Manatee

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I'm still alive, and doing well

See http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f12/manatees-turn-plastics-75422/ for (hopefully!) the final stages of this process.

And just as a reminder of where I started, see the pic from April 2007. That's a 48" pant (+overhang!), now I'm in a 33-34"

I didn't have as far to go as some of y'all, but I'm still proud of the progress

In my experience, one can sorta lose weight and build strength at the same time, but the best results are built by focusing on first one and then the other.

In my case, I toned, but the goal has been to get concave and thin first. Now that I have reached that, I have unfilled the band and will focus on building strength and bulk over the next year.

I also know as a 5'9" guy with a natural medium build, I won't ever bench 300-400 lbs. That's perfectly fine for me.

So, day 5

Mostly off the pain meds, I did end up taking some tonight after driving over some too-rough road in the pick-em-up.

The strange yellows and blacks and greens are fading back to purple. The long horizontal scar looks like it's going to clean up pretty well, time will tell.

Still wearing a full knees-to-shoulder compression garment, along with an abdominal wrap when at home. When I'm out I take the additional wrap off so that the clothes aren't tight to minimize the pressure on the incisions. I can walk upright just fine, albeit slowly.

Getting some really strange sensations on the skin surfaces, I suspect that will be the case for quite some time.

Thanks for the comments, they're appreciated.

Personally, I always tighten up for a day or three when I have to fly in a jetliner. My doc swears that the travel shouldn't affect it, but that has been a consistent reaction for over a year now.

I avoid all foods and drinks before and during a flight.

Here's the thing for me: the band keeps me from backsliding badly when I do lose my motivation. After a while with this, you start to see portions differently, and you start to see types of food differently.

It may be hard to imagine, but after a while you start wanting to be in better shape, and you'll find yourself working out and enjoying it. It's a matter of feedback.

I've lost hundreds of lbs in my lifetime, and gained them all back. This time, it's gone and will stay gone.

Oh, and that lb per week is just about what my doc says we should be aiming at. 1-2 lbs is a safe, sustainable loss, and in only a year or two you'll be down a significant amount.

See my profile albums for pictures.

Just because they're related doesn't make them non-toxic.

Some people need to be left behind. Move on, and f' em.

Well, after 15 months, a revision, and now a tummy tuck/lipo, I do believe I am finished.

I still have to recover from the tuck (I'm only 3 days out), but I can FINALLY SEE a skinny dude in the mirror!

Frankly I don't care what my final weight number turns out to be, it's the body shape that's important -- and I'm finally concave.

Bruised, ugly and still healing pics here, I expect the skin to retract in the future: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f12/manatees-turn-plastics-75422/

Well, after 15 months, a revision, and now a tummy tuck/lipo, I do believe I am finished.

I still have to recover from the tuck (I'm only 3 days out), but I can FINALLY SEE a skinny dude in the mirror!

Frankly I don't care what my final weight number turns out to be, it's the body shape that's important -- and I'm finally concave.

Bruised, ugly and still healing pics here, I expect the skin to retract in the future: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f12/manatees-turn-plastics-75422/

285 to 17X.

I'm 3 days out from Lipo and a tuck, so there's still some swelling for a while. 48" waist + overhang to a loose 34"

Day 3 report.

Got the feeling back in my fingers, doing well there.

No more seeping, so the gauze is gone too.

I decided to get out of the house for a bit today. That was sort of a mistake, as I really didn't have the stamina I expected. Made it back home and took some more of the pain medicine. Feeling better does NOT mean you are indeed better!

Got some pics in regular clothes. That's a large shirt and a pair of 34" jeans, both are very large on me. Good thing for now, but I think I'm going to end up needing custom tailored shirts if I bulk up any. Look how huge that back billow is, and that's just cloth -- nothing under it.

And more pics, without the compression garment

Beware, all sorts of bruises and scarring, not pretty at all.

The skin is very loose but will adhere back to the underlying layers later from what I understand. It feels very strange, I suspect there's some nerve damage under there, but that too will eventually heal.

On the bright side, the fingers are close to normal again.

Some early post surgery pics

Keep in mind that there's quite a bit of swelling, and the final results won't be in for 6-8 weeks. Also, I'm wearing a compression garment right now. Still, it's a hell of an improvement.

At this point I have NO idea what the scarring is like, I get to see those tomorrow.

The default background color and font color makes it very hard to find a font color everyone can see. Can we please go back to grey background and black fonts for default?

The order of the names in the chatroom are now in order of entry rather than alphabetical, which can cause difficulty finding someone

The thing seems to freeze up a lot more often, but that may be related to site maintenance rather than the chatroom itself

The sounds do not mute even when mute is selected for all sounds or for individual sounds

Thanks for having the chat room, it's an invaluable resource. I do like the new room structure

Made it through. Trussed up like Houdini, but I can see that the extra roll seems to be gone. Pain isn't bad at all, been up and walking.

Only weird side effect is that all my fingers are numb. Went back to the doc to have it checked, he has no explanation. His advice is to hold out for a bit and see if it's better tomorrow.

I've been pretty much stable for 6 months or so, been banded 14 months. For me, the band helps me keep from backsliding when I get tired of being good. It's simply externally enforced willpower :girl_hug:

I could always lose weight, it was keeping it off that was hard. The band helps me from being VERY bad when I do go bad.

You -know- that these people are given full medical workups during the casting period. It's completely irresponsible for the producers to put a gentleman who is that sick on the show. Not only is it unsafe, it gives the yellow team a disadvantage (or advantage, depending on your viewpoint) in the challenges.

re: the weight loss -- a lot of teams Water load before the start of the show, water weight comes off easy early on.

What really bothers me is that some of those folks don't weight a lot more than I did at the start. Surely I didn't look like -that-, right?

Pre-op meeting with the plastics guy

Had my pre-op meeting for the Monday surgery. I was given a ton of prescriptions for pain control, which concerns me quite a bit. In addition, I found out that I'll have to be in a full-body compression garment 24-7 for at least 3 weeks following the surgery to control the swelling, and then have to sleep in the thing for another 6 weeks afterwards. That's fun. I made the decision to buy a few extra, seems only civilized

No exercise for at least 3 weeks, no weight lifting for 6, only "light physical activity" for 3-6 weeks -- and yeah, that leaves out exactly what you think it does :thumbup:

On the positive side, he's very confident that we'll get the results we want, and if there's a little bit of dog-ear left on the sides he'll go back in later to clean that up, included in the original price.

It turns out he's done band patients before, so there's no worries for the tubing and port and such.

Speaking of, I managed to get in today for a complete unfill of the band. Thank the (non-existent) gods that the pressure is finally gone. I'd forgotten what it was like to not have constant pain in the stomach. The acid is gone, the pain is gone, and not a moment too soon: I was vomiting blood again this morning :frown:

Turns out that my band doc knows the plastics guy and had good things to say about him. That relieved a lot of anxiety for me.

So here we go!

Pre-op meeting with the plastics guy

Had my pre-op meeting for the Monday surgery. I was given a ton of prescriptions for pain control, which concerns me quite a bit. In addition, I found out that I'll have to be in a full-body compression garment 24-7 for at least 3 weeks following the surgery to control the swelling, and then have to sleep in the thing for another 6 weeks afterwards. That's fun. I made the decision to buy a few extra, seems only civilized

No exercise for at least 3 weeks, no weight lifting for 6, only "light physical activity" for 3-6 weeks -- and yeah, that leaves out exactly what you think it does :thumbup:

On the positive side, he's very confident that we'll get the results we want, and if there's a little bit of dog-ear left on the sides he'll go back in later to clean that up, included in the original price.

It turns out he's done band patients before, so there's no worries for the tubing and port and such.

Speaking of, I managed to get in today for a complete unfill of the band. Thank the (non-existent) gods that the pressure is finally gone. I'd forgotten what it was like to not have constant pain in the stomach. The acid is gone, the pain is gone, and not a moment too soon: I was vomiting blood again this morning :frown:

Turns out that my band doc knows the plastics guy and had good things to say about him. That relieved a lot of anxiety for me.

So here we go!

Seems that there's people in the chatroom, but they cannot see each other?

Just curious. For those who have had Lipo, did the doc have to do anything special to protect the port or tubing?

Thanks

T

This time, it's purely cosmetic.

Every time I drop into the low 170s I start looking and feeling sick, but the damned roll won't come off the middle. I finally broke down and went to talk to a plastic surgeon today.

He said that I've done a great job, but that the best way to get rid of that roll is to take it out via Lipo. Fortunately my skin has rebounded well, and so no major cutting will be required.

His work looks good, his own staff has had him work on them and is happy, and the price was pretty decent. So, I'm scheduled for 9/22 -- which is just under 2 weeks away!

We'll see what happens.

Scheduled for another surgery

This time, it's purely cosmetic.

Every time I drop into the low 170s I start looking and feeling sick, but the damned roll won't come off the middle. I finally broke down and went to talk to a plastic surgeon today.

He said that I've done a great job, but that the best way to get rid of that roll is to take it out via Lipo. Fortunately my skin has rebounded well, and so no major cutting will be required.

His work looks good, his own staff has had him work on them and is happy, and the price was pretty decent. So, I'm scheduled for 9/22 -- which is just under 2 weeks away!

We'll see what happens.

Nobody else posting? Ok, fine....

Traded one clothes hanger for another

So, I had a garage sale a few weeks ago, and sold the Bowflex and the ElliptiKILL.

That gave me enough money (almost!) to buy this

It's a brand new 2007 Fuji Professional 3.0, all carbon and other goodness. My buddy J has been trying to get me into this for a while. This poor thing was sitting dusty at the bike shop, and since the 2009s are almost out and the 2008s on discount, I got a pretty good deal on it. All together it weighs 20 lbs.

Took an easy 11.25 mile ride on it right after I bought it, will have to work up to real distances. I also got the geeky padded shorts and a jersey. No, I will NOT be posting pics

Traded one clothes hanger for another

So, I had a garage sale a few weeks ago, and sold the Bowflex and the ElliptiKILL.

That gave me enough money (almost!) to buy this

It's a brand new 2007 Fuji Professional 3.0, all carbon and other goodness. My buddy J has been trying to get me into this for a while. This poor thing was sitting dusty at the bike shop, and since the 2009s are almost out and the 2008s on discount, I got a pretty good deal on it. All together it weighs 20 lbs.

Took an easy 11.25 mile ride on it right after I bought it, will have to work up to real distances. I also got the padded shorts and a jersey. No, I will NOT be posting pics