abefroman329

I highly recommend anyone who has the surgery obtains talk therapy, relationship or no relationship. You won’t know who you are any more, and you can’t work through that feeling on your own.

Any time you need to hear it, let me know and I will tell you!

Here’s the thing about airplane seatbelts: They start out really long and, whenever there’s a problem with the strap, they just chop off the problematic section. So needing an extender isn’t really a gauge of anything. That being said, not needing an extender, AND needing to tighten quite a bit of the strap, AND not spilling over into my neighbor’s territory, AND being able to lower the tray table without my belly getting in the way....it’s all petty awesome.

BCBS has shorter preauthorization times for everything, honestly. I needed preauthorization for a dental device to treat my sleep apnea as an alternative to a CPAP machine - it should have taken 4 to 6 weeks and it took 10 days.

Yesterday my wife and I went to a play and I was sitting next to her and someone else and I just...sat in the chair. Didn’t have to worry about spilling over into the stranger’s chair. Is that how it is for most of the population?

The recommendation was two weeks off work. I was off for a week and worked from home for another week. I do not recommend rushing back to work. If you’re not a twelve-month employee, try to do it during the summer or during a time when you otherwise have two weeks off.

Well godDAMN!

I can only do that in an exit row - I'm 6'1". But i can do it now! Oh! And while I still have to treat my sleep apnea, it's mild enough to treat it with a dental appliance instead of a CPAP machine! The insurance company approved it and they're making it as we speak!

I haven't lost any weight since July, but I'm still losing inches off my waist, so I wouldn't go by BMI. I've also noticed that I'm a size 38 in Lucky jeans, a size 40 in Wrangler cargo pants, a size 42 in Old Navy cargo short, etc., etc. I don't know if this was the case prior to surgery, or if I just didn't care.

I would not have guessed you were 5'3".

At this point I can take 7-10 pills at a time with no issues. They range in size from my fish oil capsule (huge) to my Cozaar pill (tiny).

That’s why I’m really concerned about using MJ post-surgery. Although I’ve noticed that I don’t puke after overeating now. When I was a regular MJ user, I did find it helped with occasional nausea (say, after food poisoning), but I never had chronic nausea. I also highly doubt that’s how your surgeon wants you treating it.

I went jeans shopping at Lucky yesterday. I shopped in a brick-and-mortar store that wasn’t a big and tall store. I had to try on different options to see which was best. Oh, it was a whole new world.

I’ve had the Aria for a few years and I’m happy with it.

I don’t get turned on by Dumpsters. Well, not that time.

After my sleep study on Tuesday night, I was hoping to announce a NSV of being rid of my CPAP, but...not quite. My OSA is down to “mild” from “severe,” though, and without a CPAP, I’m down to 13 arousals an hour from 117 when I first had a sleep study in 2011 (and was 110 pounds heavier). So here’s another NSV: Yesterday I accidentally threw our garage door opener in a Dumpster, and without thinking about it, I boosted myself onto the lip of the Dumpster and leaned in to retrieve it.

Yes, it’s normal. What I’ve found happens is that I’ll hover around a particular number, and then one day I’ll start hovering around a number 5 pounds below that. If my Fitbit Aria is to be believed, my body fat percentage is down about 15 percentage points since the surgery.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And if you’re not losing weight fast enough, your surgeon’s office or dietitian will tell you. Whenever I thought I wasn’t, either of the two would tell me everything looked great.

Skydiving, ride roller coasters. When we go to Wisconsin Dells next month, I’ll be able to zipline. Kayaking on the Chicago River. When we fly to England next year, I’ll be able to sit in the middle seat next to my wife comfortably and pass our son back and forth. When we go to the beach next summer, I won’t need an enormous reinforced beach chair.

When I was a freshman in college this happened to me (in front of my only cousin on my Mom’s side who I’d met only once before plus other family and lots of strangers). I was turned away at the entry gate to the ride after not wanting to try fitting in the example seats they had up at the front. I was frustrated and embarrassed and have held the experience with me for over a decade. I used to love roller coasters and rides but have not been on a single ride since. I can’t wait until I’m small enough to feel okay going again! Even at ~290 I was too big to ride most of the roller coasters at Great America two years ago. I’m hoping to give it another shot this summer, but we’ll see if I fit on any more! As technology progresses, so do safety systems, and there are some coasters that seem to only accommodate jockeys and ballerinas. We’re going to a local carnival today and there’s one ride that I may ride just because it has one of those “may not accommodate larger riders” signs, not because I particularly want to, but because I can!

I did a 5K today (and set a personal record!), and initially requested an XL t-shirt, but exchanged it for an L because the XL looked way too big. Then I washed it and it shrank a lot. Then as I was putting it on, I was thinking the following: Oh, this will never fit-it totally fits.