Dub

That is awesome !!!!!! You are doing great. Sorry about the fever Happy for you.

I stared with insurance paying the bill. That was the plan. Then they started pissing me off with delays and other shenanigans. I ultimately opted to self fund and use the same surgeon. Turned out to be an excellent decision that stepped up my timeline to surgery really swiftly vs having to wait at least another few months. I'd still be waiting for surgery, in fact, had I continued on with my insurance....it would have been late this month possibly.....but we are getting a new insurance carrier on Jan 1st. It was beginning to look like they were stalling on me to push it over to January. For all I know the new carrier may have played games, too.....and made me start over. Simply speculating here...... Anyway, had the surgery 10 weeks ago today and am so very relieved already. Do NOT automatically toss the idea of self-funding. Have the discussion with your surgeon's staff and see what their provisions are for such. You may be absolutely amazed at the reduced rates some of them offer to self-pay patients.

You look great. Feeling great feels......well......GREAT !!!!!

I thought that beef jerky was going to be the answer to my workdays. I could keep in in my pocket and rip off a piece an gnaw on it for my Protein. Was convenient and went down okay so long as chewed like crazy. I was around 6 weeks at that point. Bought ten bags from different manfs. The turkey jerky was horrid and went straight to the trash. Never touching that garbage again. Several varieties of beef jerky tasted wonderful. The problem with it was this........high sodium content. The high sodium screwed with my Water retention. Your mileage may very.

Awesome progress, sir. Awesome. Up until a week or so ago, I'd take pics using my iPhone. Then I'd open up the imgur app and upload them to my imgur account. I'd then copy the url link of the pic (all provide once you upload the pic to imgur) and paste in the thread. For some reason the iPhone app isn't letting me log in and I have to do so from my macbook instead. I simply access the imgur.com full site. It is very, very easy to set up the account and you'll get a lot of space for free. The paid upgrades are low cost and one time deals. There are other sites like photobucket.com and such.

Thank you sweetheart. Yea I hope so Lol Now my only issue is that something (dnt know if meds, sheets, hospital clothe, pillows, etc) gave me rash...they change all the pillows sheets, quilt, clothe, I took a shower with a cloth, and the nurse gave me benadryl which makes me sleepy. And the gas in my chest when I drink Water But it passes fast...auugh it kinda hurts :'( Sent from my LGLS660 using Tapatalk You are doing great. It'll get tremendously easier each day. A couple days after you get home you'll look at the pain meds and laugh because you'll no longer need them. Hang in there and be careful with your new self. You are going to feel great really, really soon.

You'll get no grief from me, woman !!!! I respect the hell outa what you've done. Now....if you've been bad and want me to spank you.......I'm totally down with that.

Thank you!! I appreciate the kind words. I have a long way to go, but I just might change my name if I lose enough weight. Awesome results, man. Truly awesome. Just think......you are just a month into this deal. Tremendous first month. As far as the name change thing goes......may I suggest Dirk Diggler. Mark Walberg's character name from Boogie Nights. You are gonna feel like a stud. I can't get over your clothing size difference in just ONE month. I know that feels great.

Great attitude. You are going to keep on rocking it. The family.....even though they are wishing well and have great intensions......can be suffocating at times with their advice. My parents were the same way when I visited them at Thanksgiving. We laughed it off. I'll be seeing them next month and it'll be funny to see their reaction to the progress since last visit. As far as your husband's cousin's husband.......you were literally preached to. That is too funny. Good stuff, too. Getting right with God is always advised before going under. I'm sure he meant well......but why is it that some folks hear that you are having surgery and then feel compelled to tell you about all the morbid aspects and possibilities. Makes me wanna yell out at them...."Fool.....hush up........not trying to hear that noise right now !!!!!". Yes exactly! Obviously he was being very caring but I was already such a scaredy cat. He did not help!!! Also for family, the more you progress, the more intense they become. Mainly because they cannot believe it and they never want the amazing progress to go away! I only see my father on the weekends because he works in a different city and every time he sees me he gets more vocal! He is very happy to see me losing weight and in a way he is in disbelief because I have always failed at my dieting attempts and now he is finally seeing something long term. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk Yup. I've seen that same thing from my friends and family. Over the past several years they've seen me burn off 120 lbs......only to regain it and more. I was sort of in their camp.....sharing their way of thinking for a while post-op, too. Recently, though.....I've learned to trust myself to use my sleeve powers for good not for evil. The further down the road I get the better my vision of future life gets. I now see how to use the sleeve and work it. I'm dialed in and enjoying food again, but enjoying it the right way. I see no reasons why I'll slip and "fall off the diet" because I'm now living normally and eating the way I'll eat until I"m an old fart sitting around a nursing home and asking everyone to speak up.......... I can travel anywhere and select off any menu and feed my carnivorous self........and do so from most kid's menu's, too.

You'll feel great. You are in the worst times.....the pre-op times. Ride it out....take on the liquid diet with vigor. Embrace it. Reap the rewards of the rapid weight loss that you'll see from the liquid diet. Have your surgery........wake up in the recovery room and take it all in. Be relieved. You're done. Finished. No more waiting . Once you get to your hospital room you'll start to regain even more of your senses. You'll notice that you aren't hurting....head is clearing up. You'll be thirsty. They'll probably bring you some ice chips. Glorious ice chips. Don't get pissed when you feel they are coming in your room really shortly after you arrived there to get you up and walking. They know what they are doing and you just have to trust & believe. Getting up every couple hours to walk is hugely beneficial to you in many ways. You may or may not be experiencing gas pains from the residual internal gas they use on any type of abdominal surgery with scope tools. I never had it. Some do. Some don't. Walking, though....is a sure way to reduce any of those pains and help get it worked out of your system. You'll be groggy and want to sleep but they'll be waking you up to get vitals, to talk and to get you walking. Go with it and know that you are on the road to feeling better. Take an extra pillow & a dose of pain meds for the trip home from the hospital. Hold it over your abdomen in the car ride home. It'll help a great deal as the car goes over bumps. Once home.....I avoided the bed. Laying flat just wasn't going to be comfortable.....getting up from bed was going to be a beast with my repaired hernia (the only source of pain.....none from the sleeve). My new recliner was.....and continues to be a great piece of furniture. Keep on your walking schedule. Don't let it slip. Don't even think about getting on a scale for those first two weeks. It's pointless. Your body is going to take on lots of fluids via the IV lines and there may be swelling from the surgery......all is normal and expected. Your body has gone through a lot of changes and may very well retain Fluid during this time........your weight is not trustworthy metric at this point. Just give it two weeks. It'll all get sorted out by then as you continue with the liquid diet. Enjoy the fact that hunger will most likely be gone from your life. Don't forget to take your Protein shakes on time and to have your supplements as instructed by the doctor. It can become very, very easy to forget to get your shakes in. Please.....do not stress about what can I eat.......what can I not eat........just stick through the first month and do exactly as your surgeon instructs. You'll be able to eat food you like in the near future.......only you'll simply want a bite or two and then you are done with it. I've found that my former love of pizza, Pasta and breads in general is gone. Way gone. Went out for Italian with my wife recently......at the meatballs and left the rest on the plate........cheeseburgers are awesome, however I don't want the buns.......pizza, I still love, but I just really want the toppings and cheese. These changes haven't been forced....they just came naturally. I truly don't care for candy anymore, either. It's like I've become a carnivore.....who takes his Vitamins. You are in the hardest part now.....it'll pass quickly. Trust me on this. I'm 10 weeks out from my VSG surgery on this very day and there has been nothing about it that I wouldn't gladly go through again. You'll do great. Relax and enjoy the ride.............

Man, that is super impressive. You gotta be loving the new body and feeling great. Well done. Hell yes !!!!!! 8%......you gotta be kidding me. That is some hardcore gym work, my friend. Much respect. Outstanding change. I agree....the decision to do wls was the best I've made, too.

I can do a before and "during" pic or two. The "after" is a ways down the road.......having fun getting there, too. First pic was taken on my very first visit to the bariatric center. It is located in the same hospital campus where my son was born 16 years earlier. I stopped beneath the room he was born in when I took the picture. I had a strong and compelling feeling that I was on the right path.....finally. Being close to that delivery room was a powerful feeling. Home from that first appointment and my son getting home from his buddy's house. He'd asked me how the appointment when and told me he was proud of me. This really pumped me up. I knew then.....for certain that I was making the right decision. Pre-op dieting had begun by this pic.....coming home from work and feeling better than I had in a while......in the program. This pic was taken the morning before my surgery. The umbilical hernia looked like it was about to 'splode at any moment. Those are 4x Under Armour pants and that is a 6XLT t-shirt. Life is good, brothers........life is good. The good Lord above has blessed me. He let me get to the point where I was finally teachable......and then he put some outstanding teachers in my path to coach me and get me seeing things clearly. I've been blessed in so many ways. In the last 12 months I've been in the care of a wound care surgeon, spine surgeon, family doctor, pain management doctor who I referred to as Dr. juice as he shot my spine up with wonder drugs, vein surgeon and my general practitioner........the man who took me on as a patient 13 months ago and who pushed me to pursue the further treatments of the above listed professionals. Our very first visit was a 90 minute session and he opened up the conversation about bariatric surgery. Each of the outstanding doctors he sent me to each had the weight loss surgery discussion with me......especially the wound surgeon. We had long conversations twice a week as he was digging and scraping and cleaning up the leg wound I'd developed after scraping it on a boat trailer.....wouldn't heal due to the swelling in my legs. Oddly enough....this doc was soon to be retiring and used to repair hernias daily. He looked at mine and suggested I get it repaired at the same time they did the VSG or bypass. It was an eye opening conversation. The spine doc told me in my very first visit after the MRI results that he could certainly operate and repair what I'd done.......but my weight would simply wreck his repair and that a bariatric surgeon could do more for me than he could.....and if I lost the weight my back would heal over time. Then......then there was my VSG surgeon. Amazing guy.....tremendous talent. He took care of the hernia.....performed his magic on the sleeve and has coached me up well. I am so very grateful and could only laugh when I received a letter in the mail from the wonderful general practitioner last week. In the letter he went on to say that he is leaving private practice and will be working with veterans over on the local Army Fort. I owe this guy so much praise and thanks and am a better man for knowing him these past few months. He helped me change my life. I'm glad to know that he is going on to do good things for our soldiers. They are far more deserving of his help than I was. I have my life back. My family is healthy. I feel a great deal better. The road ahead will be an adventure............. Here is a pic from last week.....9 weeks out from the sleeve surgery......6 months out from the initial dieting. Long way to go....but it's going well. These rapidly snapped pics taken yesterday. 2XL Under Armour pants and a 3XL t-shirt. Long way to go....but damn if I don't feel better about everything.

Very cool, Mrs ISG.....very cool indeed. You are doing great and will continue to do great. I just kicked Casual Male to the curb, too. Done. Getting into stuff available in regular stores is going to be fun.....Hell, I may even enjoy shopping. Always hated it before.

Great attitude. You are going to keep on rocking it. The family.....even though they are wishing well and have great intensions......can be suffocating at times with their advice. My parents were the same way when I visited them at Thanksgiving. We laughed it off. I'll be seeing them next month and it'll be funny to see their reaction to the progress since last visit. As far as your husband's cousin's husband.......you were literally preached to. That is too funny. Good stuff, too. Getting right with God is always advised before going under. I'm sure he meant well......but why is it that some folks hear that you are having surgery and then feel compelled to tell you about all the morbid aspects and possibilities. Makes me wanna yell out at them...."Fool.....hush up........not trying to hear that noise right now !!!!!".

Go buy yourself a large YETI cup. Fill that bad boy about 1/4 full of ice.....top it off with Water. Take it everywhere with you and sip your back out all day. It'll hold 30oz of water and you'll be able to measure your progress very easy. I get 3 of them down every day....minimum.....more if drink coffee. The shaking you are talking about was something that I did experience after a week or two post-op. I was feeling weak and rundown......no freaking energy.......almost passed out in Best Buy bending over to get something off the lower shelf.....left immediately.......then went back the next day to buy it.......felt puny then, too. Went and saw my primary doctor to get things figured out. Had a great laugh with the nurse who took me back from the waiting room......she took down the reading on the scale....wrote it on my chart and then gave me the elevator look.....head to toe....toe to head....."Hmmmmnnnn.....whatcha trying to do up in here ????? You gonna go get all skinny on me ??????". It'd been three months since I'd been in there and my weight was way lower. She then took my blood pressure and the laughing stopped. It was crazy low....and I always ran high blood pressure. The weight loss and my daily meds had driven it way low. Doctor corrected the med dosage......essentially cutting it all in half. The tremors and shaking were also attributed to low blood sugar as I was doing Atkins pre-op until the 2-week Protein shake diet.....surgery......4 weeks of Protein shakes. All the weakness, shakiness, etc.....all that went away over the next week and I really started feeling great.

I pretty much did like @@Inner Surfer Girl did and skipped the whole puree stage. For me....puree meant soup, oatmeal, yogurt and other stuff. I could see myself allowing foods like mashed potatoes and knew that it would sabotage my weight loss efforts. I stayed on full liquids (Protein shakes) for 4 weeks instead. My surgeon had a weird schedule leading up to my surgery and he made it known to me well prior to my surgery which he was able to either do my sleeve "really soon".....or delay it a month. I opted for the "really soon as in next week option....please" and it all came together.......and it did so really fast. As a result.....my first follow up appointment was on day 6......and then the next appointment was at 4 weeks once he returned from his travels. He'd not discussed any other way of eating for me other than Protein shakes at the first appointment......and the NUT wouldn't disclose any further schedule other than to "follow the doctor's orders". I'm really glad I did it that way. Enjoy going out with your family. It's a really special time of year and we are all truly blessed if we can spend time with our family. Be glad they want to go out......this will keep you from having to cook or prepare meals for them. I remember wanting nothing.....and I mean NOTHING to do with the kitchen my first 6 weeks or so. Get a bowl of soup....and laugh at yourself stirring it around the bowl the entire meal after eating such a small amount. My surgeon told me on our second visit......"Get used to never finishing another meal again....especially in restaurants".

Comments inserted above ^^^^^^^^ I can only speak for myself and my own experiences. There is absolutely no way, shape or form that I would hesitate having sleeve surgery all over again. Best gift I've ever given myself. I have only one regret............ Why didn't I do it sooner !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #kickingmyself

@@AlishaMay79 I think a week off in your situation is entirely workable.

You'll find your response. Before speaking on it to folks..........take a deep breath and collect yourself.....then speak. That deep breath and moment to collect is for you.......determining how much you want to disclose about your rapid weight loss. "No, I don't have a disease..........Yes I'm okay.........."

Work days.....up at 4:30. Premier Protein shake & my Vitamins go down......coffee is making while I grab a shower and get dressed. Fill up a travel mug of coffee, Splenda and a shot of Fairlife 2% milk. 30 oz bottle of Water in hand all day at work.......refilling it throughout the day. I drink a ton of water. Work meals are pouches of tuna, grilled chicken breast and other similar eats from the cafeteria.....or I take my own grilled stuff from home. Days off.......wake up and mix a shake and do the coffee thing. Last few days I've had fun grilling and chilling.....while wrapping up the Christmas gifts that UPS guy keeps dropping off. Fun times.

I told my boss and my coworkers. It's not like they wouldn't have noticed my different way of eating & drinking and the large volume of weight loss that is in progress. Seemed kind of silly not be honest about it. I look at it this way......I did this to make immediate improvement with my health. I really don't need anything from them. My friends before are still my friends...... This is about my own health and nothing else. I will say this.........the response has been overwhelmingly positive from everyone. Even one of the ladies at work who was not in favor of my decision to have wls approached me the other day and asked for surgeon contact information. She has a close friend that she wanted to see do what I did. Funny stuff. There are a lot of self appointed health experts among those we all know.....they do seem to come out of the woodwork at times.......they remained supportive, though....both before and after the wls. Water off a duck's back. No worries.

Last cruise I went on was in 2011. I was doing Atkins hardcore, but ate well during the cruise. Drank enough rum & beer to sink the ship. 7 days of this. I weighed in at my gym the day after I got home. I'd lost 5 lbs during the 7 day cruise. My secret was to avoid eating any carbs.....my only carbs came from the alcohol. Every morning......every single morning found me in the ships gym doing an hour of cardio and lifting weights. I was in BEAST mode and having a ball. Going on another in March-April.....obviously a post-sleeve cruise. Probably going to book it on the same ship since I know they have a great gym.

Well said !!!!!!!! You always hear way more from folks who are voicing complaints than you do from the overwhelming number who are beyond happy with their results.

You need to hike that skirt up and show more of dem legs !!!!!!!!! Well done. Getting new clothes is something that I've never been enthused about. I'm finding that is changing, though, as I'm leaning down. Some Western boots are in the future. By the time they fit me, though, it'll be Summatime. That's alright.....I'll be pimp walking around the swimming pool......wearing a bathing suit and those new boots and singing cowboy songs. Now show off those legs, young lady !!!! Bam !!!!! Congrats. You look great. That had to feel good to slip 'em on and look up in the mirror and see that. Very cool !!!!!! That is neat. Recently went to my favorite Mexican restaurant with some buddies. We sat in the outdoor section. I never sit there due to the cramped evil armchairs. I proceed with a bit nervousness.....I even veered off course on our way to be seated. I went to the bathroom and just stood there washing my hands and looking into the mirror.....wondering how to play it......what if I can't fit ???? Walked out and stopped at the bar and talked to the hot bartender a minute or two.....declined when she offered my usual, a 36 oz ice cold Dos Equis Ambar draft....just waved it off....we chatted a minute and then I finally faced up to the challenge.....and went to the crowded outdoor section and found my pards. There was one empty evil armchair sitting there waiting on me. I swear I got a lump in my throat. I sat down like I owned that damn chair. Room to spare. Hell yes !!!!! Fun and general chaos ensued that afternoon........

Outstanding !!!!!!!!!!!!