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I have felt very lucky to have had a couple of months preop to be on this site & learn from others. I appreciate the knowledge, advice, and the sharing of experiences I have found here, and I plan to pay it forward by posting regularly on my post op progress. So far, my experience has been pretty good, although in some ways it’s different than what I imagined. I was sleeved on Wednesday, June 19 at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA. When I woke up from surgery, I felt queasy, but I didn’t get sick. The nursing staff was great, and so was my special bariatric nurse, Debbie. I was able to wear my own gown & robe, and somehow that made me feel better. I was up walking within a couple of hours of being in my room. I needed help walking at first, mainly just to have somebody keep the IV stand out of my way. At first, I was instructed to walk once every four hours, but on the second day they bumped it up to once every 2 hours. By the second day, I could do it by myself, but my husband usually came with me anyway. I used the breathing tube thing (spirometer?) almost every hour. I never hit the goal they set for me, but I came fairly close. I didn’t sleep much on Wednesday night, only dozing on and off. They came in to take vitals every 4 hours & I just couldn’t get comfortable. That first afternoon, another VST member, journeybegins05032013 came by to meet me, and brought me the sweetest goody bag with samples of different protein powders & flavors, drink mix-ins, iron & calcium chews, a Dr. Seuss book, and a lovely journal. It was such a thoughtful gesture! I have also received wonderful calls, texts, and messages from many of my sleeve peeps, and I am just so thankful for this community. WARNING – Grossness alert! The next paragraph is about poop. Based on what I had read from others, I was expecting to not have a BM for several days. However, on Thursday morning I started pooping. It was extremely liquid, just like it had been the night before surgery with the bowel cleanse. It literally felt like I was peeing from the back side. Almost every time I peed, I would let go some more from the back. As a result, my anus hurt a lot. It was very tender & made it even more uncomfortable to lie on my back. The liquid poop has continued at home, but strangely enough I did not fart until this morning, on the 4th day out. I have been burping like crazy, but not farting. I never even used a Gas-X strip since I was pooping so much. I am on clear liquids for 2 weeks, and then will be on full liquids for 2 more weeks. My doc counts skim milk as a clear, and I’m supposed to take in 32 oz of skim milk & 32 oz of other clears every day. I made SF Jello with milk & it turned out pretty good. I used about a quarter or half cup of boiling water to dissolve & then mixed in about 1 cup & a half of skim milk. I just tried the Unjury Chicken soup with water, but next time will make it with warm milk & see how that works out. I’m not doing a good job tracking my intake, and I really need to get better about that. I am going to start using MyFitnessPal today, since I know it has been so helpful for so many folks. My energy level is still pretty low. I am walking around my house every couple of hours & taking a longer walk with the hubs every evening. I’m trying not to push myself, and just give my body a chance to heal. I haven’t felt hungry at all, either physical hunger or head hunger. Overall, I feel pretty good about my recovery so far and about how my food intake is going. For the next week, I have nothing on my schedule away from the house except for Wednesday. I am planning to keep taking it easy and just continue to heal & build my stamina back up. One day at a time, little by little, I will get to where I want to be.

I am officially six months into this journey and I couldn't be happier. I am half way to my ultimate goal. I've had a couple of ah-ha moments lately. This past weekend I went shopping and realized that just because something fits doesn't mean I have to buy it. In the past anything that fit was an automatic purchase as there were so few things that actually fit. Now I can pick and choose! That made me so amazingly happy this weekend. I am also now fully aware of how my body drops weight - this will be a losing month and next month will not. I tend to stall with every 10 lbs now - but I am moving in the right direction and that is what is important. This picture is of me the day of surgery and then at 6 months post-op! -69 lbs!!! BIG GOALS: Get rid of the "Big O" - I want to be out of the "obese" range for BMI (about 4 more points to go on that one) Have lost more weight than I have to lose - that will be in two more pounds - but it is a day I am so looking forward to... Get rid of any and all clothing with an X after the size (it's an emotional attachment - none of them fit me any more) Do a zip-line - that's been on my list for a while - gonna knock it off this summer I'll post more when I have time to think about them. Life is simply too busy right now to think straight. Oh - one interesting thing happened last weekend. We went to a party and after my boyfriend mentioned that it seemed like I really had a good time. I told him that before my surgery I dreaded these kind of events because I felt so self conscious and worried about taking up too much space in the crowded room, and I simply got tired of standing all night. Now I have none of those thoughts/worries/issues. He was surprised to hear me say this - I guess I really did suffer in silence for years!

It' will be close to a year in a few weeks. I've not had the weight loss results as most have reported here. I'm seeing >100 lbs being reported by a lot of my peers. I' not even close to 100 lbs, but on the healthcare front I've remained off my insulin, no longer sleep with my CPAP and have managed to stay relatively free of bing eating. I'm very disappointed in that I've not maintained an excercise regimen that would be considered a "Life Style Change." I did have some good starts and stops and right now I'm decidedly at STOP. I just don't have the motivation stay on an exercise regimen. I always end up hurting myself in some way, then that give me clearance to give up. In Oct 2012 I was in the hospital with stroke like symptoms, literally paralyzed on my left side. They r/o a stroke and after 2 days of tests, released me to neurologist for f/up care with dx of hemiplegic migraine. Code word for I don't know WTH is wrong, but she has had migraines in the past, so let's roll with it. I was on restrictions for about 2 month while they tried to figure out what's wrong. All my feeling returned before discharge, but I had total numbness in the last 3 fingers on my left hand. After testing for everything from carpal tunnel syndrome to pinched nerves in my arm and shoulder, the prize-winner neurologist came back with I can give you some cream that may work, I can send you to therapy with sometimes helps, or it may just fix itself on it's on........BUT I see you've not had a sleep study in a while and your plan will bay for it, so let me set you up for a new one. OK. Dr. Neuro's office begins calling me weekly to setup this darn sleep study....I finally told them to NEVER call me again. I still have trouble typeing and my left hand it still giving me problem. I'm hoping I'm not a stroke risk, but the PCP says get going with the excecise again. In February I start back walking. Doing good. Sporadic, but I'm getting it in at least 2-3 times a week. Weight going down, have to finally buy some new clothes because my black leggings are falling off an my colorful fat girl "pop of color" tops are looking like flour sacks on me 'cause they're too big. I have a chronic pain in my left foot and ask for an x-ray, my PCP says there's nothing remarkable but I may have small bone spurs that will just be a chronic issue for me. SUX. I start feeling a little soreness in my left leg, it evolves into a limp, but I'm thinking it's just me getting back on the track and I ben-gay it up and bear down. I'm down to 1-2 times a week, but I'm keeping it moving. Garage sale Saturday, I'm digging for treasures and a radiating pain hits my left leg. I can't walk. I yell. The ppl help me to my car and my mom starts freaking me out telling me it's probably a blood clot and I'm going to die if I don't get to an ER soon (She has a flare for the dramatic). I go to the ER and they r/o a blood clot, discharge to my PCP for follow-up the next day. PCP rotates my leg and refers me to an Ortho Surgeon the next day stating he thinks I'm going to need surgery. Now I"m on crutches. Ortho assesses and no surgery. Just 1 week of total bed rest. I have a grade 2 calf muscle strain! I'm off my feet for a week and come back, it's healing, but still not out of the weeds for abt 6 weeks so take it easy but do what you can.....To me that translates into DO NOTHING, and I've been faithful to that regimen for about 2 months now. WTH? Really Elle? You going to cop out like that? Why YES I AM. Disappointed in myself, but yes. I did that. Now I'm at the year mark and reflecting. I want to hit the century mark. I'm wanting a 1XX versus a 2XX at my weigh in. I hope to reach the 100s in about 6-8 months. Kick-off date is July 1,2013. Please pray for me that I can keep this new goal in sight. I do have concerns that I may have a hernia or something because I feel I am able to eat more than I should in one sitting. As long as I don't drink anything while eating I'm fine. I've drank alcohol sparingly w/o any trouble. I don't do well with chicken or ground beef. Bread and butter is my weakness, but I can only eat a little bit of it at a setting. I have been bad and do drink from straws on occasion. My new guilty pleasure is McCafe Hazlenut Lattes and Caramel Frappes. I also enjoy the egg white delight breakfast combo. I can eat the hashbrown and mcmuffin in one sitting (I just throw away one of egg mcmuffin slices). I can honestly say the term "use VSG as a tool" not a solution is a great message. You will not drop an insane amount of weight just from having this procedure. You have to work at it and change. My health is better and I will praise this procedure to the mountain tops, but you must be willing to put in the work to get the pounds off. My mother recently had the procedure and is doing well. She was not nearly as obese as me, so I'm excited to see if a little competiton will help boost me on the walking track. Her start weight is my current weight! So we're even in getting out of the gate. My mom had a lot more stuff broken in her health wise so I"m elated that she finally did the procedure. My marriage is struggling at the moment. Not heading for divorce or anything, just facing some challenges with a blended family. We're working through it, but I'm feeling my old urges and our lack of intimacy isn't helping things at all. I hate being mad all the time. Work is sucking as well. I don't know if I should move on or stay with them. My company has great benefits but I'm working 16-20 hour days and not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. It's shockingly overwhelming. Any way in closing. 1 year has been faced with several set-backs, but I'm optimistic that I can refocus and get back on track. Besides my husband and kids, the VSG decision remains one of the best decisions I've made in life. I think I bought myself more years on this earth by just choosing to not die of morbid obesity complications. This board has been most helpful in letting me know I'm not alone and others are in the struggle with me and offering support. Thank you all

So today we were on our way to an Italian restaurant for lunch and we were passing a golf club that has views of Boston. So we went to the golf course. The menu was great. We both decided on the lobster roll that had mayo on the side. I hate mayo so this was perfect. This would be my second time trying lobster since the banding last July. I got stuck real bad. It was awful. My poor husband was left eating while I was walking around outside in 97 degree weather. People from NE live on lobster since birth and now I can not do it any more. I am very sad about it. The french fries went down fine, of course. Stay cool and wear sun block. 'Eye Candy"/Arlene

So tomorrow's the big day. Started the liquid diet yesterday and surprisingly it's not too hard. Bet it will be more difficult in three weeks. Still nervous, but becoming more resigned to the fact everything is going to change. I have read and planned as much as humanly possible. Now it's time to walk the walk. Praying I will be strong enough to make this a life long change. Can be scary sometimes when my support group is full of people who have gained weight back from bypass and lapband. I've been thinking about seeing a counselor to deal with some of the emotional aspects of WLS. I just really want this so bad. Now that some family and friends know I'm going to this extreme, what if I screw this up. What if I miss having birthday cake or my mom's famous fried chicken or my sister's potato salad. I know I sound like an idiot or at least like an addict, but sometimes it's so scary to think I won't have my favorite foods again. OMG, I'm such an addict. Maybe these thoughts are why I need surgery .

"Don't confront me with my failures, I have not forgotten them" Jackson Browne I can not believe I am going to write again. I spent 3 or 4 years somewhat journaling my previous weightloss effort. That came to a screeching halt around 19 months ago. And now I am headed into the land of VSG. I am scheduled for surgery this friday, June 28th. I am having my surgery done at the University of Wisconsin Hospital. I made my first phone call about the surgery in August 2012. I had been diagnosed with some arthritis in my knee and my activity level came to a dramatic halt. I had found 70-80 of my old friends and knew I really needed to do this for me. I had no idea I would be waiting 9-10months to get it done. 6 months with the nutritionist. My first meeting with the Surgeon in late January. A new nutritionist. 3 group classes. You need to lose 25 lbs before we do surgery. That sleep study has a two month waiting list. Approval May 6th. Schedule surgery for June 28th and meet with the doctor forJune 6th. Oh yeah you better have lost that 25 lbs by then. Start trying to lose the 25 lbs...again. Spend June 3,4,5 fasting and come in under the number. One last class and an EKG, chest xray, and labs. Start the two week liquid diet. Six to seven slim fasts carnation breakfasts a day??? ick. Substitute some isopure and maybe some chicken and nuts every once in awhile. Hey it's now June 24 and this is really happening. Oh yeah I guess I better tell my mom That can wait until tomorrow. I have really only told a couple close friends and my volleyball teammates. everyone has been supportive. A few have asked questions. But no complaints from me about who I have told. My family, we shall see. None of them live within a 1,000 miles of me, and to their credit they have always been real supportive. I think I hesitated in telling them mostly because I don't want them to worry. So that's the condensed version of my story. Excited and grateful that I have learned so much from following and reading about your journeys. You guys will never know the help you have been. Best of luck to all of you Peace, Jim

I was sitting around today thinking about my surgery and those that have been supportive and those that have not or would not be. A year ago when I began thinking about undergoing the surgery I approached a friend. I began asking his opinion about the surgery. when he said you don't need it you just need to diet and keep at it. I sat looking at him as if he had lost his mind, he is over six feet tall and grossly over weight. He has a bad habit of eating food from the plate of his son when he does not finish his meal. But he knows my diet habits? I let the subject drop and have not said word about it since. I went to my information session to decide if this was the choice for me and was encouraged that it was. As the year has gone by he has seen me and is always in my cabinets. He is quick to notice there is not any junk food or bad snacks. He noticed the various protein drinks and asked what I was doing with them. I told him i was experimenting with favors and staying my course on my diet. All of this to say is that I am keeping secrets from those that are friends. I don't want to be judged by them even when I feel I have been judged. One of my own sisters thinks I should just keep dieting and that the surgery is extreme. My feeling is that of course she would she's never been obese. To be fair I have told five people and they have been most supportive and from this I am happy. My overall happiness is my responsibility and I'm very happy with my decision to a better way of living. I do worry that once I start dropping weight that the cat will be out of the bag. But until that time I will be keeping my secret.

So in Nov of 2012 was my first visit with my surgeon. from there they gave me a list of 1 million things to do and set me up for a nutrition class in feb 2013. So I was off and running, I have insurance that's a bit of a pain sometimes so every week I was on the phone with SOMEONE trying to get things all worked out. I had to hound my PCP for about 3 months to get the letter from him. Well, no I asked in Dec for the letter, he wrote a script... not gonna work so I explain what it needs to say. His office sends me a notice that he is leaving the practice and I need to get set up with a new doctor! So Im freaking out and calling his office 800 times a day to find out if he wrote a letter or not. finally in the end of Jan 2013 I got the letter that he did write just before leaving! YaY!!! next was the phsys eval, this was a pain. I called every office within 150 miles of my house! finally I found one who had an opening. The day that I was supposed to go I came down with a stomach bug AND we were getting a snow storm (I live in the snow capitol of the world)! So I had to cancel. get it all worked out and finally had that done by the beginning of March. The nutrition class was done in feb, my blood work was done by feb! I was doing an amazing job. So in april 2013, they gave me a date for july 10th. Now while she was setting up the request for the day she asked "did you do (insert task here)" and I was answering to each. Well a week went by and I got a call from the insurance lady from that office and she informs me that they have NOTHING FROM ME!!!!! I almost cried! What on earth do you mean you have nothing!?! Well it turns out that they lost ALL of my stuff! Oh and by the way you have to have a sleep study done as well. Well. This is bull crap! So my reason for not writing in a while? I have been chasing all of my paper work everywhere. When I quit smoking I put on 30lbs bringing me to 306lbs. I have lost to 300lb but can NOT seem to budge from there which is pissing me off. I am on a partial liquid diet right now. I drink 4 nasty boost shakes and eat one meal of 4 oz of chicken and 1-2cups of fresh veggies. and I have lost ONE POUND! I just want to cry, Id also like to say to them, if I could just drop 30lbs at once, why in the hell am I here?!?!?! UGH UGH UGH.

Whew! It was truly a whirlwind weekend. Since last Thursday morning, I've crammed in 4-1/2 rounds of golf, 2 parties, 1 dinner in the city and Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. From a normal guy's perspective I would say this would be in the running for the ultimate weekend competition if there was such a thing. From a fat ass dieter's eye view, this was a weekend full of challenges and temptations. The Devil and his sinister sidekick Al C. Hall were lurking around every corner waiting to pull my into a downward spiral. But this morning I find myself sober, satiated and reinvigorated. But it was no cake walk! The Good - My eating choices for this four day fun binge were spot on! I took my Muscle Milk Light to the club and drank it over ice for breakfast. Yep, I'm slowly drinking this fake chocolate milk while watching 50 other guys load up on pancakes, omelettes, a full assortment of breakfast meats, home fries, pastry and danish and all kinds of toasted breads. Challenge, yes. But I beat the odds despite the wafting smell of crisp bacon. The lunches were more of the same. A full spread of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, brats and sausages were laid out in several different places. And let's not forget the chips, cookies and other deserts. And there was a giant trailer with free draft beer. I was in fat ass paradise and couldn't enjoy the show. I sparingly ate a chicken breast, a cup full of chicken salad and some watermelon slices. During the golf, I ate a few melted protein bars to keep my stomach from growling. At the parties and dinner downtown, I slowly feasted on small bites of salmon and sashimi, a slice of turkey and a few small shrimp, while my fellow diners were scoffing down famous Chicago steaks perfectly pink on the inside and charred to perfection on the outside. The Bad - I was expecting a cordial reunion with my old friend Al C. Hall. (That's alcohol for you new readers.) It didn't take long for old Al to show up to the party. I decided it was time to have a nip during our first round of golf. Since I was determined to stay away from beer, I had to use a little ingenuity at the half way house. Of course, I would stay away from all juices, sugary drinks and carbonated beverages. But if I started drinking straight vodka at 2 in the afternoon, I was guaranteed to be blotto by the back nine. So I invented a new cocktail. Vodka and Vitamin Water Orange. BRILLIANT! Vodka over ice and add the VW as needed. This helped me nurse the one drink while others were having several more. I was imbibing with my buddies but not falling all the way off the wagon. I had a couple more at the opening dinner party but stopped early due to my ride home. All in all, a good plan for a bad vice . The Ugly - I can honestly report to you that I won the weekend food battle. I looked the Lucifer of Lard straight in the eye and he blinked first. However, his evil counter part, The Vetis of Vodka eventually got the best of me. It started with a four hour rain delay between matches on Friday and ended with tumble down a few steps while excitedly leaving the hockey game. Since I was being chauffeured to the game and back to house afterwards, I didn't pay any attention to to the number of Geese I downed. I ended up killing the whole flock. Saturday dinner consisted of a bread stick, cottage cheese and a few bites of under cooked salmon. But I washed it down with a couple of Gibsons with devilishly delicious cocktail onions. A couple more at the game with soda and I was as pickled as the onions. The final straw was my pal's idea to have one last double before the bar closed for the last period. That's probably the one that made me miss that last step and hit the floor. I had two goals for the weekend. One of which was not to fall completely off the wagon. You may disagree, but I feel I held it in check pretty good. My other goal was to weigh the same today as I did last Thursday morning. And I do. Victory is mine. So get your scorecards out and give this one to Johnny. I am now refocused on good eating and no drinking for a few more weeks. I have another holiday weekend and another golf tournament in the next month to deal with. That means more trouble from you know who. Could a surprise visit from Al C. Hall be far behind? If he does rear his ugly head, I hope there are no stairs around. I'm off to get my first fill today from Dr. X! Talk soon! jt Reprinted from my blog. Please become a follower! We would love to have you! TheDeconstructionofJohnny.blogspot.com