ItsMe2033

Thanks Jane for your gentle, kind concern. Although going back to work soon does perhaps provide me a little more cover, my main motivation for returning back to work so soon was first that I'm totally ready to go back, both physically and mentally and secondly that I don't have the luxury of paid sick leave. I prepared for it starting about two months prior to the surgery. I always work out 3 times per week at the gym with about 2 hours per session. Starting about 2 months prior to the surgery I added about 8 hours of cardio per week, mostly on days I was not going to the gym for resistance training. Both my sleeve surgeon and my plastic surgeon told me that was the most important change I could make (assuming I already had good nutritional status) to speed my recovery time after surgery. When I arranged the time off from work I arranged for one week off for sure and possibly all or part of a second week. My number one concern was to make sure that I had good healing. I had read all the stories about the intensity and duration of the pain. Honestly mine wasn't really that bad. I spent one night in the hospital. The first two days I had quite a bit of pain, especially if I did anything involving my poor plicated abs. By the third day I was no longer taking pain pills during the day. That was actually my surgeon's sole criteria for returning to work, but of course I could not have returned to work then. By Wednesday, the fifth day after surgery, I went outside the house and walked a few hundred feet. I didn't think then that I would be able to return to work by Monday. I also sat at my computer desk (practice for work) for about 4 hours total. On day 6 I walked a half-mile and was doing well, but later that day I had a series of coughs (I got my pillow by cough 4) that really took a lot out me and I was wiped out for the rest of the day. On Friday, day 7, I drove for the first time since the surgery. I ran 4 errands. When I got back home I walked about 1.5 miles. I really should have done this as 3 half-mile walks with an hour of rest between each one, but it didn't seem to cause me any problems. I also sat at my computer desk for about 6 hours and didn't take any naps that day, although I did take some rest breaks. I realized on Friday that I had done more than I would have to do for a day's worth of work. Saturday brought with it the ability to walk fully upright if I chose to, without feeling any pulling at all. I actually took it a little easier on Saturday, but late that afternoon I went out for a few hours with a friend to help them look for a car On Sunday, day 9, I went to WalMart for a few hours, then spent an hour at Home Depot. I went home and rested for a few hours, then went into work for 5 hours. That gave me a chance to identify any problems areas there and a chance to fix those problems out of view of my fellow employees. On Monday, day 10 after surgery, I had an early follow-up appointment with the surgeon, then after that I was back at work with the surgeon's blessing . I feel that it was a combination of luck and skill that got me back to work in this short a timespan. It was not simply a pig-headed determination that I would be back at work despite any cost, but without a determined effort on my part to build up for my return to work, it could have easily taken quite a bit longer. My surgeon told me to begin with that I would probably recover quickly for several reasons and I feel he was right. I know that everyone's experiences are different. Some people will have much more difficulty returning to work, even when their jobs are not physically demanding. If your job is physically demanding then I can see it taking far longer to be able to return to work. I think that in this area, like most things in life, some planning and preparation really pays off. If you push yourself just a little too much, and overdo it just a little bit, the penalty will probably be low. If you really push too much and overdo it a by a lot then your penalty could be very high and you could undermine the success you are aiming for in the first place.

I had gastric sleeve surgery in August, 2013. I've told five friends and one family member (and no one at work) about it. I had the surgery on a Thursday and I was back at work the next Monday. I've been extremely happy about the decision to have the surgery and also the desicion to tell only a few people. It has required only minimal effort to keep the sleeve surgery a secret. I often see threads on the forum about people deciding to keep their weight-loss surgery a secret. I haven't seen threads discussing keeping any follow-up plastic surgery a secret. I had an extended Fleur-De-Lis abdominoplasty on the Friday just over a week ago. My intent is to return to work tomorrow, Monday. I have been out from work for six days. No one at work knows why I was out from work, although my manager and his manager know that I was out for "medical reasons." I have asked both of them to not share that information with others. The challanges involved in keeping each type of surgery a secret differ quite a bit. The biggest issues in keeping the weight-loss surgery a secret involve performing a little sleight-of-hand concerning others watching you when you eat and also having a plausible explanation for the weight loss. Distracting people from watching the way I eat goes on even today, and as far as I can tell, it will forever. For example, when I eat with a group of people, I always put more food on my plate than I will really eat. Otherwise I might attract too much attention for only putting a cup of food on my plate. I always order Water with my meals in public, even though I won't be drinking it, because it calls too much attention to your eating if you don't get anything to drink. All these actions and many more that I haven't named are second nature to me and require no real effort on my part. On the other hand, keeping the abdominoplasty a secret requires a very different action plan. I think most of the effort of keeping it a secret will take place in the next few weeks to months, then after that it shouldn't require any ongoing effort at all (This presupposes that no one will see me without a shirt. I believe I can make that happen) Some of the things that are concerns to me about keeping the abdominoplasty a secret include being careful about the way I walk in front of others in the next few weeks to months. Right now, I can walk fully upright, but I usually still walk somewhat hunched over so as to minimize pulling against my scars and potentially making them larger. My plan is to minimize my walking in front of others (mostly co-workers), but when I do, I will walk upright. Another concern is that I will appear thinner to the people around me than I used to be. Even though I have some swelling, my belly does not stick out as far in front of me as it used to. I thought maybe I would wear two or three t-shirts to try to add back a little bulk. I'm planning to minimize lunches with my co-workers for the first week or two back at the job by saying that I have errands to run at lunchtime. I also have concerns about what to say to my co-workers concerning the time off that I took. My current plan is to say that I had a lot of things to do around the house. Has anyone on here ever kept the plastic surgery from co-workers and selected friends? I welcome any suggestions on how to pull this off. On the weight-loss surgery threads about keeping the surgery a secret, there's often some user who chimes in and asks "Why don't you want everyone to know, are you ashamed of the surgery?" My answer to that type of question is that I don't want to tell the world because I think that limiting the information is what would work best for me.

I had surgery 18 months ago, and I've told four friends, one family member, and my girlfriend. I've been very happy with that decision. You should make the decision based on what suits your needs. One thing lots of people agree on is that even if you are going to eventually let everyone know, it's often easiest to limit the number of people who know about the surgery beforehand to a bare minimum. I've only had one twinge of regret about not telling everyone. For the most part when people noticed that I had lost weight and asked how I did it, I told them that I was carefully watching what I was eating and that I had increased my exercise substantially. I know for the most part those people are just asking that as a superficial question and I don't mind giving them a superficial answer. I had one guy who works out at my gym quiz me much more in depth about my weight loss. He's very overweight and he was looking for a real solution that he could use. I gave him my best, in-depth diet advice including a lot of the eating techniques that we learn about after surgery. If there had been an easy way to tell him about the surgery without his telling others I would have, but I didn't think he would keep my secret, so I didn't mention the surgery to him. The tone in this thread has been generally very supportive, but you need to be aware that some people will attempt to shame you unless you are willing to be a goodwill ambassador for WLS. I've seen many threads where posters imply that if you aren't telling people it means that you're ashamed of having the surgery. For most people who don't tell, nothing could be further from the truth.

I want to thank everyone for finding these links for me. I think this paper really speaks to the value of plastic surgery after bariatric surgery. After looking at the summaries that you have posted here, I found a copy of the paper online at the following link. I encourage you to download and save a copy since this site I am linking to is not the publisher's site, and it might not have this paper there forever. http://www3.med.unipmn.it/papers/2013/LWW_Journals/2013-10-04_lww/Plastic_Surgery_Improves_Long_Term_Weight_Control.17.pdf

Sometime around 6 or 8 months ago I ran across a medical journal article concerning a study that showed that WLS patients who had plastic surgery afterward had a better chance of keeping their lost weight off than patients who did not have plastic surgery. I thought I had bookmarked it, but now I can't find it. I thought that I had found the link on here, but I can't find it by searching here, and I can't find it by searching Google or Google Scholar. Can anyone point me to the study. Thanks

If you ask for a to go box at the time you place your food order you cue the waitress in to the fact that you won't be eating much, so they usually won't try to verify that everything was OK.

I'm seeing this problem as well on the iPhone app. On some threads I can go past page one and others I can't.

Congratulations on hitting goal.

Check with your Nut or the written plan the surgeon gave you. If you do decide to have one even though it's not on plan, I suggest that you take the salad and chop everything as finely as you possibly can. Be sure to take small bites and chew very well. And the first time you do it, you should only eat about half as much as you would with other foods.

I think this approach is fine for trying to get to goal. I recommend that you consider a cycle something like this: 1 month Protein shakes 2 - 4 weeks low carb, regular food 2 months of eating how you were eating prior to starting the Protein shakes If you don't have any regain during the 2 months of normal eating, then you could repeat the cycle again if you wanted to lose any more weight. If you regain weight during the cycle then you may be at as low a weight as your body can sustain, and so I don't recommend repeating the cycle in that case.

I can understand the desire to have stability after a period of rapid change, and of course you have to do what you feel is best. It is a basic fact of human psychology that the easiest time to implement change in your life is during a period of time when there is already a lot of change going on in your life, or immediately after a period of rapid change. Once you "rest up" after change, you can still change, but it takes more effort.

You won't become a social outcast for eating only two bites. In fact, if you carefully manage it, most people won't even know or notice unless you want them to. The exception to this is during the first couple of months after surgery where your food choices are restricted. Then you have to be smart and order something compatible with your plan such as some type of Soup, etc. The complications from the surgery are usually minor and tend to occur within the first month or two after surgery. There are some people who do have more serious complications. This does not happen too often, but it does happen, so you should read a lot of threads on this forum and acquaint yourself with the complications so that you are satisfied that the benefits outweigh the risks. For most people the benefits far outweigh the risks. I don't think the surgery is too drastic for you.

I have read about a few cases of someone losing too much weight, but it is very rare. It should be very easy to increase your caloric intake as you get closer to goal weight.

You still have to stick to a diet and you should exercise. It will be easier to stick to the diet than if you hadn't had the surgery, but it still takes some effort. After the first several months after surgery it doesn't force you to adhere to the diet, you can "eat around it," but it does make it easier to comply with the diet than if you hadn't had the surgery. Without the surgery, but with enough willpower, you might be able to lose a lot of weight, but the issue would be keeping it off. It's possible to muster a lot of will and lose a lot of weight. Besides the sleeve, I have lost over 70 pounds at least three other times in my life, but after each time, I eventually gained the weight back, usually with some additional pounds to go along with it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It has made it so much easier to lose weight, and it has given me a fighting chance to keep the weight off. Here's one way you should think about the sleeve. Imagine that your car had no engine, and you had to push it everywhere you went. That would be tough, and you probably wouldn't ever go anywhere. That's like your body without the sleeve. Now imagine that your car now has an engine. It can take you places, but if you don't step on the gas, or brakes, or steer the car, the car still won't take you anywhere. That's like your body with the sleeve. It has much more capability, but you have to steer it (eat the right foods), and apply the brakes (avoid the wrong foods) and step on the gas (exercise). It's not a magical car that just drives itself, but it gives you a reasonable way to get where you want to be. But if you take your eyes off the road, you just might end up in a ditch (regaining weight).

If he does have to lose 70 pounds it might not be as difficult as you think. Almost 25 years ago I was on Optifast for 3 months and lost 72 pounds. Of course in my case I regained it all, plus quite a bit more over the course of the next two years after that. There have been two other times in my life (besides this time with the sleeve) where I have lost over 70 pounds. In your husband's case, all he has to do is to lose the weight, then the surgery will help keep it off. If you read the stories in this forum, there are many people who have lost over 70 pounds on one diet or another, they just couldn't keep it off prior to surgery. Best of luck to you and your husband.