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Gastric Sleeve Surgery - An Unexpected Journey

A blog by joatsaint in General

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About this blog

The things I learned pre and post surgery

Entries in this blog

Punk'd by Mothra or How a Butterfly Made Me His Bhatch

Ok, the good news. I graduated from walking indoors to walking outdoors. Now the bad news. Monarch butterflies are bullies!   I've finally gotten enough endurance and stamina to start walking outdoors. I still don't like exercising, but I do like the effects. And I just can't make myself use either my recumbent bike or treadmill - they're just too boring. And besides, the computer is just 10 feet away the whole time, pouting from lack of attention. Did I mention that my Dell is an attention wh

Beans Beans...The Musical Fruit...or Green Beans, Mother Nature's Broom

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure, the 1st part of the title isn't true about green beans - at least not in my case, they don't give me gas. But the good news is, they do make me "regular."   Garden season has sprung in Texas and my dad's green beans are coming up like weeds. As usual, he planted waaaaaaay too many green bean plants and is complaining about having to get out there and pick them. And when I say waaaay too many, I mean just that. He has 3 rows of green bean plants - each ro

I Need A New Grocery Store :-(

Ahh, progress. We have a new supermarket in my neighborhood. It is beautiful, brightly lit, with almost anything you could want, from artisan bread to flat screen TVs.   And as with all businesses, they are doing everything they can to make the shopping experience as awesome as possible.   But they may have jumped the shark on this one:   There is automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh and pretty. Just before it goes on, you hear distant thunder and smell fresh rain.   When you

3 Weeks Pre Surgery

******************************************************************************************************************* Update:5/23/2013 Man, reading these old blog entries is strange. It's only been 5 months and I'd forgotten almost everything that happened pre-surgery.   After these few months post-op, it just seems that I've "always" been living this way and my previous lifestyle never happened. I feel like I've "always" eaten such small portions and could walk away from food. I've "always" g

Like Throwing Bricks Into The Grand Canyon or One Of Those Days – My Stomach Is A Bottomless Pit

Today was one of those scary days were it seemed like I just never got enough to eat. I have days like this on occasion and don’t really know what triggers them. I haven’t strayed from eating “good” foods, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the foods that trigger my hunger monster.   But, the amount of food I have been able to eat is really starting to scare me. With everything I’ve eaten, I definitely feel full, but the feeling doesn't seem to last but an hour or so.   So to combat

I Feel Pretty…Oh So Pretty…or HONEST, Those Aren't Mine!

Ok, I might get blackballed and lose my MAN CARD for admitting this, but here goes. I was cleaning out the closet, looking for smaller pants to wear. I started rummaging for something that would fit, found a nice pair to try on. They were a PERFECT fit, better than any pants I've put on. Looked good in the mirror too! All that walking is shaping my butt up! Did I really say that last line?   Up till recently, you could lean me up against a flat wall and there’d be no gaps anywhere from the top

I Don’t Have To Finish My Plate or How I’m Fighting With Old Habits

For the past few weeks or so, I have been trying to get my protein from solid pieces of food like chicken or pork loin. Up until now, I’ve been eating ground chicken or ground turkey – meats that were partially broken down by the grinding process. But now that I’ve switched to whole pieces, the switch brings up new issues.   When I was eating the ground meat plus vegetables, it was all mixed up like a casserole and keeping track of portions was as easy as spooning some into my half cup contain

Can You Fail With The Sleeve?

I believe anyone that has 85% of their stomach removed will lose weight. You can't help but lose, if you are limited to 4oz of food every few hours.   Now the big question is, where is your hunger coming from? Only you can figure that part out. Is it from emotional eating, boredome, stress, or is it because you have hunger pangs caused by the hormone ghrelin?   From my own experience, I knew that my hunger was real (even though I had eaten 2 hours earlier, I'd be hungry again). It wasn't unt

EGD - Swallow, Don't Bite

The pain! Oh God, the pain! - no, just kidding. They put me under and I woke up with a scratchy throat. I wouldn't even have noticed my throat if I hadn't been warned that it might be sore.   I was under for about 20 minutes, woke up and was back in the car headed home within the hour. If they haven't told you, they won't let you drive yourself home, but I felt alert and had no after effects of the anesthesia.   They gave me the same stuff used on Micheal Jackson, to put him to sleep.   I

Does This Taste Funny?

It's been 7 weeks and my taste buds have been outta whack ever since surgery.   Today I noticed that things are getting back to normal. Up until today every flavor had to be very intense or it was bland.   I was mixing my Crystal Light 3 packs to a gallon, instead of the normal 2. But today, it just tasted too sweet and I had to water it down.   When I went out to eat tonight, I noticed the subtle flavors of my food - it actually tasted good. Normally I just bury it in salsa for the intens

(Video) All Right, Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready for My Close-Up

I'm a groggy star. These videos were taken minutes after my return from surgery. I have watched so many videos from other sleevers who shared what they went through, I felt obligated to share my experience (even though I don't like my own pictures).   I was really groggy and in a lot of pain. And hittin that morphine drip like a muthar fu(shut your mouth!). :-P   <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/pS6v-BC-Vks?hl=en_US&ve

Escape from Temptation Island or How I Survived the Monthly Office Birthday Party

My office has an official celebration for everyone having a birthday each month. And they bring out the goodies. Lots of cookies, dips, chocolate gooey thingies and of course cake.   For reasons unknown to me the thought of all those goodies lined up for the taking triggers something in my brain. I get a ravenous hunger that almost compels me to eat stuff that normally I don't even think about. I just want to bury my face in the cake and go, "Nom nom nom. Oh, you're a dirty cake aren't you! No

Constipation and Milk of Magnesia Or How FEMA Declared My Bathroom A National Disaster

I swear that I see my toilet flinch each time I walk past the bathroom door. And I can hear my toilet give off the pitiful wail of a prisoner being tortured in a Medieval dungeon when I sit on the toilet, "Nooooo, nooooo, I'll tell you what you want to know. Just make it stop!"   It all started cause I was worried. I hadn't had a decent poop in over 5 days. What little pebbles did come out of me weren't nearly enough to the amount I had consumed. So I was worried. I went online looking for a g

Monster Poos - The Smelly Secret Behind Stalls or What can Brown Doodoo for you?

Update: 4-26-3013: It's still amazing to see what and how much comes out of me, considering how little I am eating. Most of the time, it feels like I am passing jagged rocks and it comes out looking like a pile of marbles. Then there are times like today, where this monstrous poo python emerges. And I'm thinking, "Where the hell did that come from? I just pooped yesterday and I haven't changed my eating habits or eaten extra food."   Is there some storage area in the intestines I don't know a

Blow Is Just an Expression - CPAP and Sterilized Water

OMG, That stuff is nasty.   When I was in the hospital, my CPAP machine ran out of water. I asked for some tap water, and the nurse offered me some sterile water instead. At the time, I couldn't smell or taste anything, so it wasn't a problem.   It was after I got back home and tried on my mask. The stench had infiltrated every part of the mask, tubing and reservoir. It took a few rinsing, but I finally got the stench out.   Sterilized means that all the bacteria and viruses have been remo

Post - Op - Day 8

Well, I'm a little late on the blog updates. I had planned to keep a daily update as soon as I got home from the hospital, but on top of gas pain and catching a cold, I've been pretty miserable until tonight. The gas pains are gone and I've pretty much whipped the cold.   I didn't know it at the time, but the Blue Bell sugar free popsicles I was eating were causing lots of gas, along with sugar free Jell-O. So once I realized what was happening I stopped eating them on day 4.   Since then, I

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