ouroborous

I'm not the doctor, but I'll chime in: leak rate and infection rate. Overall complication rate (complications happen, but a good surgeon should have a lower complication rate).

On smoking, I'm happy to say that I've never smoked and never will. This isn't a self-righteous thing -- it's self-preservation. My sister has smoked since I was very young, and I've watched her try -- and fail -- to quit again and again, for our entire lives. Now that we're both grown up (well, pushing middle age, really) I can really tell that she's a smoker -- instead of her actual age, 6 years older than me, she looks about 20 years older than me. And she's struggling with emphysema and early heart disease. And she's YOUNG (46). As to sex, well... if I had a sex life, that would be a fun habit. Who knows, maybe if I lose the weight the libido will kick in (as a man, it's no fun to be libido-less... women just assume that all men are horn-dogs all the time, and the ten thousandth time you have to explain that "it's not you, it's me" really stops being fun). I'm HOPING that my new addiction will be exercise and treating my newly-sleeved body with the respect and care that I've denied it for 39 years.

Well I'm probably going to try to walk it, but I'm also going to try to stack the deck and get a temporary disabled permit like MINI-me suggested.

I was thinking about my post-op recovery this morning, and I realized something. I am scheduled for surgery on a Thursday. I'm off work that day and the next, and then I have the weekend. So for that time, I have nothing I'm supposed to be doing except my immediate recovery. For the next week, I'm working from home (as a programmer, I'm lucky enough to be able to do that occasionally). However, the week after that, I'm back to work. From what I understand, I should be pretty much mentally back in the game within a few days, it will just be physically challenging for me. Thinking back on my girlfriend's recovery from lap sleeve (she was sleeved last November), she was REALLY tired and unable to walk long distances for quite a while... nearly a month. Where I park is about a half mile -- up a steep hill -- from where I work. Am I going to have a problem hoofing it up this steep hill a week and a half after my surgery? Will I have enough stamina for this? I'm brainstorming alternatives if it's a problem. I'm not sure if my boss will let me extend my "work from home" duration, so if the hill climb is too much, maybe I can carpool or something. I was just curious what your experiences of your stamina were about a week to a week and a half after surgery. Am I setting myself up for failure?

You should consider allergy shots if your allergies are that bad. The shots are apparently not too fun, but they WORK.

I have GERD and my surgeon has scheduled me for surgery on May 6th. So, no, it's not a limiter. I am lucky in that I had no damage from the GERD -- your mileage may vary; if in doubt, your doctor should schedule an EGD.

That's a REALLY good idea. If my surgeon is willing to write that letter, do you know where I go for the actual handicapped tags? The DMV/DOL?

Counting calories is not as useful as counting carbs. Carbs (simple carbs) do things that REALLY mess with our blood chemistry. I've had a couple of doctors and at least one nutritionist tell me that "simple refined carbs are the downfall of western civilization," and I think I believe them! As to weight loss "plateaus," from what I understand they are normal and usually temporary. You have to trust the process and just keep doing what you should, and supposedly you'll get to losing again in no time. Women in particular can have hormonal shifts that can offset weight loss with Water weight to the tune of several pounds. The moral of the story: do what you're supposed to do (eat modest portions, eat your Protein first, stay hydrated, exercise) and don't obsess over the scale. You WILL lose the weight.

Thanks, Faith! I think I'll give it a try. Better to start with the attitude that I "might" be able to do it than I "can't" do it, right? Worst case scenario is it takes me a lot longer!

Yeah, I've got the pale white skin too, sadly. On the positive side, I have never smoked (which, from what I hear, is just devastating to skin health) and I'm careful to avoid too much sun exposure. I'm hoping that that MIGHT see me through... Well, we'll see. I'm not even sleeved yet, so it's probably way too early for me to worry about this!

Does anyone know how this gas "gets out?" I've been wondering about this for a while... since it's in your abdominal cavity (not in your digestive tract), I have been wondering where it "goes"...

I use Flonase (generic) every day. Aside from the smell (which, up your nose, is pretty strong!) it's great. It REALLY helps with my allergies; that plus Claritin and I can pretty much ignore allergy season (when before it used to just kill me). Even so, I'm considering getting allergy shots. I'd love to be done with allergies!

The spray was awful. I was sorta half-awake the whole time they were scoping me... I actually *remember* the feeling of the scope down my throat and gagging a little at one point. Unpleasant! However, the rest of the day is full of little "blackouts"... I guess I'm just challenging to anesthetize. All things considered, however, the EGD is nothing to be afraid of. Even though I wasn't completely "out" during the procedure, I was so doped up that they could have been feeding me my own liver and I would have happily chowed down. Better living through chemistry, baby!

I'm envious. I have Aetna, but I was told that due to the corporate plan we had, there was no way that WLS would ever be covered. 20 grand I wouldn't mind keeping, but oh well... health is more important than money.

Sorry! Didn't mean that to come across as brusque or anything :thumbup: Sometimes when I'm at work and "sneaking a break" I don't have a lot of time for a response (and then an hour later there's absolutely nothing to do and I write a novel! It's the nature of my work, I suppose...)

Thanks for all the tips and information, fAiTh! You've got lots of good advice. I'm hoping to pick up some sports that I like. I can deal with SOME boredom at the gym, as long as that's not the only way I can get fit. I'm hoping to get into some "guy" things to do; being the perpetual overweight geek, I've never really had much "guy" stuff in my life -- rock climbing, martial arts, hiking, and I find myself oddly missing that part of my life. Also sex, well, at my weight and not feeling so hot about my body, I haven't had much of a sex drive for a long time (which is kinda tough as a 39 y.o. guy, since we're expected to always be the ones to "get things started!") -- hopefully that will change too. What I'm MOST hopeful for, though, is the sleep thing. I've struggled with sleep all my life (literally... one of my nicknames as a little boy was "sleepy"). With my sleep apnea, I feel like I haven't had a really GOOD night's sleep in AGES, and I'm really really looking forward to that. I'd almost be willing to have the surgery if that was the ONLY benefit. I'm also looking forward to feeling good about my body again. It's really hard to explain, but when I'm overweight and doughy, I just don't feel super manly or confident about myself. I have had various times during my life when I've been lifting weights pretty hardcore (I have a body that's naturally built for it... and what do I do? sit on the couch all day!) and during those times I've felt way more upbeat about my appearance and masculinity. I'm hoping to get some of that back if I can shed some flab and build up the muscles. Honestly though, I've been fat for so long now that I almost don't know WHAT to expect. I'm just hoping to build some new, healthy habits that can last me a lifetime!

Well, I've already attended an orientation meeting, and I'm not super big on support group type thingies. So not really.

I have loved ones who have lived in Canada and the UK, and I have to say that anyone who says that "we have the best health care system in the world" here in the US is full of it. We have a lot of great docs, and we have access to all the most wonderful and expensive machines and devices. But for most "average people" who have to just put up with whatever their crummy insurance will provide for them, the situation is far from perfect. My sister recently moved from Oregon to London and she RAVES about how great the NHS is. Note: I don't mean to imply that our individual practitioners here in the US are unskilled -- far from it. But our system is broken, very very broken. It's sad that we should be relieved when we find someone who is willing to treat us like a human being and actually listen to our concerns, but that's how it rolls here -- in a system that's driven purely by profits, the patients have become, to many people, simply a commodity at best, and a nuisance at worst. The fact that we have real lives, real fears, and real questions never seems to factor into the equation. If you got the impression that our broken, inhumane health care system here in the States makes me hopping mad, you're right. First in the world in costs, 37th in the world in patient outcome. I'll shut up now because this is verging on politics (which is one of those conversational black holes).

If you're post-op and having persistent headaches, you may also be dehydrated. The docs are all pretty much insistent that post-op your primary concern shouldn't be what you eat as much as how much you drink. I keep hearing people say "sip, sip, sip!"

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It's true that the main reason I'm getting WLS is because I've been unsuccessful with diet & exercise and the health risks of remaining obese into my 40's and beyond are unacceptable. But that doesn't mean I would be upset at feeling a little better about my appearance! Yes, I'm terrified of the surgery (just being honest here :mad: ) but I'm VERY ready to be done with being a porker.

I'm scheduled to be sleeved on 5/6. I'm expecting the first couple of weeks to be hard, especially mentally. My girlfriend was sleeved in November of last year, and honestly her recovery was pretty easy and she's had very little unpleasant effects. One time she ate some chicken that was too dry, and it got "stuck," but otherwise she's been happy with the outcome. She hasn't mentioned nausea or stomach spasms at all. I've had problems with depression in the past (mostly due to my sleep apnea, which is never more than partly controlled), and I'm expecting that my first week or two after surgery, I'll have to deal with a lot of depression and anxiety, and more than a few "holy crap, why did I DO this to myself" moments. I say all of this because I think it's better for me to be prepared for the worst, and pleasantly surprised, than expect the entire process to be a walk in the park and then get floored by the inevitable setbacks. As Tiffykins said, this IS major surgery, and we can't expect to just "walk it off" without a little readjustment period (although, ironically, walking may well be my best friend post-op to fight the blues and speed in healing!)

I think we're about the same general demographics (I think I'm a little lighter than you at 330-ish, and I'm just guessing that I may be a few years younger, but that's hard to say!) I'm hoping that I have anywhere NEAR as amazing of a transformation as you!

The irony is that I (a man) got into a lot of trouble for doing this same thing (dating two women, sleeping with neither) many years ago. Some women friends told me that I was being deceitful and "stringing them along" (even though the situation was almost identical, we'd never explicitly *said* we were exclusive, but they might have assumed it). A lady friend of mine completely chewed me out, saying that I was lying by omission and rationalizing it. I don't know who's right, but the really funny thing was that this same woman, some years later, was doing the *exact same thing* (and sleeping with the guys, to boot) and when I (gently) called her on it, she got all defensive and told me it was no big deal. My rule of thumb these days is that if I'm doing something I wouldn't want my romantic partner to know about, I probably shouldn't be doing it. Following that rule has kept me mostly on the straight and narrow. Of course, I'm a lot less wild at 39 than I was at 25!

Ah, a fellow Diet Coke addict! I'm actually having a fair amount of success kicking the soda habit, but caffeine... I need that! My sleeve is 5/6 so I have a little while before I have to give it up for good.

Congratulations, brother. I'm having my sleeve op on May 6th, and I'm hoping that I can have anywhere near your level of optimism, and success!