AZ Sunshine

I honestly had the BEST recovery. I was at home, walking, and driving within 3 days of being home. I just kept positive that I WAS going to heal fast, and I did.

Hi there, I thought I'd share my progress. I started out at as a low bmi at 201. Was sleeved 4/9 by Dr.Kelly. Today I weighed in at 159.
When I was researching the sleeve there wasn't a lot of info regarding low bmi and the surgery. I am hoping to get down to 145-140.

I honestly had the BEST recovery. I was at home, walking, and driving within 3 days of being home. I just kept positive that I WAS going to heal fast, and I did.

Hi there, I thought I'd share my progress. I started out at as a low bmi at 201. Was sleeved 4/9 by Dr.Kelly. Today I weighed in at 159.
When I was researching the sleeve there wasn't a lot of info regarding low bmi and the surgery. I am hoping to get down to 145-140.

Hi there, I thought I'd share my progress. I started out at as a low bmi at 201. Was sleeved 4/9 by Dr.Kelly. Today I weighed in at 159.
When I was researching the sleeve there wasn't a lot of info regarding low bmi and the surgery. I am hoping to get down to 145-140.

Hi there, I thought I'd share my progress. I started out at as a low bmi at 201. Was sleeved 4/9 by Dr.Kelly. Today I weighed in at 159.
When I was researching the sleeve there wasn't a lot of info regarding low bmi and the surgery. I am hoping to get down to 145-140.

Hi there, I thought I'd share my progress. I started out at as a low bmi at 201. Was sleeved 4/9 by Dr.Kelly. Today I weighed in at 159.
When I was researching the sleeve there wasn't a lot of info regarding low bmi and the surgery. I am hoping to get down to 145-140.

(No pictures this time. I HATE photos; I'm so damned pale and washed out that I always look corpse-like and OLD in my photos, whereas in real life I'm looking pretty damned HOT! )
So I was sleeved in May 2010. It's about two and a quarter years out. I started at 338 lbs.
At that weight, I was miserable. I was sick all the time, everything hurt all the time. No clothes fit properly, unless I just bought everything in tent-like proportions. I had multiple chins, moobs (man-boobs), rolls and rolls of fat around my waist, a fat ass, fat legs, everything. I felt awful. I couldn't walk very far without becoming winded and my feet hurting. I couldn't stand upright for very long without my lower back aching, and my thighs would chafe like I was being scourged by the Furies.
And my self-esteem was just awful. I felt slovenly, ugly, unsexy, unsexual, unmasculine, frumpy, and ashamed all the time. I felt -- fairly realistically -- that no woman would look twice at me, let alone want to take me as a lover. It was okay, though, because I was in a monogamous relationship, so I didn't need to "date." How disrespectful that is to my girlfriend, I can't put into words. But that's a separate issue. That's between us.
Fast forward, past VSG surgery, past two years of steady weight loss, careful eating, ups and downs, plateaus and sharp drops, past fitfully starting and restarting my fitness program, to today.
Now, I work out at the gym almost every day. I like it. I look forward to it. It's how I start my day! It's still challenging, I'm still exhausted, but I look forward to it. I usually lift weights, but some days, like today, are all about stabilizers and athletic performance -- today was focused on speed and agility, on building muscle memory. My trainer agreed with me that I'm still pretty uncoordinated, but also was impressed at how fast I improved; he claimed that maybe, under years of sloth and a sedentary lifestyle, just maybe I was a natural athlete who never developed his abilities! I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I think that I have a lot of potential, and better late than never -- let's leave it at that.
I'm getting ripped. With my shirt off, my chest and shoulders and arms ripple with muscle; they have a lot of that classic bodybuilder look (without that nasty veiny zero body fat/covered in baby oil thing). I realized today, and pointed out to my girlfriend -- that I'm actually developing a six pack. Me! Mr. Fat-ass! Mr. Lazy! A six pack!
I'm down to just a hair over 200 lbs. That means I've lost over 130 pounds, and (more importantly) am maintaining it (and, in fact, am still losing, slowly). At the same time, I'm steadily building muscle mass (contrary to myth, muscle building is slow, but all my measurements show a steady gain). My stamina and energy are the best they've ever been. EVER. Even when I was a kid, and I'm 42 now! My latest testosterone measurement was 611 ng/dL, which is pretty phenomenal. Reference range is 300-800, so this puts me on the high end, about on par with a kid in his 20's; this is just stunning for a man in his 40's, and bodes very well for my continued sexual and physical well being into middle age and old age. It will protect me from injuries, keep me strong and fit, and even boost my mood and libido going forward.
My self-esteem is way up. My girlfriend and I opened our relationship up to other partners (if you want to discuss open relationships/polyamory, I'm available to talk, but please don't post here, that's not the point ), which means I'm dating again. And I'm having FUN! I'm finding that women that I used to consider "out of my league" are now tongue-tied around me. I messaged a woman on my poly-friendly dating site; I thought she was super sexy and probably way too pretty for me, and she responded that she hadn't contacted me because she thought I was out of her league. I mean, holy crap, Batman! Who'da thunk it!
But it's not just vanity. I'm finally, finally, finally coming to accept that I'm a handsome, interesting, attractive, sexy, sexual, masculine man. Along with being wicked smart, with an IQ approaching 200, I'm becoming something of a jock. I'm hiking, bicycling, running, lifting weights, and soon I'm going to start swimming laps at the local pool. I go out to concerts and clubs, I date, kiss, make love, have fun. I'm fit, in shape, and healthy as an ox. Yes, I'm middle aged, so my only regret was that I couldn't have found this when I was 20.
But you know what? I'll take it. I'll take it! This is the life that I think many people wish they could lead. And in a lot of ways, I owe it all to the sleeve!

I did it with 60 pounds to lose. Although i'm a slow loser, I am losing. I'd do it again in a minute.

I did it with 60 pounds to lose. Although i'm a slow loser, I am losing. I'd do it again in a minute.

I did it with 60 pounds to lose. Although i'm a slow loser, I am losing. I'd do it again in a minute.

I'm 11 Weeks out. I've lost 28 pounds. SW of 201 and CW of 173.
I don't have as much restriction as I thought I would. I still feel like I can eat a lot. I can easily have a half a chicken breast some fruit and some veggies all at one sitting.
It seems as though i'm going to be a slow loser. My neighbor had surgery 3 weeks ago and has lost just as much as me. So frustrating.

I'm 11 Weeks out. I've lost 28 pounds. SW of 201 and CW of 173.
I don't have as much restriction as I thought I would. I still feel like I can eat a lot. I can easily have a half a chicken breast some fruit and some veggies all at one sitting.
It seems as though i'm going to be a slow loser. My neighbor had surgery 3 weeks ago and has lost just as much as me. So frustrating.

It was originally started for RNY patients that got off track, and needed to get rid of the carb monster. I've known several sleevesters that have had to use it to get off carbs again and to start losing again.

Surgical Weight Loss 5 Day Pouch Test

I'm 11 Weeks out. I've lost 28 pounds. SW of 201 and CW of 173.
I don't have as much restriction as I thought I would. I still feel like I can eat a lot. I can easily have a half a chicken breast some fruit and some veggies all at one sitting.
It seems as though i'm going to be a slow loser. My neighbor had surgery 3 weeks ago and has lost just as much as me. So frustrating.

Hey y'all. I'm a member of this Forum and I am also a physician. Although not a surgeon, I remember my surgical rotations.
The drain is a tool the surgeon uses to avoid accumulation of blood in the surgical area. Whether he usess one is a choice he makes based on his experience and the risk of the formation of a bood pocketg. A pocket of blood is irritating to the surrrounding tissues as well as well as a great breeding spot for bacteria.
Dr. Ramos Kelly is an excellent surgeon with many many years of experience. He is very definetly an authority in Bariatric Surgery aswell as in other surgical fields.
He operated on me on Thursday June 7th. I have no complaints. I was happy to allow him to decide whether I needed a drain or not. I had one and it was no big deal. Removing it on the second day post op did not hurt 1 bit. Plus I had the added benefit of another leak test.
In addition, Omar, his coordinator goes the extra mile in meeting all of our needs. Cecy, Dr's wife, is part of the team and she lends her energy and nursing expertise to assure all bases are covered.
As you can see I am very pleased with Dr. Ramos Kelly and I recomend him without reservations.

Yes, you can definitely have the sleeve and be healthy as a vegan. It will require some planning and attention to detail--I'm moving that way right now. I've eaten vegan at several points in my life, once for a 2-year stretch (broken by an up-close encounter with bacon). After being sleeved and dropping the weight, I now realize that my goal wasn't/isn't just to be thin; it's to be healthy, and I'm starting an exercise program and looking for the most optimum nutrition way of eating that I can find. For me, since my sleeve is uber-picky and still really small, veganism is going to be a challenge simply from a volume perspective--and I suspect this is the case for a lot of us.
Protein is in almost every food in some form--you can read a lot about plant-based diets and Protein just from a simple Google search, so I won't bore you with that here. But the big issue is immediately post-op. You're going to want to find some quality Protein drinks that use soy-based protein (not hard to find, happily!) and avoid dairy and/or egg protein. After that immediate post-op period, you're probably still going to need to supplement with Protein shakes just because you won't be able to eat enough legumes/beans/nuts/tofu to cover your protein requirements as your sleeve heals. That being said, some of the best sources of vegetable protein can be soft/mushies (think Beans, tofu, nut butters).
At this point in my sleeve career (I'm 13-1/2 months out), I eat small, frequent meals--the challenge for me is going to be switching out of dairy into exclusively plant-based protein, as I have been relying pretty heavily on dairy as a protein source (my sleeve doesn't tolerate a lot of animal-flesh Proteins, except for shellfish and occasional lunch meat ham or turkey--and those sometimes don't work). I'm going to have to learn to be more proactive in eating beans/legumes at almost every meal in some format--happily, white Beans can be hidden in smoothies at Breakfast (sounds gross, can't really taste it, thank goodness)..... stuff like that. I'm going to have to plan my meals instead of just going with the flow; I'm not thrilled about that, but the trade-off is worth it.
Anyhow, keep us posted!

bread and Pasta both make me hurt. They also stay in my sleeve for a long time and make it tough for me to drink Water. I avoid both.

I would wait til you are under 200, for the above mentioned reasons. You can try walking on incline instead to get your heart rate up.

Congrats! I met a family of 5 women in the van over to TJ who all had the surgery together! They LOVE Dr. Kelly (as did I!)

4.9.12
Dr. Kelly in Tijuana!

Omar is fantastic!
I've always had calls and emails returned ASAP.
They aren't requiring me to make a deposit.
I couldnt be more thrilled to have my surgery scheduled with Dr. Kelly in June.
I agree 100% that if you have a problem you try and get it resolved, but not sure if bashing him on a public forum is correct either?!?!
Good luck with your surgery, I heard Dr Ponce de leon is a great surgeon as well.

Dr. Kelly had no problem filling them out for me. I asked them to be vague, which they did.
They even let me proofread the forms and made the changes I asked for.

I've recently pulled out some of my size 18s to wear- feeling pretty good about it too. Tonight I decided to pull them all out and they all fit! Then I got bold and looked for my size 16s... Guess who is typing a post in size 16 jeans? ME! No freaking way. To top it all off, I'm down below 220. Unreal. 50lbs in less than three months. Who else loves their sleeve?