Alfred Day

So I freaked out a little bit last night. On Tuesday, I met with my Case Manager, was weighted at 5 pounds below goal weight, and set a date for my surgery on Nov. 30. Yesterday, I started the process at work of prepping for my absence. Put my medical leave on everyone's calendars, starting setting meetings with my direct reports so they are set for success while I'm gone, started figuring out how I'm getting to and from the hospital (I live by myself, and while my sister is coming to the hospital with me, she doesn't drive so I have to figure out how to get to the hospital, get her back to my apartment from the hospital, and then get me home from the hospital when I'm done with my stay a day or two later since I can't drive myself). For the first time last night it seemed like it was really happening and I started to get some anxiety for the first time. Until now it's all been academic but last night for the first time it seemed very real. And what do I do when I feel emotions that I'm uncomfortable with. I eat stuff I shouldn't. I didn't go on a full binge, but I definitely did the late night, head hunger, keep looking in the fridge and picking at the leftovers thing. How have folks with experience dealt with the tendency to self sabotage? At this point, the only thing to keep me from having the surgery would be if I show up on the day of over my goal weight. I'm trying to be mindful and stay on target, but I still have a few weeks and don't want to screw myself over.

Any tips on what to eat before running my first 10k this weekend? So far protein bars and a banana or grapes have been the best combination.

Yes, it was brutally hot. I know a lot of people had problems and I saw some folks having trouble after the sun came up. Don't know if they pulled anybody off of the 10k, but I was heading to Disneyland on Sunday and saw someone who I think had already finished the race being tended to by an paramedics in the bus loop.

It went well, but of course nothing went according to plan. I had to be at the starting corrals by 5 and so woke up at 3:30. All I had going into the race was two protein bars. Race went well. It was around 78 degrees with 72% humidity, so the heat was a factor I hadn't prepared for. My energy level was fine through the first four miles but as soon as the sun rose and was hitting me in the face, my energy sapped pretty good. I still managed to finish with a personal best time way under what I had set for my goals. If I had it to do over again, I would stash some fruit in my hotel room the night before so I had a few more carbs that I can digest (post surgery, I don't digest things like pasta very well) that would give me more energy. Also, the water stations are good, but weren't enough for the heat, so I would take either a backpack with water or a water bottle. There's really no way to prep for the factor of weather, so I'll have to think how to approach that in the future. Thanks for the tips!

Since my runs so far have been short (no more then 10k/6.2 miles) hydration hasn't really been an issue. Once I complete this one, I plan to move on to the half marathon, but I'll start the process of that next week.

I'm at 109 pounds down from my starting weight and 73 pounds down from my surgery weight. I set a "mega" goal for myself of running a 10K at Disneyland over Labor Day weekend. Things have been going well. I started with walking on the treadmill pretty briskly and then moved to a run walk cycle after I dropped into the 200's. I have worked through some significant hip pain from my osteoarthritis and my endurance and breathing are improving almost daily. I'm using one of the couch to 10k apps on my iPhone and on Sunday I went for 72 minutes/5.4 miles and felt pretty good. But Monday morning I woke up with severe knee pain and stiffness in my right knee which has prevented me from doing aerobic exercise for the last 4 days. I'm well enough to start back tonight, but I'm curious what other folks have done to address/alleviate knee pain. My runner friends have already recommended a good pair of running shoes which are on their way. I'm also going to try to adjust my gait to land more on the ball of my foot rather than the heel. Any other advice from folks who have done running while still carrying a significant amount of weight? I'm currently at 288.

I was just down in Anaheim last weekend for a Comic-Convention (across the street from the park, but unfortunately not going in because it was cost prohibitive to pay to go just for the evening), and I"m super familiar with Disneyland (lifelong Disney Geek and former Annual Passholder). I'm also just about 4 months post-op from Gastric Bypass right now. Food I think will be fine. I got away with basically a scrambled egg from Denny's in the morning, and a little bit of Jerky during the day when I needed protein for lunch. The bigger worry I think will be getting your liquids in. I brought a water bottle with me the first day of the convention and almost lost it 5-6 times just from forgetting I had it with me and leaving it in places. If I had it to do over again, and when I head for my trip back to Disneyland in September, I plan on taking one of those CamelBak backpacks so that I can make sure I'm getting in my 64 ozs. I think walking around all day in Florida heat might have a tendency to get you dehydrated. We can go longer without food than water.

Good luck! My story is similar. Surgery on Nov. 30 and as of this morning I'm down 117 since I started this journey last July. I'm running the runDisney 10k at Disneyland Park in Anaheim over Labor Day weekend. I decided to run for a charity as well (Kellsie's Hope, supporting children with cancer) because I knew that the motivation of people donating money and supporting a charity would help kick me in the butt on those days when I just didn't want to get out of my chair and run. For the 10K with my group the minimum donation was $500. I was surprised that my friends and family met that goal fairly quickly, and I've since raised it to $1000 and I'm only$62.00 away from meeting that goal as well! So I guess I'll have to run the race now! Yikes!

Here's the update. I laid off running for about a week (still walked and swam) and did ice the knee a bit. Changed to new, professionally fitted running shoes and watched a bunch of videos that taught me that my posture while running was completely wrong. Started running again this week and no knee pain to speak of. Still have a bit of stiffness if I don't cool down efficiently and still working through what to do about the arthritis pain, but overall a significant improvement.

I think most things you listed won't change after surgery. Be aware, with RNY surgery, you can no longer take NSAID's as pain medication (Anti-Inflammatory drugs like Advil, aspirin, aleve, etc.). Tylenol is still something you can take. My doctor advised me of this and I had to think long and hard about it because I have osteo-arthritis in my hip, largely aggravated by my weight and since the surgery I've been only able to take Tylenol, which isn't as powerful as the Advil I was taking prior. That being said, I'm about 104 pounds down from when I started and my arthritis hurts so much less I feel like the trade off is worth it. I used to be in pretty constant pain and now it only hurts occasionally when I over exert myself. That being said, when it is hurting the Tylenol is a bit less effective than the Advil was. But my doctor and I discussed it and I knew this was gonna be the way it was after surgery. Good luck!

I took a bunch of stuff to the hospital and ended up not using any of it. I had my iPad (never pulled it out), books, magazines (never read them). The only thing that ended up mattering was my phone charger and earbuds. And that's only because the guy in the next bed was snoring and I put them in to get some sleep. I'd say comfortable change of clothes, phone and charger and you'll be squared away.

I had a lot of appointments leading up to surgery as well. I made a decision early on to be open with my colleagues and supervisors at work about what was going on. I am also privileged enough that I have a lot of sick time saved up that I've never used. I ended up taking 2 weeks of sick time for the actual surgery. With you being on an annual contract basis, you might want to weigh whether you think your boss will be supportive of you leaving for medical reasons. It would likely be illegal to fire you for having it done, but I don't know if they simply refused to renew your contract that you'd have much of a leg to stand on. My opinion is if you're open about why you're taking the time off, you protect yourself a little bit. 1. They might be reluctant to cancel your contract on the off chance that you decide to sue them for discrimination and you win the case. 2. If you take all this time off and they don't know why, they could actually fire you for not showing up for work, and you won't have the defense of discrimination because you would have to admit you never told them the reason you were taking the time off.

I'm 2 months out and my surgeon has limited me to carrying no more than 10 pounds. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I had a significant attack of panic and anxiety on the day I got a surgery date. I wasn't so worried about the operation as I've had operations before, but I was completely freaked out that I would either a.) show up for surgery over goal weight (I was about 10 pounds below when it was scheduled), or b.) not be able to commit to the changes I needed to make after the surgery. My panic led to a couple of days of really wanting to go back to old eating habits, but I had to be mindful of my goals and not fall back into old emotional eating habits. It was a pretty hard couple of days. I also had a bit of a panic situation the morning of my surgery. Luckily a lifetime of repressing my emotions (not a healthy habit by the way) and not wanting to embarrass myself in front of my friend who was giving me a ride allowed me to go through with it. That was two months ago, and I haven't regretted it yet. Not to say I haven't had bad days, but I remain confident this was the right decision for me to make.

@@OneDollarBill I'm really looking forward to it. I was gonna do the Super Heroes Half Marathon/Thor 10K, but since I'm a DC Comics guy I figured I couldn't betray myself. :-)

Great job! I had surgery on Nov. 30 and have registered for the runDisney 10k at Disneyland on September 2. If that goes well, I may have to consider registering for the Star Wars Half Marathon.

My surgery was on Nov. 30, and I took a bunch of stuff and didn't end up needing any of it. If I had it to do over again, all I would take would be: Clothes that are easy to put off and take on for the trip to and from the hospital. (Sweat pants and a t-shirt) Toothbrush and toothpaste (some funky breath after the surgery) Cell phone and charger. I brought my ipad, books, magazines and all sorts of other stuff to kill time and ended up not even touching any of it. Even the cell phone I only used to make sure my ride was on it's way. Even deodorant ended up being useless as I only really needed it when I left the hospital, and I ended up taking a long shower when I got home anyway.

I've luckily gotten a lot more support than I anticipated. Even the people who've said stupid things have generally said them with good intent. I too did the hospital by myself mostly. I had a friend drop me off and pick me up, but quite frankly that was more so they would quit bugging me as it would've been so much easier to take an Uber. People have been super supportive and it really has meant the world to me.

It really does depend on your insurance coverage. I have Kaiser Permanente through work. I had a couple of co-pays for Doctors visits, and then a 250 copay for the operation. The real hidden cost has been paying for all these damn vitamins!

I'm really sorry to hear that. Some years ago, I was in a relationship that ended because my girlfriend got accepted to Peace Corps and was going to move to Mozambique in Africa for two years. It's not the same as finding out someone doesn't want to be with you any more, but it was still quite difficult. Coincidentally, the day after she left I had scheduled a knee surgery that was going to keep me out of work and pretty much home bound for the next month or so. At first I thought it was the worst timing ever because I would be trapped with nothing to do but feel bad for myself and look around the house that she didn't live in anymore. What I found was that having the opportunity to focus on recovering my knee, and really working hard to get better was the perfect opportunity to focus on something important that wasn't connected to the relationship. I'm 3 weeks post surgery, and I find that in order to do well and maximize my results, I need a similar amount of focus on learning how to eat correctly and getting to the gym. Perhaps this is an opportunity? Instead of having to think about the breakup and all the questions we all have of why it happened, instead you can really focus on your recovery, and your post surgery life. For me it was helpful to have the ability to think about and focus on something that was genuinely important, and helped me not wallow in sadness.

I'm a few weeks into this new reality and I feel relatively good. I think I've moved from my early worries and concerns to a whole new set of worries and concerns. Now, I'm working really hard to learn how to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. I feel like every meal ends with me feeling overstuffed in a really uncomfortable way and the few times I've avoided that have been when I took my time and ate very little food. I think I'm still fighting my brain's old patterns which were the meal isn't finished until I'm stuffed. I went through what I think is the common experience of a week or so of thinking "What have I done to myself?". I find myself watching a lot of videos on YouTube about the best way to make food I can no longer eat. But that's subsiding somewhat. I'm struggling to get exercise in as I've never loved exercising and sometimes it's inconvenient, but I keep reminding myself that I didn't go through all this just to throw it away when I really need to be buckling down. So on the whole, pretty good.

I did it alone at Kaiser Richmond on Nov. 30. Had a friend drop me off and another friend pick me up. I can honestly say it was just fine. As a matter of fact, my friends came by for a surprise visit after I got out of surgery and it was pretty awkward. I was still kind of loopy on pain medication, I threw up a few times, and had to ask them to leave the room twice so I could go to the bathroom. I was very anxious about it before my surgery (I made several posts about it on this board), but ultimately it ended up being the best option.

Having only recently gotten approval for solid foods, I think I know what you're talking about and allow me to speak to you from one week in the future. I thought I was hungry when I was on liquids because I couldn't really feel the food going down. On liquids you don't really feel the difference in your stomach/pouch. Now that I'm on solids, I REALLY know the difference. I'm having to learn how to eat slowly as I can only get two, maybe three bites in before I've gone past full into overstuffed and overstuffed is not at all pleasant. What I was feeling during the liquid foods phase I think wasn't hunger as much as the need for texture. I just need to bite or chew something that had some density.

I"m almost three weeks post op and I can't even summon up the energy to have sex with myself.

I'm curious if anyone has any insight. I'm on a pre-op diet (High Protein, low-carb) that has been very successful up til now. My SW was 398 and I'm down around 360 now. I've been vacillating between 360 and 362 for a couple of weeks. My surgery is in two weeks, and my goal weight for surgery was 375 so I'm not terribly worried about regaining that much in two weeks if I keep with the diet. The problem is I've hit a stall for the last two weeks and I can't seem to break past 360. I've increased my exercise and my Water intake is solid. I'm pretty much doing the same thing I did to lose the first 38 pounds, but the stall is lasting a while. This may be a non-issue with my surgery 2 weeks away, but any ideas on breaking the stall. I was really hoping to be at 350 for the surgery and while that seems unlikely now, I'd really at least like to break 360.