ouroborous

*gulp* Tomorrow night, I'm gonna be a wreck...

My surgery is on Thursday, early in the morning. I'm starting to get nervous! On a positive note, when I weighed myself this morning, I weighed 319.6 (down from 330). That must be an error, because I can't believe that my low carb (but not low fat or low cal) diet made me lose 10 pounds in a week!

I think that the "am I doing the right thing" bit is very normal. I've seen a lot of folks on here go through it as their surgery date approaches. I've been feeling it too! You'll be fine!

My stomach now has less than two days to live, and my weight is 315.6 (down almost 15 pounds from my starting weight). If this diet wasn't such a bear to keep up with (I'd kill for a bagel right now...) I'd almost be tempted to just go with the diet alone!

I think you may have hit the nail on the head about the origins of why we consider obesity a moral issue: gluttony IS one of the seven deadly sins. However, gluttony is literally eating too much -- it's a form of avarice. Many of us eat very reasonably and very reasonable portions, it's just that our bodies (which evolved in the last Ice Age to hold on to every calorie available) haven't caught up with our modern society (where desk work involving almost zero physical activity is the norm). Yeah, I get this too. My measured IQ is off the charts (far closer to 200 than 100) and yet my doctor routinely feels the need to explain to me that what I really need is diet and exercise. It makes me really irate; sometimes I want to yell at people "I'm fat, not stupid!" Of course, research does show that obesity really does lower your cognitive capacity. *sigh* You just can't win...

Now THAT would be change I could believe in! So many nice benefits to weight loss :thumbup1:

I'll be sure and update the group. :lol0:

I believe Dr. Landerholm uses a 38. Thanks for that PDF, Tiffykins. Very informative, as usual.

Best wishes on surgery day! Hope all went smoothly for you. My surgery is on Thursday, so I'm not far behind you!

Thanks! I have a similarly dark sense of humor. I had a coworker suggest that I get my stomach remnant and dry it out and have it made into a "leather" fanny pack. That made me shoot coffee out of my nose

Yeah, I've been hoping for the magic 50 lbs in 6 weeks that I've seen a lot of guys about my age manage, and I realized today that if I'm down around 315 by Thursday (surgery day), 50 lbs would put me at 265. That's nearly 250. I don't think I've been under 250 since I was about 18 years old.

I agree. Reading all of these stories about people who are so successful with this surgery also helps me remember that this is the right choice. I think that as a lifelong obese person, I've grown so "used to" being fat that I may have almost forgotten that it's possible to feel differently!

Thanks for asking this question. I'm being sleeved on Thursday and I'm a worrier. I know that the most likely complication from the surgery (aside from dehydration) is a leak, so I was wondering what it felt like so I could tell the normal aches and pains from a leak. It sounds like a "if you have it, you'll know it" situation -- it doesn't sound like the symptoms are at all subtle.

Anyone know how common it is for sleep apnea to resolve (IE, be "cured") after WLS? I've heard WILDLY varying statistics, from "it never goes away, it just gets better" to "80% of patients who get the sleeve don't need the CPAP anymore." I'm guessing that the real answer is somewhere in between the two, but I don't want to just get my hopes up based on wishful thinking. Anyone know any hard numbers?

Yes, I think you will absolutely need this. While we all hope to eventually ditch the CPAP, on "the way down," you'll still need it for a while, and if your pressure is too high, it can impede your sleep as much as if it's too low (in fact, if it's too high, it can even cause a kind of apnea known as central apnea). The problem is that most insurance plans won't spring for a sleep study more frequently than 6 mos to a year. Even if they do, your copays may be exorbitant if you have crappy insurance like me (who says high tech companies all have great benefits?) Fortunately, most CPAP's can be adjusted by their owner if you know the magic code (usually it involves holding down certain buttons while you power it up). You can search on Google for the info on how to set yours. Note that technically you're not supposed to do this, only the doctor is. Practically speaking, however, it's a necessity. My girlfriend has already had to lower her CPAP pressure 4 times since her November sleeving, and I bet she's nearly ready to go off the machine entirely.

My girlfriend (who was sleeved in November) had quite a bit of hair loss, but it's coming back in strong and healthy. She's still quite self conscious about it, but I can tell that it's growing back. I know it must be scary, but just keep in mind that the hair loss is not baldness, it is a temporary thing, and that it's hopefully a small price to pay for a lifetime of slim good health! Think of it this way: you can always wear a hat to cover temporarily thinning hair, but a hat won't help your diabetes or cancer or coronary artery disease. Edit: as a guy who shaves his head, I'm probably not the MOST sympathetic ear on this, but still... it's temporary!

I'm hoping to eventually "wean off" the omeprazole (which is great, huzzah for generics!), but I won't even try until 6-12 mos out, and even then not without talking to the doctor first.

Well, even without reading the research, I assumed that there were homeostatic mechanisms that would lead to a "rebound" effect when coming off the acid blockers. My intent for a long time has been to take the PPI's for a "while" (3-6 months, say), and then, under doctor supervision, begin a process of weaning off them. This just firms up my intentions.

So, I'm curious what people are averaging for excess weight lost. Most of the medical journals and sites I read about the VSG are pretty consistently saying 60% EWL. However, the anecdotal numbers my surgeon mentioned, as well as the weight loss tickers around here, would seem to indicate that the percentage lost is higher than 60% -- closer to 80-90% is what I'm seeing (I see a LOT of long-term sleevers who are at or below their goal weight). For reference, I'm 6'1 (well, 6'0.75") and weigh around 330. My "ideal weight" -- with a BMI of around 25, is 185'ish. That means I have 145 lbs to lose. So, 60% of that is around 90 lbs, but 80% is 116 lbs. I'm hoping for 100 lbs, but I'm curious what the "real" numbers are. I'm sure that the surgeons/surgical centers want to inflate the numbers, but again -- the tickers around here would seem to indicate that 80% is a much more reasonable target. Anyone? Edit: you can calculate your BMI here. To get the amount of "excess" weight you lost, figure out what a weight corresponding to a BMI of 25 for your height is, subtract that weight from your starting weight to get your "excess" weight. The amount you lost divided by that last figure is the percentage of excess weight lost.

All really good advice! Thanks! I think I'll do okay, since my girlfriend will be with me for the first four days (Thurs.-Sun.) and helping me to remember to do things like sip and walk, even when I'm tired or have cloudy brain syndrome (CBS).

One week from today, I will be in recovery from my 7:30am surgery and probably still in pain and woozy. Since it's an outpatient procedure, I'll be back home by now, but the hospital where they do the surgery is less than 15 minutes from my home. I hope I have a smooth recovery; my girlfriend's recovery was almost trivial (and she had a more involved surgery than me, repairing a huge hiatal hernia at the same time). Trying not to freak out...

Yeah, that's one real benefit of dating another sleever: I get someone to ask "is this normal?", and we don't have to worry about one of us eating fast and trying to "keep up."

To be honest, it's probably better to get this done earlier rather than later, especially if you have a family history of obesity. It's extremely unlikely that things will get better, weight-wise.

I figure that for the first 4-6 weeks, I'm not going to eat much. Just enough to "keep body and soul together" and get my Protein in. That plus the hydration will be enough to keep me busy! After 6 wks, my surgeon says, your stomach has >90% of its original structural strength, so the risk of actually HURTING yourself from overeating is much lower. I'm WAY more worried about leaks and injury than I am about not getting in that one last bite...