NJDad

I had rotator cuff surgery about 8 years ago. I had heard the horror stories of the pain involved with rehab. I kept waiting for it, but it never showed up. Sure, there was some discomfort, and it increased with the PT. But I never saw or felt the severe debilitating stuff others felt. I am not some crazy person that enjoys pain (OK, maybe I am a little.....going through a divorce for two years proves that :-)). But I only report this to show that everyone is different, and your mileage WILL vary. And lastly, every doc always says that PT may delay the need for surgery. The insurance companies demand that, not the docs. They try and sell that so you go away and not cost them more money. You drive a car? Have a tap in the motor? Think it will go away on its own? Nope, it will only continue to cause problems. Same goes for your four tears. They usually do not heal on their own.......I waited five years before I got mine operated on, hoping they would heal on their own. Good luck Ron

Oh, trust me.....it is true.

DadsRebel, Trust us, it does get easier. And harder. This portion of this path you are on is a tough one, and I don't look back very fondly on those long days immediately before and after my surgery. The days immediately after the surgery are the toughest. But if you can survive the first day, the next one is easier, followed by the next one which is easier, and so on, and so on. But I will tell you this......it has been all worth it for me. I feel better, look better and hopefully will live a longer life thanks to the changes I made in my lifestyle. Follow your doctor's orders. Listen to your nutritionist. And keep up the exercise.....I am three years out and regularly exercise to keep the weight from ever creeping back. Ron

Monie, You will get the joy of not worrying about whether or not you will fit in that tiny seat in the theater, or whether people will comment on your size, or whether you will be able to find that outfit you like in your size. Ooooo, you meant in a similar vein to what we guys are talking about? From what I see the women discussing, you will be able to see parts of your body "down there" that you had long ago given up hope of ever seeing again. You might even be able to groom them like you always wanted to now. You will find your time in bed more fun, without the great exertion that came with moving our larger bodies around. Your body parts overall will shrink and be more manageable. And one last thing.....if your partner is smaller than you (Like my ex was), gone will be the ever present fear of climbing on top of them and leaving them look like Judge Doom at the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (He got the steamroller). How's that? Ron

pffft..it's never just us guys in the guys room Sorry, I forgot to turn on my <Sarcasm> tag on before I posted :-) In my mind, it is fine for the women to come by and read or post in this forum. It is silly to limit any forum. However, I don't believe a woman should ever get insulted or offended by what we guys might say here. Its a double sided edge when you come in here.

Since this is just us guys here, I'll explain what I have found. Ladies, you are in the Men's Room, so if this kind of stuff bothers you....you have been warned. I don't have any hard data, like I measured myself before and after. I didn't anticipate this. It has been three years since my surgery. I am 100+ lighter than when I started. I was married for just over 24 years when I had the surgery. My (soon to be ex) wife and I enjoyed trying things in bed. As time progressed, we noticed that at some point about 10-15 years ago that she could take me whole. She was proud of the fact that she was now as good as the porn stars. We assumed it was because she was getting practice. Turns out I was shrinking as time went on (Or, should I say, other parts of my body were growing to hide the important bits) Well, once I started losing the weight......things changed. She could no longer reach the levels she used to achieve. She tried, but at the end of the day, she left 1.5-2" uncovered. She also noticed that what used to not quite fill her two hands, now exceeds the two hands by a good amount (She must have small hands guys, I am no porn star here) So, this is purely anecdotal, but it gives you an idea of the differences you might see as the weight falls away. Add in the fact that you get less tired from physical exertion and that is a great combination. Good luck

I am not a trucker, but I travel the globe for my job. I eat out for more than half my meals. I cannot help you on what to bring in the truck to cook, but I can tell you that if you eat in restaurants, you can almost always order things like plain chicken breast or the smallest piece of steak and a salad and get quite filled up. If you have to, order from the kids menu. At first, it will seem odd, but as time goes, you will get over that. Just last Friday I went out to a local pub where they served bar food.....beers, burgers and bar pizzas. How would I find anything there? They had an option for a grilled chicken burger in place of the hamburger. I got it plain, put the bun and fries to the side and had a nice meal. You just have to think outside the box and you'll be fine. As for exercise, walk. The single easiest thing you can do is walk. Park furthest away from the building in the parking lot and walk. Take the stairs in a hotel rather than the elevator. As time goes on, will find that walking is no longer the chore it once was. And then you can add some exercise. I can't help you with driver-specific exercises, but I am sure someone else will chime in. Good luck. Ron

I find this is true as well. My surgeon backed it my suspicion saying that you have to evacuate the waste (fat). So come on men, let us poop our selves thin! And here I thought I was the only one that was seeing that :-) I notice that if I don't go for a few days, the weight loss stalls. So the relief from going is twofold. The physical relief in actually going.....and the mental relief of knowing the stall is ending. Ron White has a great line about this....... You ever take a crap so big, your pants fit better? Anybody ever do that? You ever... I'm hoping that happens to me later tonight, 'cause these babies don't fit anymore. I'm hoping I'm one big turd away from backing into an old wardrobe. I had seen this a long time ago and laughed.......I saw it again online now that I am a few years into my weight loss and laughed my ass off. It is so true.

DM, We all were nervous before we started. It takes a lot to finally make the decision to make changes in our lives to help ourselves. You are on the right path, investigating what this process is going to be like. If you have any questions, feel free to ask any of us here. We are all on here to assist others. Ron

Two things I notice in your pictures....... 1. You are looking great. 2. Your after picture is taken in a gym. The reason I mention this is that so many people think they can have the surgery and the weight will magically slip off. It takes hard work to make this happen, including spending time in the gym, to achieve our goals. Ron

Here's one from before....sometime around 2009 And here's one from last month.

I think it would make sense for folks like us to seek out others that have been down the WLS path too. I am new to the single scene and think it would be nice to find someone else that has had the surgery too. Think of the advantages......splitting a meal, knowing the other person won't ask questions about why you cut your meal into teeny tiny bites, why you take so long to eat......you know the drill.

I went from a 12 to an 11 after 120 pounds of weight loss.

This site has fallen very far, very fast.mmi think it is since they merged all the different types of,surgery under one banner. Combine that with a website more interested in showing advertising than letting us communicate and you get this.....a site that I used to visit daily, now visit once a week. As for progress......what type of progress are you looking for? I don't think it'll grow any more, if that is what you mean.????

Thanks for the advice Leepers. I'll keep it all in mind. I am looking to finish, not finish first......so if my friend takes up a quicker pace, I'll meet him at the finish line.

OK, I am not quite sure if I am ready for this, but a friend has talked me into running a 5K with him next Sunday. We are both Jets season ticket holders, and the NY Jets are having their annual Turkey Trot next Sunday morning at the team's training facilty. He and I were at a game last month and he was asking me how my weight loss was going. I explained how I have been biking and running for my excercise. He told me about the Turkey Trot and how he was going to run it. My buddy runs the NYC marathon, so a 5K is like a walk to the corner for him. He said it would be good for me. I'm not so sure, since my usual runs are about 1-1.5 miles. 5 kilometers is 3 miles. The Jets coach, Rex Ryan had Lapband surgery and looks great. Mike told me that maybe I'd get a chance to see him and we could share tips on our weight loss We all need goals, right? Well, I am amping up my running the last two weeks. My legs are like rubber today, so I took the day off. I realized that the one thing I have to make sure I have for that run are good sneakers, and tight shorts.......Things are bouncing around far more than they used to. Does anyone else have any suggestions for me? If I don't pass out or have a heart attack, I'll post pictures next week. Ron

I had my band done in NJ in April of 2013. If you have any questions you think that I can answer, feel free to ask. Ron

My daughter just graduated high school last June. In my opinion, too many teachers teach class so the kids pass whatever testing the state has put out to judge how well the teachers are doing.......and forgetting that the primary reason kids go to schol is to learn how to be fully functional members of society. I don't think the teachers gave up, so much as it is survival for them. We need kids to know how to write and read. They also need to function without spellcheck, a calculator or Google. I amaze my daughter and her friends sometimes with my mastery of math (I can figure out the proper 15% without a calculator), my dictonary like ability to spell any word they throw at me (I read a lot and was a spelling bee champ in high school) and my knowledge of history or politics (I can tell them that Saddam Hussein was once a strong allie of the US before he invaded Kuwait). I learned all those things in school. I'm not so sure my daughter and her friends learned all that. However, my daughter was regualrly told how horrible our current governor is (I live in NJ, Google it to find out who I am speaking of and why teachers might not like him) She has the ability to pass any college entry exam and get into the best schools......but I am not so sure she knows what the USSR was. OK, I am done with my rant now. Sorry to hijack this thread, it just troubles me how uneducated our society has become, and what it means for our futre.

I had lapband surgery over 18 months ago. I come here about once a week or so.....far less than right after my surgery. But, to be honest, it seems that since they grouped all the different surgery type websites under one website, many of the regulars have gone away......in my opinion, this site is not as good as it used to be....but it is still the best one for people to discuss the various surgeries.

When I went to college way back in the dark ages, I had a priest as my Engineering 101 teacher. After our first test, a fellow student complained about his grade....it seemed the Teacher had taken off for spelling and lowered many students grades. "I am going to be an engineer, what does it matter if I misspell a word or two? As long as the numbers work, that's all that matters" Father John Staudenmeyer was his name. He stopped, looked up at all of us, and said something I won't ever forget. "I'll be damned if someone leaves this college thinking that we graduated someone that can't spell or write a complete sentence." Being an engineer, when I read my colleagues letters, reports and emails, I wish they all had Father Staudenmeyer as their teacher. Boy! Engineers don't seem to even know how to use spellcheck.

I just had to buy a bunch of new clothes. The 40 and 38 waist sizes no longer fit. I am down to 36 after 18 months...... I started at 46 or 44, depending on how tight I wanted the pants to be. I still want to get to 34, where I was in college.

I'm an engineer.....by definition, an engineer likes to be able to return to the previous version if things don't work out. The Lapband was the only procedure that gave me that option.

Great progress........I wish I took such detailed pics to compare my progress. I love in North Jersey too.......where did you do your surgery? I went to Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge.