any obvious effects from this but I am sure I am not doing myself any favors despite my continued rapid weight loss. I plan on exploring the options provided to me in this thread tomorrow. I would LOVE to get 40 grams of protein in one drink like Sadlers1999 explained above! I just CAN'T continue with the milk based powders, it literally makes me sick just thinking about them! Again, THANK ALL OF YOU for the amazing support and kind comments that have come out of this thread, you are all amazing and I wish everybody success in this life changing journey we have chosen to take!

Hi everybody, I am looking for a skin creme recommendation for a fellow sleever that has dry skin from the winter and is having very rapid weight loss. Is there a product that will help reduce the amount of skin that is left hanging when all is said and done? I am relatively young (35) and people have told me that some of the skin will retract on its own but not all, especially with my starting weight of 445.

I was kind of worried about having a B M after surgery. I finally had one after about 5 days post surgery, then a couple days after that. They are now regular but days like yesterday nothing, today three times. Who knows, everybody's different! BTW, I am 12 days post op.

Thanks for this great info! I am drinking the Whey chocolate powder stuff from Walmart mixed with 2% milk. (Please don't tell me that 2% milk is to filled with fat, I drank it for 28 days pre op and lost 49 lbs.) They have become disgusting to me. Please tell me more about "Maybe something like Nectar's Lemon Tea mixed with water?" Is there "flavorless" protein that actually does the job????

Interesting responses. I had a 2 1/2 hour surgery and woke up one hour after in recovery. I was in a "fog" but conscious. I remember everything but was very uncomfortable because I had to pee very bad and my mouth was VERY dry. I laid there for 1.5 hours and was rolled into my room where i got off the cart and walked a step or two and was helped into bed. I promptly threw everybody out of the room, stood up again, and used a "urinal jug" (with the aid of my wife). Thank God for wives who are ER nurses and being a male with the ability to use a urinal! I also didn't sleep even one minute for the rest of that night all the way through to the next night (about 30 hours total) until I took a Benadryl!

Woah, woah woah. Hold on a minute. No one is "bashing" people who are "negative." Go back and read my post. All I said is that when I found this site I was clicking on all the "concerned" threads only to find people were being cautioned about leaks and other scary stuff and it scared the (bleep) out of me. Like everybody here, I just went through a tough life changing surgery and didn't want to see stuff like that, especially if I wasn't going through it myself. All I said is that I avoided this forum because I saw to much of that stuff, and I did what worked best for me which was to avoid this site. I'm sorry that iggy had a bad experience but I need to stay focused on a healthy recovery. I wish her the best. I am not saying that everything is TOTALLY perfect for me. I have a couple issues since surgery, one that is becoming a major one for me is Protein shakes. I did a 28 day pre-op diet which I consumed two shakes per day, and now I am 12 days post op for a total of 40 days, and I literally can't stand the site of Protein Shakes anymore. They literally make me feel physically ill!!! I don't know what I am going to do because I NEED to consume a lot of protein but the shakes have become SO DISGUSTING to me that I could probably make myself vomit by just thinking about them! What am I gonna do??!!

WOW!!!!! 154 in 13 months!! That's basically my overall goal, 150 in 12 months! Kudos to you!

You WILL Amy, you WILL! I am very excited for you and the others that are newly sleeved and those that will be sleeved coming up! I have one other bit of wisdom that I received many years ago from a co-worker. I worked with this guy who spent 7 years in the federal penitentiary (Don't ask. I promise I worked in a legit good field! He was in SUPER good shape, but told me when he was inside he was very heavy. (I would have never believed it by how he looked, this guy was kind of over the top, did 1000 push ups every night before bed, etc.) The one thing he would always tell me is that eating is the best example of instant gratification. You eat that pizza or steak dinner and are feeling great while you're eating, and for a short time afterwards, but you have to LIVE with that fat body and bad health. He told me that he avoided that food and the gratification came and stayed with the fact that he had a great body and good health all the time. Kind of a strange guy, but a GREAT concept if you really think about it!

Starting the 2013 new year off right. I stepped on the scale this morning and lost another 2 lbs since Sunday which puts me at 60 lbs lost! I am 11 days post op and have gone from 445 on 11/23 (start of pre op diet) to 385 on 1/1, 60 lbs in 40 days!! Hello new life! I am overwhelmed at the responses that I have gotten in this thread, especially the ones that said that my story has inspired them! I am so humbled, thank you! I am seriously changing my entire opinion of this surgery after this thread. Let me tell you a sad story. A few days ago, about 7 days post op, my wife asked me if I would do it all over again. I told her no. She asked why? "You have had such an ideal experience." I said "yeah, I was VERY LUCKY." There are tons of people that have complications based on what I saw on the sleeve site. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't have taken such a big risk, after all, we have a three year old son. I also WOULD NOT recommend this surgery I told her. I couldn't live with myself if I advised someone to go through this and something bad happened to them. That is SERIOUSLY what I thought. After seeing this thread, there are A LOT of success stories out there. I will say what a lot of other people said and say that this surgery DOES change your life for the better. If you are as heavy as I was you WILL NOT live a long life. Period. How many 6' 3" 445 lb old people do you see walking this Earth? I don't see many that's for sure. If you are considering VSG surgery, JUST DO IT! Don't think about it and procrastinate like I did for two years. JUST DO IT! I wasted two years drinking and eating when I could have been rolling around in the grass, wrestling with my son. Believe me, we WILL be doing that this summer! 2013 is going to be my best year ever!

I forgot to mention something important. The day after surgery my blood pressure went from 140 over 90-150 over 100 to 130s over 70s. I called my primary care doc and am off the blood pressure meds. I hope to be off the Metformin in 1-3 months.

Thanks guys! You're right O.T.R., I think that the people that have had good experiences just don't say enough. They are happy, so there is no reason to ask a bunch of questions on the internet. The problem is that there are a few people here that had VERY VERY bad experiences that respond to every thread and scare the heck out of everybody. Question: My toe hurts, what could it be? Answer: YOU HAVE A LEAK!!!! Run to the E.R. right now in the middle of the night! HURRY! Holy cow, I swear to God, I had a thermometer in my hand for a week after my surgery checking my temp every hour to see if i had a fever. My wife got so mad at me that she told me to NEVER visit this site again! I talked her down, and I just checked back today. I told her that there was some useful info here.