cubbies76

I held off on a tattoo I wanted until after my surgery. Only 8 days post op so still don't have it. But, your skin will shrink so the tattoos will also move around, but probably only by very minor amounts on the parts without a lot of fat. Anything on your stomach will probably look a lot different, but nothing a really talented tattoo artist couldn't work on to modify or touch up.

I'm 7 days post op and I can tell it is starting to come off. The edges are starting to separate from the skin.

Its completely normal. I was the most nervous the night before. I texted a buddy, who is a doctor, and asked him "what the f**k am I about to do?" He assure me of all the things we had talked about and when I woke up, I remembered and thought about how much I wanted this all along and how I had been envisioning myself 12 months after the surgery and I wasn't worried at all.

Calcium within two hours can cancel out any iron taken. So you should be careful to space it out. I don't know how much it does, but I avoid all during that space, including any in any protein drinks or anything else I eat.

Then my guess would be iron, but you should call your doc for sure. That's what we paid them all that money for!

Is a weekly B12 supplement part of your vitamin regime?

I was the same way. Leak test done during procedure. I'm 5 days postop and I don't really feel like I've had the surgery. No pain, no nausea, no problems getting protein and liquids in, etc. I have a little shoulder pain and am a little sore when I wake up in the morning. I'm just about completely off pain meds. I take some Tylenol in the morning to help with the soreness, but probably could do fine without. The soreness is less than what you feel after a good workout.

I don't even remember getting the anesthesia. Last thing I remember was being carted towards surgery then waking up for a split second in recovery. First real thing I remember was waking up in my hospital room.

I for one am dreading the day I have to shop for new clothes

I know a few people that have used Dr. Nick and they couldn't be happier with the entire experience and interaction with him and his staff.

I just had my surgery on Monday and there was no way I could had done something like that. Between the anesthesia still working itself out, the hydrocodone and the morphine drip, the entire day or the surgery is a large blur. I sent texts and emails that I don't even remember sending!

I think you would want to wait as long as it takes for you to be clear to lift without restrictions. In my case, it is 6 weeks.

WTG, GG!!!

I think that as long as we are peeing 2-3 times a day we should be good. That's what my doc said at least.

I did not, but I am a craft beer aficionado. Earlier this year I was on a road trip through Colorado and stopped at a bunch of local breweries to try what they had. I didn't at the time but now kind of look at it as a farewell tour lol. I will miss a nice, cold, hoppy and carbonated IPA.

Best of luck to you too, Bigchubs! I am on a 2 week preop diet. I drink 5 Premier Protein drinks a day. It has been hard a few times but overall doable.

I'm getting sleeved on Monday.

Congrats!

I realized today that I'm exactly 6 weeks out from my surgery. Being as close as it is, it got me thinking about my NSGs. Here are a few: 1) Being able to sit more comfortably in planes. I don't usually have to ask for an extender, but I have to cram myself into the seat. 2) Walking by the big and tall sections in department stores! This might be the one I'm looking forward to the most. 3) Losing the roll of fat around my wiener. I can grab a handful of it on each side. Think B cup and that's how much is down there. 4) Getting off is damn CPAP. The cardiologist that diagnosed me a couple months ago said that he didn't think I would get off it with the sleeve because how narrow my airway was and the size of my neck but we shall see about that! 5) Gaining more confidence with the ladies. Every time I've lost a significant amount of weight, my confidence with the ladies goes way up. #s 3 & 4 might come in handy then 6) Running a 10k. I've done 5ks in the past (but not recently) and I'd like to be able to do a 10k. 7) improving my golf game I'm sure there are more, but that's what I've come up with so far. What NSGs did you fellas have?

Seems like some do and some don't. I asked my surgeon and he said I wouldn't have one.

I tried several and I found that Premier Protein's are the best out there. Reasonably priced too.

This has been a great topic for me to read. As part of my pre-op, my surgeon had me take a 10 minute metabolic test a couple weeks ago. I was told it was primarily for his research purposes (I'll take another one at 6 months and 12 months post-op) but I found my discussion with him about it very interesting. He said that almost all his patients have a low metabolism (which we both agreed was not shocking). My metabolic rate calculated to me needing 8.4 calories per pound to maintain, however the average metabolic rate for "normal" people is anywhere between 12-14. He said that based on what he has seen, this 8.4 stays fairly consistent as I will lose weight. It can and will go up with increased muscle mass, but it doesn't have as big of an impact as people think. He did say any increase through increased muscle mass is good, which I think we all know. According to the BMI charts, the high end of my healthy weight is 192 pounds, which means when I meet goal - side note: I said when and not if - I will need 1,613 calories per day to maintain. This is assuming that 192 is my healthy weight and not what some chart is telling me. During my required visit with the nutrionist, I was told that when I will be back on solid foods for life that I would be eating 800-1,000 calories per day. Even before I knew my actual metabolic rate, the math didn't add up. A "normal" person my height needs almost 2000 calories per day (according to the standard calculators). The surgeon told me that the number I was quoted by the NUT was too low that that I would need more than that to avoid going into starvation mode. So, that was a somewhat long way around getting to what I was meaning to. The problem I've been trying to wrangle in my head is how is it possible to get to 1,600 calories a day if you are eating half a chicken breast at each meal. Or even if I can get to a full chicken breast, which is under 200 calories. I would need to eat over 8 chicken breasts in a day, which is not possible if you are eating every 3 hours. I am part of a local support group here in town (that at least one person commenting in this thread is a part of as well) and I've been joining them for meals at a restaurant in which every meal is under 475 calories. From what I've seen in the couple times I've been there, most people don't seem to be able to eat the entire meal, many maybe getting through about half. I'm sure I'm probably trying to break it down too much, I'm a numbers guy by trade and the math doesn't add up.