Becoming a Dad

[SciFiGuy 18]

This probably isn't an original answer, but I was pushed to get my sleeve procedure because I was becoming a dad.

I was fat my whole childhood, starting from around age 6. In highschool it distributed a little better, but there was no mistaking the fact that I was a fat kid. In college I went on a low-carb diet for the first time, and lost about thirty pounds. I was the most fit I had ever been. But the weight inched back on gradually so that I had gained back 20 pounds of it by the time I graduated. the summer after college I had surgery to get rid of my man-boobs, which had stayed with me even as I had lost weight from the rest of me. And I felt great again! But happiness is closely associated with relaxation in my book, and I just stopped being careful. I ended up gaining back all my weight and then some, and I was big and fat by the end of my first year of law school. So I did low carb again. I lost the weight. I looked good, felt good. Started dating a girl I liked. I relaxed. I gained the weight back.

Years later, I was single. I was leaving my job as a lawyer to go to business school. Went low carb. Lost twenty pounds. Went to business school. Drank heavily, because that's a thing you do in business school. Gained back the weight, plus another twenty pounds.

Thankfully, I met the woman who would become my wife that year, before I gained the weight back. But of course, it started the same chain of events-- get happy, relax, gain the weight back. But she loved me and it didn't matter. We got married a couple of years later (and, for the wedding, I lost thirty pounds, and then, after the wedding, gained back 35...) and she got pregnant soon after, and that's when I decided, this pattern isn't healthy, and I want to be around for a long time to see my son grow up. The thing that really got me wasn't even that I couldn't keep the weight off, it's that every time I yo-yo'd, my weight would end up higher than it was before. When I was in my 20s I could go on a low carb diet and lose the weight quickly, but I'm not in my 20s anymore, and it's harder to get the weight off. It's time for a permanent solution, and some help with enforcing the discipline that I need to keep my weight under control.

[Mayaresearchmom 104]

Congrats on becoming a dad, and for making the decision to take control of your health!

[Elode 8,093]

Congrats, all sound like valid reasons! Welcome!

[kikicoates78 220]

KUDDOS to you!!!!

[bobbyswife 862]

I completely understand. Part of my ultimate motivation is that I just became a grandmother and I have so much trouble holding my grandson. THAT is not acceptable.

[SciFiGuy 18]

Well, I'm two days post-op, and so, so happy I did this. The hardest part of the surgery was not seeing my little champ for two days, because my wife was worried about him getting exposed to viruses/bacteria in the hospital.

My belly is still distended from surgery-- I've got a lot of gas, and there's obviously swelling that'll take time to go down. My liquid diet for two and a half days pre-surgery was murder, but after the surgery I was on IV fluids with nutrition, so I actually felt better afterward. I was in so much pain right after the surgery, but morphine took off the edge, and by late night I wasn't even using the morphine that much. The way they constantly interrupt your sleep in the hospital left me majorly wiped out, but I was just so grateful to everyone who helped me, from my parents who sat with me until way past their bedtime Wednesday night to make sure I was getting all the tests I needed, to my wife who jumped through so many hoops making sure someone was taking care of our boy and she just came and sat with me. The thing I wanted most was to have her sitting there with me while I took a nap or two, and that would normally drive her nuts, but she just... did it. She just sat there and read while I dozed on and off. It was exactly what I needed.

The hospital staff was mostly great. The nurses were all so patient with me, dealing with all my little requests, never getting tired of all the care I needed. I had one "Patient Care Associate" who was just awful, wouldn't help me walk around even when the doctor had ordered it, got short with me several times, etc., but the woman who relieved her at 7 AM more than made up for it with how willing to help she was. I made sure to let the supervisor for the floor know the names of everyone who had done such good work for me.

And now my pain is pretty minimal. I get stomach cramps from eating/drinking, but they go away pretty quickly, and finally passing gas relieved the gas pain that was building up inside. I'm not hungry much, and the hunger is sated virtually immediately. A little puddle of butternut squash Soup was the sum total of my dinner.

I'm not worrying about Protein, because I'm doing my shakes. My wife got some flavor essences to put in them, to change things up a bit so they don't get boring, and the thing that's most important after getting my fluids is getting my Protein. I even started looking up some recipes, and I'm getting excited about cooking my bariatric-friendly foods. But I also know that I need to pull away from food as a central cultural force in my life, and one of my projects is going to be teaching myself to think about something else when my mind drifts to food. I anticipate reading a lot of comic books over the next few weeks of recovery.

Also, after getting home from the hospital, showering was a revelation. That felt great after peeing into a bottle in my bed for the last two and a half days (I didn't get a catheter).