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I have been creeping around here for months and finally decided to create an account and share. First though, I have to give great credit to my wife and family. My wife has been so supportive and flexible through the whole process. She has always been by my side, but during this process she read and learned about the changes, as much or more than I did. She has gone above and beyond with her support and care for me, all while still running a busy household. My kids are a constant reminder of why I did this -- so that I would be around for a long time. I wanted to be able to participate in life with my family. I also have to thank my surgical team and the care they provide. It has been great and truly lifesaving. I weighed 514-lbs on 9/12/22. I was a big boy to say the least. Shockingly, I was not in horrible medical condition. I did not take any medicine. Did not have diabetes or high blood pressure. I did have swelling in my legs, constantly sore/bad knees, and was very quick to be out of breath. I lived a very sedimentary live and limited my physical activity. I wanted to be able to be more active and be around with my family for a long time. I finally got up the nerve to discuss with my wife and she immediately got on board. I went through the program without an issue. Checked all boxes and completed all steps. Surgery was on 2/28/23 and it went well. I was up and moving that night, because that was one of the biggest hurdles to clear in order to leave. I was able to sip and keep liquid down. Discharged after one night! Incisions were sore, as expected. Gas was the worst, and not the good kind of gas that can clear the room when expelled (yeah, I am a guy), but the awful painful surgical gas, which took almost a week to fully go away. I was basically fully cleared by the doctor and back to work (in a nonphysical job) one week after surgery. My process was textbook, none of the complications that many have experienced, and I am lucky for it! This process has not been easy but has not been impossible. I have followed my plan, with the support at home, and it is working. I feel physically so much better. I am so much more mobile and active. I have never been happier. I have made changes to my daily life to support the process. My diet has changed but not radically. I eat a lot less and that is the biggest driver of my weight loss. I walk and am active in live, but I do not have a detailed exercise plan. I am still learning exactly what works for me, but most importantly I want others to know there are many routes to get to the same place. I try to get the big stuff right and not sweat the tiniest of details. My blood work at my six-month checkup was solid. Protein was on the low end in the range, but still acceptable. I was encouraged to keep on keeping on (shout out to Joe Dirt). They were comfortable enough to set my next follow up appointment out to one year. I was scared and nervous. I have had good days and bad days (constipation is AWFUL)! Most importantly, I wanted to share my story and I hope it can help others in some way. I never wanted to be skinny. I could care less what my BMI is. I wanted to feel better. I wanted to be able to participate in life with my family. And I am! I am no expert and I still have a long way to go, but I am happy and glad I had this surgery. As I have seen here, over and over again, we are all different, so what works for me may not for others, but I still wanted to share, and I hope it might be of some benefit to someone else. The non-scale wins are just the best! When I started this process, I was so huge that home scales couldn't hold me, so I would go months without weighing, but I knew good things were happening because of all the non-scale wins. Cherish those! This is a long (probably too long) post, so I will wrap. I recently weighed on my home scale (yeah, that's right, it now holds me) and I was at 288-lbs. If anyone has questions or wants more details about my journey, please let me know. I would be happy to share more.

As I lost weight, my equilibrium was off. Things shift and not only was my balance off, my bones and muscles ached. Between walking and a few adjustments from a chiropractor, it's greatly improved. I think it's normal to feel clumsy/klutsy because I sure did. My walking was most obvious. I tripped easily and stumbled over things. Now I purposely walk off road over uneven ground to help strengthen my legs and balance. I still have weight to lose so until I get closer to goal weight, I'm believing it can only get better. GL and hope you see improvements as you go too :)

Today's the big day for some of you!!! 💜I am so excited for y'all - may you have uneventful, routine surgeries with no complications and fantastic recoveries, and may you achieve all the health goals you set for yourselves! Definitely keep the rest of us posted on how you're feeling and how things go, what you find does/doesn't work for you, etc.! Someone asked earlier about good water bottles without straws - I like my Nalgene 32oz bottles. I have one of the smaller-mouthed bottles and one of the larger-mouthed bottles (with a little insert that helps me not pour the whole darn thing down my top). I also have a ~70oz "Juggy" water bottle that came with a straw, but it can be removed. I like how, with the Nalgenes, I know that if I fill & drink them twice, then I've at least gotten the minimum 64oz of water per day that my program recommends. The Juggy is HUGE, but really useful for the days where I'm either running around or not able to fill multiple times, or if I'm being lazy and don't want to wander downstairs to the fridge for filtered water multiple times. 😂 As for leave, I'm unfortunately not eligible for FMLA at my job just yet as my one-year anniversary is the end of January. I did fill out similar paperwork "just in case", though. I do have an absolutely insane amount of vacation/sick PTO, so I will be using that to get paid for my 1.5 weeks completely off of work (a Wednesday through the next Friday; my surgery is the day before Thanksgiving here in the USA). I plan on working from home the 2nd full week, and then will likely return to my hybrid schedule (3 days in office, 2 days from home) after that. I'm lucky that I have a desk job that really just requires some walking. I've been extremely open with my HR person and immediate supervisor, so they both know what's going on! We've had at least one other person in my unit have WLS, so it's nice to not be the "guinea pig" for all this (and to have someone just upstairs that I can "talk shop" with).

Best of luck Nov 1 folks!

Hi had my surgery on Friday the 27th at 10:30 am and today is day 4!!! I feel really good today and each since the surgery I have been feeling better. When I woke up from surgery the only pain I had was from laying on my back unable to move during the operation coupled with the pain from my period, which of course had to start the day before. I spent a very long time in recovery because they did not have a room ready for me yet, that was about 3-4 hours. When I finally got to my room, being able to move around helped my back somewhat. The only bad thing for me was the nausea, I puked several times on Friday and a few times the next day when I woke up. I had the option to stay another night in the hospital, but I was eager to get the 130-mile ride back home done. Once home I only took one anti-nausea medication. I have not had any pain and very little gas. I am getting liquids down very well. My two-week diet consists of 5-6 mini-meals that are 2oz of either yogurt, pudding, creamy soup or vegetable juice. 1 protein shake and 48-64oz of liquids that are either water, broth, jello, herbal tea, crystal light, poweraide, or popsicles. low or no sugar for everything course I am finding it easy to eat more than 1 or 2 oz's at a time, this worries me a little. I am down to only one nap a day I am hoping soon I won't need a nap.

Way to go! Same here, Oct 16th. Yogurt this morning, an egg w/some chicken broth a bit ago. SO good after the liquid diet and staying down. One more step forward.

I also regret it! You’re not the only one in time we will feel better. We gave up our best friend if your emotional eater like I was. It’s sad how much food made me happy. I gave up narcotics took me years was hard but is so much harder!!! Stay strong!

So my surgeon was out of the office after an injury so my surgery was on hold but I have finally gotten word today that I am scheduled for 11/16/23. 🙀 I am so darn excited!!!

I had my gall bladder removed back in 97 when I was 4 months pregnant with my son. I had absolutely no idea at all that there were issues until I had the attack in the middle of the night. I thought I was dying. Went to the ER, found out I had severe pancreatitis that needed IV antibiotics to get it under control before it was safe enough to remove my gall bladder, but also saw that my gall bladder was so full of stones it was literally about to burst. I was in the hospital on iv meds for 3 days before I could have the surgery. Then during the surgery, when they removed it, it literally burst as it was removed and a few stones got stuck and had to be removed. I was in surgery 2 hours longer than expected and spiked a fever. I was in the hospital another 3 days on more pain meds and antibiotics before I was allowed to go home. So in my humble opinion, get it outta there. Not worth the trouble you will inevitably have now that you know you produce stones. It's not likely to stop, so better to be safe than sorry.

When I had my gall attack (worst pain ever! 😩🥹), I asked my surgeon (he did my sleeve too) about dissolving it or shattering it with radio frequency. He said if you’ve grown one stone you’ll grow another. Best thing is just to remove the gall. So he did. The surgery was easy. He used the same sites as my sleeve surgery for the laparoscopic surgery so I have no additional scars. The recovery was easier than my sleeve though I did have gas pain (I didn’t have any with my sleeve). Pain was similar & manageable again & lasted about 4 days. Best of all no special diet, no diarrhoea, no constipation, no nausea, etc. after. I did end up with a malabsorption issue which isn’t very common. Mine is for protein, which is even less common, & some meds. I was just unlucky … or special depending upon how you look at it 😁. It’s not an organ you really need - it just manages how much stomach acid & bile goes into your digestive system. Occasionally I get a bout of acidic diarrhoea (my sister-in-law does too) & that’s all.