My Sleeve Journey Begins!

[FreeStanley 5]

Hello New Friends!

I need some support and hope to make some new friends here.

I had a Lapband down in Mexico in 2004 by Dr Kuri and lost 150 lbs then maintained that for about a decade. I started at 536lbs and got down to just under 400lbs which my surgeon said was a success. I never hit my goal weight of 300lbs but I was happy. After several gallstones and trips to the ER my doctor in Portland said I needed to have my gallbladder removed. The gallbladder surgeon in Portland offered to remove the 10 year old Lapband which was causing me trouble so I did it without even considering other options. At that point it was taking me 1.5 hours to eat half of a small meal and I had zero restriction. So his offer was a welcome relief.

I thought I was doing fine. I knew I had gained a little but not 80 pounds. That scared me because it had only been a few months. I was getting to the point of having a hard time walking, and I had developed neuropathy in my feet. I also had a couple weight related injuries and then my knee got real bad. This was a real low point in my life.

I visited a friend in Texas who had the sleeve and I didnt even recognize him! I was shocked at how much he had lost. So that was the start of my sleeve journey. When I got back to Portland I started off talking to Puget Sound Bariatrics in Washington and Legacy Emanual in Portland but both surgeons needed me to lose 30-40 pounds before they said they could operate on me for the sleeve. They said I had to be under 500lbs. One surgeon suggested I try a low carb diet. I didnt know what he was talking about! Thus I began learning about low carb eating.

During the last 2 years I have been learning about the weight loss industry. Ive read The Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung who is a doctor that helps cure diabetes, a supposedly incurable disease. Reading his book educated me on all the "great advice" weve been getting all these years about how to lose weight, advice that was pretty much worthless to people with obesity. Dr Jung examines all the recommendations passed down thru the years and then explains why they dont work, its a real education that answers a lot of questions. He also explains how foods we eat turn to glucose that is stored in our liver for the first few hours after we eat a meal. Then as our bodies use up the glucose and our insulin levels drop our bodies are able to access the stored body fat for the energy our bodies need. This is what causes weigh loss. Thats why intermittent fasting works so well.

I learned about intermittent fasting and have found that to be fairly easy to implement into my lifestyle. I hired a personal trainer and spent a year in the gym doing Water aerobics - inbetween injuries and weightloss restarts. I bought a few weeks worth of Adkins meals and then figured out how to use those concepts with regular food and even some fast foods. Ive learned about Portion Control and how important that is. Ive learned about carbs in food including veggies. I had no idea there were carbs in lettuce! Or that a banana contains 55 grams of carbs! I spent 2 weeks getting my body into ketosis which required frequent emergency trips to the bathroom for explosive diareah....no fun. Ive tracked all my meals and had to get honest with myself about late night snacking, the scale doesnt lie. But overall I havent maintained much weight loss. I admit Ive had some depression these last few months since my dad died, but Im moving forward now...

A few months ago I was surfing the web and started hearing about guys bigger, older, and taller than me having the sleeve surgery with great success. Yet the 3 surgeons I dealt with in the Pacific Northwest all said I had to be under 500 lbs...BUT WHY??? I soon discovered it was because they dont have the equipment to handle patients over 500 pounds and they didnt want to lose me as a patient so they told me to lose weight instead.

Seems crooked to me. Ive needlessly suffered for years now. If I had known better I could have had this surgery 3 years ago.

Im now scheduled for January 26 with Dr Rodriguez down in Juarez. Im a snowbird this year so Im moving down to El Paso for the winter, surgery and recovery. The one mistake I made when I first got my lapband was I didnt make it the sole priortiy of my life. This time around my sole focus for the next two years will be losing weight and getting my health back.

Im now looking forward to leaving Oregon for a few months and getting really focused on my health. Being in a sunny location will help me feel better and keep me motivated as I begin losing weight again. Today I discovered this forum and read some good stuff. I need your support and hope I can provide you some too!

Thanks for reading,
Free Stanley

[Sosewsue61 3,185]

Welcome Free Stanley. I wish you a good journey. All forums, including this one have good points and a few bad points. Most support on here is positive but you will get called out if you are not honest, or excessively whining w/o justification and a few people are snarky from time to time.

All in all not bad. We are not experts nor professionals and can only offer our own journeys as examples. Read and use the search box to find topics. Good luck.