Anakin Jay

chiming in for my monthly update.

Still not used to the cpap machine... it sucks really bad, and I don't feel like it's helping AT ALL.

On the plus side though, the doctor started giving me Nuvigil to help with my sleepiness from not being able to sleep with the machine. If ANYONE is having trouble sleeping with their cpap, I *highly* recommend you guys ask your doc about it. I feel GREAT on this stuff, awake, focused, ready to seize the day!!

On the weight loss side of things, my starting weight was 415, when I checked in with the surgeon, it was 405, and today ( 3 months into my preop diet) I'm down to 375 !! Down 40 pounds ! woot.!

I tried cpap 10 years ago, and then again last year. I never could adapt to any of the masks. I turn over when I sleep and always had to adjust the hose, the mask etc., whenever I did. I gave up. It was disappointing, because I did really like the feeling of increased air flow into my nose. Best of luck to you.

That's exactly how I sleep... I like to alternate laying on one side, then the other.. I don't wake up, it's just how I sleep... and that's the *exact* same problem I have! always having to move the tube / adjust the mask, etc.. as I roll.

So I called the sleep lab, and they're going to give me medicine to keep me awake during the day... It's not that I'm ungrateful, as that's my biggest complaint.. but.. I dunno... it just seems like the "cure" they've given me is the problem, and now I'm taking drugs to save me from the effects of their cure... ><

I felt *TOTALLY* fine before all this crap. *sigh*

No one ever checked on me to see if I was actually using the machine. I was diagnosed as needing the machine - got it - and put it on the floor of my closet. Shortly after surgery, when the first 30 or so pounds were gone, my husband said I was sleeping like a baby and had no more signs of apnea. Ask your surgeon what he would reccomend you do.

you're SO lucky.. I had to call in how many hours I used it at 7 days, and will have to report in ever 30 days after that... ><

which surgeon should I talk to? the VSG one? or an apnea one?

This is the start of my 4th week trying to sleep with a cpap machine because of the results from my sleep study.

I *still* have not been able to get a decent night's sleep with it. I'm tired all the time, falling asleep at work, and I travel a lot... there's been a few times I've had to actually pull off at a rest stop and take a nap in my car out of fear of me falling asleep and crashing.

In those 4 weeks, I've sleep (not counting naps) twice WITHOUT it, and they were great nights! I've *never* had an problem sleeping or feeling rested UNTIL I started using this blasted machine.

I'm sooooooo done.

So what do I do now? Do I just take it back and say no thanks? How will that effect my VSG surgery? Do I push to try and get apnea surgery (I still have my tonsils, I imagine that's probably the problem.).. do I push for that now to recover in time for VSG?

I would just lie about it and just tell them I've been using it, but the damn thing tracks my breaths to a little computer chip... ><

PLEASE HELP!

Ok so,

At work we have a weight loss competition where everyone pledges $50, and after 6 months whomever has lost the highest % of body weight takes the pot.

Since I'm getting VSG in 3 months, I kind of feel like I'd be cheating.... not saying it's the easy way out by a long shot, but it's a tool that no one else in the competition has at their disposal.

What is everyone's thoughts on this?

Mine was required by the surgeon. The surgeon himself actually ran the seminar and it was very informative. I had already known a lot of it from my research, but for someone without the google skills I have I think it would have been invaluable.

There were about 40 people at mine, and the presentation included all 3 surgeries he does (RNY, VSG, & Band.) The surgeon discussed his views on the pros and cons of each, they passed around a lap band / port so you could see what it would look like.

They even showed the surgeries (about 5 min. worth of each) on a projector screen being done. (yes it was kinda gross, but really interesting.) He walked through each procedure step by step telling you exactly what he was doing, and why they did it.

uuggghhhh.....

Got my cpap machine, slept with it at home for the first night last night, and I'm exhausted today.

At the sleep lab, I was exhausted from not sleeping, but I actually (surprisingly) slept well last night once I had the machine in my bed without all the wires hooked up to me... but I'm WAY more tired using the cpap that I've ever been without it.

Anyone else experience this?

if it *REALLY* was an issue, you could always just add in soft/liquid calories.... like icecream.

"Ohh, I have to make sure I get in my scoop of icecream for the day, doctor's orders..."

What a wonderful problem to have

To some extent you can choose. I am a size 12/14 now. I started in a size 32. I would love to be a size or two smaller, but we will see. I am *done* trying to lose weight. You can eat higher cal foods and stop or slow loss pretty easily

I know this is really old, but I just had to chime in..

MAN... what a wonderful problem... "Well, gotta make sure I get in my my chips and salsa or my snickers bar for the day so that I don't lose more weight."

I know everyone says you don't change on the inside after weight loss but I think it depends on the person and how much your weight has affected you on an emotional and psychological level.

I think this is a *great* point I hadn't considered.

GAINING weight definitely changed who I am inside. I'm less outgoing, less social, more fearful of being judged...

Maybe we're looking at it wrong, maybe WLS won't change who I am inside, maybe it'll just let me get back to who I really am?

lol, I'm 4.5 months out, and I also feel like I'm just counting down the days ><

I learned something just this morning... Patience, comes from the latin word "Pati" which means "suffering"

hang in there!

Wow, how boring to not be passionate about ANYTHING in life. I can't even imagine not having some sort of interests about something. Good luck to you!

haha yeah, it was reaaallly awkward. I get the impression that she didn't even have something she WANTED to be passionate about.... she was quite content to be in her little bubble, and more power to her.

But that's not where I belong

Well, I ended up going on the date, and it was pretty terrible I kept talking about everything I was passionate about in life trying to get her to come out of her shell, and finally she says "Man, it's great you're into so many things, I really don't have passion about anything, I kind of just sit around, and go to work."

LOL.

It was a really awkward date. I had fun, but I probably would have had 95% as much fun without her there

So I think I'm going to take that as a sign, and just hold off on dating for a bit, looking forward to experiencing what dating is like as skinny folk

I'm pretty sure I can relate to *Every* post here, lol...

On the one hand, I don't want to waste a perfectly good chance at love, she seems really awesome...

On the other hand, like SouthernSleever said, There's a big part of me that wonders what it would be like to be skinny and single. I never got to experience that part of life, I've been heavy since I was 12.

Still not sure what I'm going to do, but at least these are good problems to have

So I'm almost 2 months into my 6 month pre-op diet. I've gone to 2 visits.

The problem is, my PCP's scale only goes to 350 pounds, I'm 399 right now according to my home scale. So my doctor's been filling out the forms, and adding little foot notes saying "Patient supplied weight, we cannot weigh over 350 pounds."

I called my surgeon's office and asked about it, and they said I should start bringing my home scale with me to the Dr's office and let him see when he records it to be safe.

Anyone else have any experience with this? I'm worried I may have just set my surgery back 2 months because my PCP's scale isn't high enough. :/

I got really lucky with my psych eval. The first thing the guy said was "A lot of people get nervous when they think they're coming here and I get to decide if they can have surgery. In reality, my job is to assess if you are ready for surgery as you are, or if you will need help overcoming the mental and emotional blockades that come along with this."

Our entire session (about an hour) was mostly spent talking about who I had to support me, and who I could turn to. I think the biggest part of it, was him making sure I realized that I was without a doubt going to lose "friends" over this. People will become jealous and spiteful over my success, and if those friends were people I depended on so much that I couldn't live without them, then he would have wanted me to come back in on a regular basis to make sure I was making the adjustment to losing my support system, and creating a new one.

Fortunately, he felt my support system, and self reliance, were both really good, and he didn't see a need for any further work.

Hello All,

Here's something I've been really struggling with.

I'm 4.5 months pre-op (out of 6 total) and I just met a girl. She seems pretty nice, and taking the surgery out of the picture, I think I would be pretty excited.

But in the back of my head, I keep thinking... a year from now I'll be an entirely different person.

How do I know I'll still like her? or her me?

How can I try develop a relationship with all this crazy sleeve business going on?

What if she bakes me pies or something.. or we end up eating out all the time and it sabotages my WL efforts?

I'm getting to the point where I kind of feel like maybe I should just wait until a year post op before I even think about dating..

Has anyone else been through this?

WOW! You look HOT!

Great job! damn....

I went cold turkey no caffeine last month (still 5 months away from surgery).

drink PLENTY of Gatorade or Water, and take any medication you can to reduce swelling. (Caffeine withdrawal headache is actually caused by something in our brains being swelled up.)

I was miserable for 2 days... couldn't even go to work. Then I was fine.

UGH... bad news... just finished my sleep test this morning, and apparently I have partial apnea. I have to go back in a month and they're going to test me with a cpap machine. *SIGH*...

It sucked btw, was hard as hell to sleep with all those wires, and I was dumb enough to schedule my heart stress test for the day after, so I'm sleepy and getting ready to leave here and have them test my heart.

They'll still do my surgery if I have apnea right?

I *really really really* hope I don't have to use this cpap thing forever. Even the guy there told me that 6 months after surgery I should get re-tested and probably won't need it... I'm trying to keep that in mind.

Wish me luck at the heart doc today!

WOOT!

Just got back from my psych eval... I'm sane!!!!

Now just the heart test and the sleep eval, and the only thing between me and the sleeve is 5 more months of dieting

i figure thats why i was told to ask my dr to prescribe me asprin so that i wouldnt qualify for bypass. i always have back pain & headaches so i know for sure id never be a good candidate for bypass. i found out that my insurance does cover vsg, thank goodness!!!

congrats!

Well my surgeon won't allow me to take aspirin either with the VSG. Don't listen to everything you hear...lol

My surgeon said asprin is bad during the healing process for VSG... but after you're healed it's fine.

Gastric Bypass on the other hand, you can never have asprin again for the rest of your life.

Been working really hard on my pre-op diet... I was 405.9 at my pre-op consultation, and this morning I was down to 395 !!

11 pounds in 3 weeks hope I can keep this up.

So we all know about ghrelin... but according to my surgeon, once the brain detects ghrelin it starts to prepare for a fast. The body slows down the metabolism thinking we won't get to eat for a few days or something.

In addition, there's something called the omentum (I had NEVER heard of that before.) that serves as a fat depository, amongst a few other things. One of the problems with the omentum is that once your BMI starts getting over 30, it starts to act as a blocker between the nutrition you're eating, and your cells. And the more weight you put on, the more nutrition it blocks.

So what happens when you're not getting enough nutrition? Your body signals that you need to eat more by producing more ghrelin. Which in turn lowers your metabolism.

So, even if you just ate an hour ago, a fatty omentum will block your cells from getting nutrition, you'll make ghrelin, shut down your metabolism, and be hungry again..

Sound familiar? I know it does to me... sometimes I'll eat a whole large pizza, and be hungry again an hour later. My surgeon said it's one of the reasons he truly believes obesity is a disease. Because you have to not eat even when your body is telling you it's hungry.

Then all that sugar in your blood that the omentum is blocking from getting to your cells, just stays in your blood, and that is the cause of diabetes. (at least one type of it)

So part of what makes the sleeve so awesome, is it cuts out the ghrelin producing part of your stomach, which eliminates the omentum's ability to make you hungry when you shouldn't eat... BUT it also means your brain always thinks your stomach is full.... which means your brain is constantly running your metabolism at full speed.

I'm not an expert, just repeating what my surgeon said. But I found this REALLY interesting, and I thought maybe someone else on here would too.