BigFrank

You are an absolute inspiration, I am SOOOOO happy for you! If someone didn't believe in miracles after reading this story then there's something wrong with them.

Hi Jack, I also had that fear. BIG TIME. Try to get over it and Just do it, Trust me, you will look back and say this was the best thing you ever did. I have told all of my friends and most family, immediate at least. I just told others the truth about my weight loss. I told them that I am eating a ton less and excercising which is all true. Remember, the sleeve is just a tool to stop you from over eating, that's all. My excercising consists of just walking 2 miles three to four days a week. That's all. I will start weight training in the near future.

*Update* So it's been exactly three months from the time I started this what seems like long journey. I started my 28 day liquid pre op diet on 11/23/2012 and was sleeved on 12/21/2012. In that three month time span I have lost a staggering 101 pounds! Yes, that's right, ONE HUNDRED ONE POUNDS IN ONLY THREE MONTHS! That 101 pounds has decreased my BMI almost 13 points, decreased my jean size from 52 to 44, eliminated my need for Lisinopryl for high blood pressure, and Metformin for borderline diabetes, made me 10 times more physically active, and improved my attitude 1000%. It's not been completely easy. People have asked me how I did it. All I can say is it took an unbelievable amount of determination and extremely rigid discipline. Discipline so tough that many people would have cracked. I'm not sitting there whining and obsessing about food and drink. When those thoughts pop in my head I just tune them out, it's that simple. I have "cheated" only three times since this all started. Here is my idea of cheating: There is a snack mix called Gardettos with these little 1" diameter brown garlic chips in it. I had ONE of those chips. ONE. My mother had a bag of those Snacks called Combos at her house. One day I had TWO of them. And a week ago today my mother was making Cookies with my son and I had HALF of ONE cookie. That's it. The way I see it is all I need is a small taste. Eating food creates instant gratification that lasts minutes. My success and all of the above mentioned benefits leave me with gratification that lasts 24 hours a day. I will say this though, I am not your average sleever. As many have followed my progress you will remember that I had a very easy experience with surgery and recovery. It has only gotten better. I was sleeved a little over two months ago and in that time I have NOT thrown up, been nauseous, "slimed," "dumped," or any of the other things I have read about here. I have regular BM's every single day, have absolutely NO food intolerance's, and now drink 85 ozs. of Water per day. One of the "scary" things I have noticed is that I can eat faster and it almost feels like I have NO sleeve at all. The "restriction" feeling seems like it's going away. I obviously haven't "pushed it" by over eating (which would have stretched my stomach) with a 101 lb loss in such a short time. It feels like nothing ever happened, like I never had surgery. I think that's good and bad in a way as well. Good because I feel like a normal person, bad because I am going to REALLY have to watch what I am eating and how much going foreword. I called my surgeons office yesterday and they were amazed, I guess I'm one for the books. Please understand, I am not bragging here, I am just sharing my experience. For people out there considering this operation or waiting to be sleeved, this is NOT a silver bullet, it's just ONE tool. My experience is NOT everybody's, consider this "best case scenario." There are a lot of people that have it tougher and don't have these results. You just have to be DETERMINED and work HARD at it. No BS. None of that chewing food and spitting it out nonsense. No sitting there whining about not being able to eat. No being lazy, you HAVE TO exercise regularly (I walk two miles three to four times a week plus other physical activity). You have to ask yourself, do I want to be fat or do I want to be thin? In my case I asked myself, do you want to live or do you want to die? The choice was easy because I have a three and a half year old son and a wife that I love. I wanted to be here, plain and simple. If you sacrifice and really put your mind to it you WILL succeed. I refuse to believe that someone (like me) who ate 4000-5000 calories per day and sat on their a$$ all the time can't lose weight if they all of the sudden dropped to 700 calories per day and started exercising. It's impossible unless there is some other underlying medical condition. I had this attitude even before I was sleeved and after as well, you can read my above comments of my ongoing progress for proof. I said here a couple months back that I WOULD lose 100 lbs in three months and I DID. As I said above, it takes unbelievable determination and extremely rigid discipline. You can do it. Here are a couple of photos, one of my scale this morning. I will do full body before and after shots after my wife gets home and snaps a couple of pics for me.

I am SO sorry that I have not checked in here for a bit, but thank you all SO much for the nice and supportive comments! For those of you that are still thinking about this surgery, STOP THINKING!!! Just do it! I have a BIG announceent to make, but I will "weight" (haha get it?) untill Saturday which is my three month anniversary from the start of my 28 day pre op liquid diet to do so! I will give a FULL update then! Thanks all!

WOW!!! You look HOT!!

MelissaGG, if you want to go downtown Chicago to a big hospital I have heard wonderful things about Northwestern. The guy that that lost 200 lbs that I described above, he went to: Life Weigh Bariatrics 2801 Finley Rd. Downers Grove, IL 630-261-9393 He had the actual surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.

AWESOME!!! My doc also just took me off Lisinopryl and Metformin on January 24th! The sleeve rocks, keep up the good work!

BkMama, ok, it's not exactly downtown, but pretty darn close! (It's only about 15 minutes from my house!) Lessisme, they didn't really have a good answer, they told me that they tried it and "it didn't work to well." I know they do a TON of surgeries because my surgeon did four surgeries before mine the day I was operated on! It's really sad that they don't have a better program. My buddy's cousin that I talked to, he said that he sees the NUT, excercise cord., and goes to a group meeting all in the same day, once every three months even though he is a year and a half out! (He even BS's with his surgeon when he's there and catches up!)

NO lessisme, they DO NOT have any groups because I asked if they did. NOTHING. I wanted to join a support group just so I could talk with other sleevers and they couldn't even recommend one! What I explained above is ALL they have. Period. ***They DO have shrinks if you need them though....I have not.

I actually wanted to keep my experience private, but I think people should know. However, I am NOT going to mention the hospital. I still want to talk to BKMama privately though. My surgeon was a VERY nice guy and obviously knows what he is doing since I am alive and well, but the programs before and after sucked. He basically had me visit the NUT 6 times before the surgery strictly to get an insurance approval. He even said so. I had to do the usual tests including psyche, EKG, upper GI, physical by my PCP, etc, but all of those were to make sure I was healthy and for insurance approval. There was NO support groups before or after and there was NO mandatory or even reccomended visit to the NUT after surgery. I was told it was optional when I called a month after surgery. There were no excercise consultants, NOTHING. It was surgery and have a nice day. I didn't even see my surgeon after the surgery until one month later. He said my next follow up visit would be in three months just to weigh me and see if I was ok!!!! Again, I have had NO problems and I am amazingly positive and doing mentally great, but what if i wasn't? It would really suck if this was all I had to work with.

BKMama, you have a private message.

Thanks Laura! Actually I met a REAL show off this week. I was telling a friend of mine (finally, I have been quiet about the surgery) that I had weight loss surgery. He asks me "did you have the band or the sleeve?" I'm like, how do you know about the exact surgeries? He tells me that his cousin got the sleeve. So long story short, he connects me with his cousin and we talked for over two hours. He was the first actual person (not one online) that I have ever met who had the sleeve. He got sleeved in June 2011 and has lost an astonishing 200 lbs in a year and a half, having gone from 365 to 165, and he's only 5' 5" tall. We became Facebook friends and when I saw his photos I was absolutely amazed. The transformation was shocking. Because of his smashing success, he even spoke at his doctors confrence about VSG surgery. One thing that I DID learn from him that amazed me is the level of involvement and follow up by his surgeons. They did an AMAZING job getting him ready for surgery, including making him stop smoking 6 months before the operation, and the aftercare has been wonderful. My surgeons did absolutely NOTHING before and after. Thank God I am doing amazing on my own, and don't need any help. What if I had problems? It just amazes me that I had my surgery done at a world class university hospital downtown Chicago, and they basically have NO real program for VSG patients. I even told my surgeon that and he didn't seem to happy with the criticisim..

Just a quick update: So if you read above, last Sunday I thought I had hit a stall having lost only one pound in an entire week. Well, I had decided NOT to weigh myself everyday anymore and only do it on Sundays. Well, after 6 days I couldn't wait anymore and to my amazement I got on the scale this morning and lost 6 pound in the six days that have passed since last Sunday!!! I DID however turn it up this week with more activity (I ate the exact same) and am now at 362, or 83 total lbs lost!!! I have also officially lost over 10 points in my BMI, having gone from 55 to 45, all of this in 2 months and 9 days! Life is GREAT!

Thanks everyone for the support and nice comments! Chellennunley, your comments in particular really struck home with me. I can completely relate/understand. You are a very brave person to have made this decision and seized control of your life. As long as you believe it, you WILL succeed. It will take a monumental amount of work, but your family and future grandchild are counting on you. I really wish you success and happiness.

Wow, that is SO awesome! Congrats!

Thanks gammy and others, I just figured out how to do it and here's mine!

By the way, I have NO cloths to wear anymore (I was wearing size 52 jeans which are way to big) so I went to my old cloths and I was able to fit into a pair of size 46 jeans that I wore a few years ago! Woohoo!

Ok, so I have had a few people asking me for updates. After 10 days, here they are: I have some amazing news. I FINALLY saw my primary care physician on January 24th, 2013 (first time since I was sleeved on 12/21/2012). He checked me out and was AMAZED at my progress. They did a blood test and checked my levels to find out that my Hemoglobin A1C went from 6.1 on October 30th, 2012 to 5.3 on 1/24/2013. Because of those results he FINALLY took me off of Metformin which I have been on since July 2011!!! I was totally ecstatic because of this! He also "officially" took me off of my blood pressure meds which I actually stopped taking after surgery. I am now medication free!!! Here are my current stats: 11/23/2012 445 lbs (at start of pre op liquid diet) 1/27/2013 368 lbs for a total of 77 lbs lost in 2 months and 4 days. To be honest with you I am REALLY bummed though. I think I have already hit a plateau. In the past 7 days I have only lost a pound or so. I was 369 for like 3 days, then I lost a pound and have weighed in at 368 for 4 days now. I don't know what the hell is going on. I know I lost a TON of weight for such a short period of time, but 1 pound in a week is unacceptable. I have changed NONE of my habits. I actually increased my exercise, and eat VERY VERY little each day. Any less and according my my NUT, I will be eating "dangerously low calorie levels." That MAY be a problem in itself, I don't know. How could I have already reached a plateau just one month after surgery? Yes, I DID lose 49 lbs in my 28 day liquid only pre op diet, and yes I have lost an additional 28 lbs the month or so after surgery, but totally stalling out has gotten me REALLY frustrated. People have been telling me that I should just chill out, that I have done absolutely AMAZING and that my expectations are WAY to high right now. I have become absolutely obsessed with losing this weight. I had this initial goal of losing 100 lbs in my first three months, but if my weight loss doesn't restart, I'm not going to reach it. I REALLY would appreciate any suggestions or comments about this.

Hey guys, it's been a slice. I wish you all success in your VSG journey. This has become way to tedious to continue. So long all!

Amanda, when I was tipped off to the other nutty posts, well.....she seems a bit off is all. I really felt that I had to point them out. Look, I am not going to get into some war with iggy followers vs. people that don't like her for whatever reason. To be honest with you I am not that attached to this forum for all that. I found it right before my surgery and thought I would share my experience. If it's going to become some hassle them I am done, it's that simple. I actually prefer to join a GOOD facebook group. If anyone knows of a good one please private message me.

Oh and by the way, where's your profile picture? I want to see the prom queen that rejected me in high school! LOL! Oh, and by the way, here was me in high school, you would have been lucky to have a catch like me!

Here's the other one from the Veterans section: Posted Today, 8:25 PM The problem with this is that you actually can't remove the risks from the surgery. They're there and they will increase as we see more and more unprepared people move forward with it. I for one would do anything in my power to stop people from having this surgery as a preventative measure if they didn't have some dang good reasons for it. It's being used on models now to keep themselves stick thin....that's just not right. I don't think the general guidelines of having been heavy for x period of time and showing an effort to comply (ie six month diet) are a bad thing. I think they should be mandatory for all candidates. Now that won't make me popular will it LOL And who is F and why on earth does he follow me about? I think I rejected him in highschool heh heh" Hey sweetheart, you need to chill out. It's only the internet. Jeez Louise, you almost died. Thank God you are still breathing, step away from the computer and enjoy life will ya?

I posted my experience and stuck around for a few days and got busy. I check in from time to time on my i phone when I can but that was about it until today. After I made that post I had a couple people contact me and tip me off to this post you made in the rants and raves section: "Posted January 11, 2013 - 9:52 AM Careful Cheri. They're gonna bring in "F" who lives in fear of certain posters and only posts for two days about those horrible people...then disappears altogether....to complain about how you're scared him into not being able to whine about his triple cheeseburger Breakfast Meanie heh heh heh Oh and you left out the section on ripping open your wounds riding a wild bull on day 3 after surgery. I always love those posts. After all, the doc was probably kidding about you not lifting anything and as long as you use your legs to lift yourself up on the bull it'll be ok...oh and you can lift children because you are a mom and your muscles have this magic memory that allows for that weight....but shucks...I forgot WE CUT THROUGH THOSE! Ummmmm but for you they're different right? The pain you are feeling is totally different and likely a leak Best post about that pronto LMAO" I was also told there was another but I couldn't find it. After reading that I think I have changed my opinion of you. To be honest with you....well how can I say this gently.....you seem a bit "off" to be honest with you. You posted that like two weeks from when I made that initial comment in my first post??? Jeeez, were you sitting there stewing in anger for weeks afterwards? Wow.

You look awesome!! Wow, 100 lbs, what an accomplishment! I really can't wait till I hit 100 as well. It won't be long now!

Shockingly I am back? What the heck does that mean? I don't have anything against you, to be honest with you, you don't even register in my mind. The reason I mentioned you is because when I read this thread I saw you discouraging people from getting the VSG. You're being irresponsible in doing so because of the overwhelming imperical evidence that disproves the fear that you are peddling here. Bottom line, VSG surgery is overwhelmingly safe and changes lives for the better. You had a bad experience. We have all heard about it MANY times. Move on and move over and let the rest of us get on with improving our lives.