Patrick Curl

Wow 18 people on July 2nd that's a LOT. 26 sleevers will be sleeved before the 4th of July -- how awesome is that? So many people getting their 'independence day'.....freaks the crap out of me how close this is though.... lol

First let me say I feel fabulous! I've lost over 70 pounds in just over 5 months. I went from a 22 to a very comfy 12. The road has not been easy and for all you newbies...here is my list of amazing highs...and of not so sunshiny lows.
Disclaimer: This is my experience...it may not be yours.

It will be uncomfortable for a few days post op
I was not hungry for weeks after surgery
I was scared to eat or drink and I didn’t drink enough...thus Constipation and weakness
I didn't feel normal for about 6 weeks. I needed naps and I took them
The weight literally falls off...seriously I was looking for pools of fat in bed when I woke up in the morning
I hit the 4 week stall and it lasted two weeks. Expect it and don't stress
On day three, I had a massive freak out…seriously threw a four year old fit…pissed off my stomach was gone.
No one noticed for months and that irritated me.
EVERYONE notices now and it's all they want to talk about.
Don’t tell anyone you are going to Mexico to have your stomach cut off unless you trust them completely.
I threw up alot...just slime mostly...while I was learning my new tummy. It will scare you and if you are like me…it will happen a lot when you transition to solid foods.
food addiction does not magically go away...if you have a problem before..you will still have it. I think about food all the time, but I finally have a way to resist it. I am a sugar addict. I never crave carbs, but I crave sugar like a mad woman.
Going out to dinner is awkward. I hate watching people eat
Put the lotion on the skin! My skin got really dry.
I’ve lost half my hair at 4.5 months post op. Mine came out in chunks. Freaked me out! Our Golden Retriever and I are in a competition for shedding. It will be ok. Take your Vitamins and buy Nioxin. It doesn’t help my Hair loss, but I feel like I am at least doing something about it.
Don’t take a powerful laxative when you are constipated…especially before your child’s school performance. It may say “See results in 2-4 hours” but it means 30 mins and then you’re stuck on a mini toilet with both legs numb, crying to everything holy to save you.
Shopping is amazing! I still feel like people are looking at me like I don’t belong there…but that’s all in my head.
My shoes no longer fit. they are too wide now!
Your pre WLS Spanx will look huge in a couple months
Trust me…put some Granola bars in your glove box and a few packs of mixed nuts. Sometimes your hungry and there is nothing that you can eat.
Handy meals from the market or gas station when you didn’t plan ahead. Single string cheese, an apple, mixed nuts, readymade hard boiled eggs, The inside of California rolls- no rice, campbells Soup at hand or ready made Soup in a coffee cup.
Handy items at fast food places that sit ok on my tummy include: Taco Bells refried Beans or the inside of a chicken taco. Wendys chili, McDonalds oatmeal, McDonalds yogurt parfait
I feel guilty in front of my heavier friends. I always try to wear a sweatshirt so I don’t rub the weight loss in their faces.
You get drunk really fast...like a half glass of wine. Be careful...it sneaks up on you...and before you know it, you’re waiting for your hubby to pick you up...from less than a glass. Its crazy. I don't really even try anymore to drink.
I crave raw fish, cooked fish, broiled fish, grilled fish...any fish really and it feels amazing on my tummy.
I cant eat steak
I love that I have collar bones
I update my Facebook pictures and secretly love the compliments
I own a woman's North Face now
I can buy bras at Victoria's secret
I pack all my food for work in snack bags and the little tupperware containers for salad dressing.
I can still have M&M's...its just like 9...instead of the king size bags
Take heartburn medicine everyday...don’t wait until you get heartburn.
Buy stock in Maalox
You can have a full meal at Costco- samples + WLS = Cheap Date!
Food Portion jokes get really old
Fast food burgers makes me want to vomit.
At 5 months...salad is wonderful. I can eat about a cup of greens...which takes me a while and I feel a tiny bit normal.
Post-op, If you can swing it, buy a Vita-Mix blender and make your own soup. Canned soup was nasty right after surgery. Freeze them in 4oz canning jars. It will be two servings.
Quit Smoking before surgery. I waited and it slowed my healing. It also gave me terrible heartburn. I am 5 weeks smoke free
You don't have to "confess" you had WLS. It's ok to say thank you for the compliment and not feel guilty. I'm just now starting to accept that I had a little something to do with this insane loss. I tell people when they ask now how I lost the weight, that i exercise and use Portion Control.< br /> People will treat you different. Salesladies ask if I need assistance, men hold open doors and the skinny girls at work talk to me now. It's shallow and pisses me off, but it's nice to not be invisible anymore.
WLS is very difficult. For me, it’s not physical, but the mental. Sometimes I just want a cheesecake like before. It goes away very quickly, but it still comes and goes. Sometimes I get angry at my sleeve because I can’t eat something I see others eating. Most of the time I have to hide my expression when I see people shovel food in the way I used to. It’s shocking to see when you’re on the other side of WLS. I used to inhale my food like a tiny food thief was going to come in and take it away from me.
You will have to say no to your family when they all want to go to a Chinese buffet. I’m still not ready to walk in and be near a buffet.
It feels awesome to give your clothes away, however, do not offer them to your heavier friends. It’s insensitive and they won’t return your calls for a week.
Last one...I played laser tag this past weekend with a bunch of 9 year old boys. It was soooo Much fun!!!

Please feel free to add any other thoughts or tips...

Yeah it's getting super close. scale was stuck at 657 for 4 days the yesterday dropped to 652. 15 total lost on preop since day after memorial day.

Just got done with my egd I swear I was shaking I was so nervous. Then I bit down in something and next thing I know I'm being woken up then transferred to recovery.
No pain or nausea, hardly felt like anything even happened. Dont know why I was freaking out so bad.

Hey, - if anyone is interested - I created a FB group just for us July 2012 sleevers! It's a good easy way to stay in touch..
http://www.facebook.com/groups/sleevers0712

Thanks for the support. Helps me to know I can deal with it..and that I will be able to do this...

wtg.. Ya know... I don't know if I'll ever be in one-derland -being a guy and 650 right now - two-ferville looks good to me!

This is the week, I feel like my journey REALLY began.
I began a self-imposed liquid diet(mostly liquid anyhow).
I got my surgery date! (July 2nd Yay!)
I lost 10 pounds.
I have been really pushing myself to workout.
I just got back from krogers where I parked at the back of the parking lot, and walked as long as I could inside before getting a shopping cart to lean on - and then I couldn't find what I was looking for so literally spent like 25-30 minutes walking today..
Now last week I couldn't walk around the block.
I've also been doing Ultimate Fighting Challenge on Xbox Kinect almost nightly, and am trying to start up turbo-jam. After I get through w/ turbo-jam I'm going to begin doing P90X - that'll be um...interesting.
Each night before bed I do stair pushups as well and squats in front of the stairs(so I can fall back and sit down when I need to lol). I started w/ 5 stair pushups and am now at 20 on the 6th stair up. When I get to 50 I'm moving down a stair.
My diet has been really good and I just feel really on track and motivated...though could always use more SVs and NSVs lol to keep me motivated - I just hope I'm building a lot of muscle which will weigh more but in the end help me lose more too.
I'm attaching my weekly food/exercise journal - I think I did pretty good...except for Friday and Saturday. Each day is a new day, and I'm finding this forum to be a HUGE wealth of information and motivation. I think the forum is almost as good as the surgery itself! - -well not the forum, but the people in it, and the community here. Thanks for welcoming me!


Direct link: http://www.fitbeginning.com/images/Week1-Pre-op-NutritionReportPatrickcurl.png

This is the week, I feel like my journey REALLY began.
I began a self-imposed liquid diet(mostly liquid anyhow).
I got my surgery date! (July 2nd Yay!)
I lost 10 pounds.
I have been really pushing myself to workout.
I just got back from krogers where I parked at the back of the parking lot, and walked as long as I could inside before getting a shopping cart to lean on - and then I couldn't find what I was looking for so literally spent like 25-30 minutes walking today..
Now last week I couldn't walk around the block.
I've also been doing Ultimate Fighting Challenge on Xbox Kinect almost nightly, and am trying to start up turbo-jam. After I get through w/ turbo-jam I'm going to begin doing P90X - that'll be um...interesting.
Each night before bed I do stair pushups as well and squats in front of the stairs(so I can fall back and sit down when I need to lol). I started w/ 5 stair pushups and am now at 20 on the 6th stair up. When I get to 50 I'm moving down a stair.
My diet has been really good and I just feel really on track and motivated...though could always use more SVs and NSVs lol to keep me motivated - I just hope I'm building a lot of muscle which will weigh more but in the end help me lose more too.
I'm attaching my weekly food/exercise journal - I think I did pretty good...except for Friday and Saturday. Each day is a new day, and I'm finding this forum to be a HUGE wealth of information and motivation. I think the forum is almost as good as the surgery itself! - -well not the forum, but the people in it, and the community here. Thanks for welcoming me!


Direct link: http://www.fitbeginning.com/images/Week1-Pre-op-NutritionReportPatrickcurl.png

Lol I weigh myself every morning and night in case I'm retaining Water or burned some while I slept lol. Now thats obsessed!

This is the week, I feel like my journey REALLY began.
I began a self-imposed liquid diet(mostly liquid anyhow).
I got my surgery date! (July 2nd Yay!)
I lost 10 pounds.
I have been really pushing myself to workout.
I just got back from krogers where I parked at the back of the parking lot, and walked as long as I could inside before getting a shopping cart to lean on - and then I couldn't find what I was looking for so literally spent like 25-30 minutes walking today..
Now last week I couldn't walk around the block.
I've also been doing Ultimate Fighting Challenge on Xbox Kinect almost nightly, and am trying to start up turbo-jam. After I get through w/ turbo-jam I'm going to begin doing P90X - that'll be um...interesting.
Each night before bed I do stair pushups as well and squats in front of the stairs(so I can fall back and sit down when I need to lol). I started w/ 5 stair pushups and am now at 20 on the 6th stair up. When I get to 50 I'm moving down a stair.
My diet has been really good and I just feel really on track and motivated...though could always use more SVs and NSVs lol to keep me motivated - I just hope I'm building a lot of muscle which will weigh more but in the end help me lose more too.
I'm attaching my weekly food/exercise journal - I think I did pretty good...except for Friday and Saturday. Each day is a new day, and I'm finding this forum to be a HUGE wealth of information and motivation. I think the forum is almost as good as the surgery itself! - -well not the forum, but the people in it, and the community here. Thanks for welcoming me!


Direct link: http://www.fitbeginning.com/images/Week1-Pre-op-NutritionReportPatrickcurl.png

Lol I weigh myself every morning and night in case I'm retaining Water or burned some while I slept lol. Now thats obsessed!

Yup, that's what she said. lol

Haha. Sadly she did NOT say that.
:-s lmao.

My doctor seemed pleasantly surprised I lost 20 pounds since he last saw me especially since he doesn't do a pre op.
Today was my last preop meeting with doctor. Have two more doctor appoints before surgery : cardiologist and pulmonologist.
Should be all set to go by end of day on monday other than my egd on thursday.

Yup, that's what she said. lol

My doctor seemed pleasantly surprised I lost 20 pounds since he last saw me especially since he doesn't do a pre op.
Today was my last preop meeting with doctor. Have two more doctor appoints before surgery : cardiologist and pulmonologist.
Should be all set to go by end of day on monday other than my egd on thursday.

I think maybe I'd find a new doctor / surgeon.. and call a lawyer. Sounds to me like there were mistakes done in your care. I think it is extremely clumsy that they punctured your lung doing a routine procedure - that just doesn't sit right with me, and I'd run far away from that hospital - can you share which hospital - so I know never to go there?
I really hope you get past this and will be praying for you, my wife had a similar situation with a kidney stone - it was one of the smallest the doctor ever saw, yet almost killed her when she got septic and because of her septicemia she still feels sluggish and fatigued two years later.
I read that trauma to your system like that can cause issues like Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia.. so be careful, and hang in there.

imho sleeve is better -because when I'm 60 or 70 I'm going to probably need to take a lot of medicine (don't all elderly people? hehe no offense to the youth challenged in here) but seriously- with RNY you don't absorb medicine correctly which means dosing you is going to be difficult - the doctor is going to try different doses and he could end up killing you with a lethal dose, or putting you in the hospital because your absorption rate isn't normal, or under-dose you and you end up in the hospital because the medicine isn't working as intended...
I'm thinking about my long-term health. The sleeve also doesn't have dumping and frankly I do not want to swear off my favorite foods for life, instead just till I reach goal. Also, I'm 650 so the sleeve is safer for me than rny as well.
Also the sleeve won't stretch like the bypass does. I've also read a lot of cases where the sleeve has actually been better in the long-run than the bypass -and a lot of bypass patients who've gained back a lot of weight.
Ultimately though it is a personal choice on how you want to live your life, and the malnourishment/absorption of vitamins/medicine/etc plus never being able to eat some of my favorite foods again is just not something I am wanting to live with.

Kimbernada hit the nail on the head with her pros and cons. I also didn't notice much negativity other than some strong opinions about why the sleeve is safer and such than bypass, but that is to be expected when 90% of the people on this forum have had or have chosen to have the sleeve done, or are preparing for surgery. We've all gone through the personal thoughts about which surgery to choose and its kinda funny how most of our reasons kinda overlap. I feel like sleevers are the people who research every little thing and ive literally spent three years lurking on band forums obesity help and this forum and for me this surgery and this support network are what I feel is going to help me be successful.
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As the self-appointed unofficial chairman of the July Sleevers, I'd like to welcome you to our party lol - Not to mention I'm a July 2nd'er too!

I think maybe I'd find a new doctor / surgeon.. and call a lawyer. Sounds to me like there were mistakes done in your care. I think it is extremely clumsy that they punctured your lung doing a routine procedure - that just doesn't sit right with me, and I'd run far away from that hospital - can you share which hospital - so I know never to go there?
I really hope you get past this and will be praying for you, my wife had a similar situation with a kidney stone - it was one of the smallest the doctor ever saw, yet almost killed her when she got septic and because of her septicemia she still feels sluggish and fatigued two years later.
I read that trauma to your system like that can cause issues like Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia.. so be careful, and hang in there.

Absolutely - thanks for re-iterating. I know food got us into this, but to never ever again enjoy certain foods because of dumping syndrome, or something - well.. that just sucks. I plan on getting down to 200, working out like a dog - joining some competitive athletic activities like Mixed Martial Arts, or maybe an Adult Hockey or Basketball league - something fun that is exercise but that doesn't feel like it. -- When I'm that active I'll be able to enjoy a good mexican meal, or something (only 1/5th as much at a time lol)..
It so a no-brainer to me. I am so excited about the surgery, and pumped to get it done, over with, and get past the 6-8 week post op diet, and just get this weight behind me.. Next year is the beginning of something I've never experienced before.. Being Thin'ish (300 would be thin for me lol) - just want to fit into a damn roller coaster again - and I'm going to Cedar Point and Kings Island every weekend for a whole freaking year!

I think the stretching may have to do with the size and shape of the two different pouches. I'm not too sure why bypass patients stretch more.
Also one thing that is important to think on is to look more holistically at your life. You are more than your waistline. You could lose 100 pounds and still be miserable. Especially when you're always feeling sick from malabsorption, or dumping or just the lifestyle of rny is harder to maintain. You need to see a doctor every six months for the rest of your life to have a Vitamin and mineral check to make sure your levels are in check.
You will probably also be spending $150+ per month just on Vitamins for the rest of your life. Also I love food and I selfishly am not willing to say goodbye forever to my faves. When I reach goal I can have those things again but I will never be able to eat the same quantity that I would before surgery.
So when you think about the surgery think about how you want to live once you reach goal, is it worth trading some of the pros of the sleeve for a couple months faster weight loss? In the first year you will probably lose 100 pounds and you still might have more to lose but I guarantee you will feel healthier and happier than ever before even though you are not yet at goal. I would be happy to reach 400 right now. 300 would be awesome so i can go to amusement parks again but I didn't put all the weight on in a year I can weight 2 years to get to goal, but you better believe I'm going to work the hardest ive ever worked in my life to get this weight off.
I wish you great luck in making your choice whichever you choose is better than doing nothing and I know you will make it to the losers bench.
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