easye256

What else do your job duties entail? Im in oil and gas, drive and operate equipment. I took 2 weeks off post sugrery and then went back to work with only driving duties. I was exempted from helping with job rig up for a month. But I had zero problems driving. My usualy equipemt is a 365 pete with a 49 ft pumping unit (106,000lbs) drving some really nasty lease roads. I would say if you're an OTR or just local haul and dont have to do any heavy unloading, you should be good

Dont fret about how much others lose month to month. If it's coming off, thats a good sign. You will hit platue after platue, its part of the whole process. The trick is to push though the stalls, change the types of food you're putting in, and excersise as much as possible. Im 2 years out, stalled many times. And others are right, its a mental game just as much as a physical one. Good luck dude!

2 years gone by, 140 lbs off, best decision ever. First photo is with my aunt at me wedding 3 years ago, second is current. Good job to everyone in maintenance mode, and best of luck to those just beginning! Trust me, it's worth it.

So here I am, just a little over 2 years out. To save you reader some time, I started out at 376 glorious pounds of depression and misery. I'm a very "outdoors" minded person. Love to dive, ride motorcycles, lake trips, you name it. Being almost 400 pounds, it took a huge toll on my ability to enjoy what I enjoyed (even if that statement sounds kind of stupid). I'll tell you, if you're considering this surgery as an option, quit considering it and DO IT! It has allowed me to have a life again. And to the people who will tell you "it’s the easy way out," they're so far out if line it’s not even funny. I cannot tell you how many times in the first year I said screw the rules and ate something I shouldn’t have, drank while eating and all the things they tell you not to do, and then spent a half hour or so in absolute misery as my "banana" stomach tried to cope with the crap that I stuffed in it. It ain't easy. The first 6 months is definitely the honeymoon stage. The weight will just fall off no matter what you do. After the first year, it becomes more difficult as the new stomach does stretch a little and it easier to begin to overeat again. My low weight was just about 200 pounds. Unfortunately, I have a very large frame and I looked ridiculous with the flabby skin crap everywhere. Now, this is unavoidable to some extent, and I'm cool with it. Better be healthier with some loose skin and unhealthy with it packed full of fat, right? So, for better or worse, I turned from food addict, to a gym rat. I've put just about 30 pound back on, most all had been muscle since my arms, chest and legs have filled out, but with definition. Now the stomach? Lost cause, lol. Unless I do corrective surgery to remove it, it’s just my baggage I'll carry around in punishment for letting myself become an unhealthy person for the majority of my life. I just did my 2 year follow up, and my surgeon isn’t happy with my current weight, never mind that my BMI is down 25 freakin points. For the record, I hate BMI, I think it is a stupid algorithm made up for some reason I cannot figure out. They say I should be 175 pounds to be in a normal BMI, ppfft on that. To get there I'd have to starve myself. I suppose he's not happy because I imagine, they plug in all of the patients information to see how effective the surgery was, by my numbers, I didn’t do well. I couldn’t be happier with my results, so screw their charts. I seem to be rambling....... Anyway, if anyone is still here, thank you for taking time out of your day to read this, hopefully you get some entertainment, insight, or just a few minutes wasted from whatever you're supposed to be doing at work, Sleeve on people!

Mine havent changed at all and I have them on my forearms, biceps and legs. You can see the before and "during" in my arms. 117 lbs gone in this photo

8 months, 117 lbs gone FOREVER

Well, I am sure I wont be the only one to say this, but, you just have to be patient. You're 4 days out from a MAJOR operation. Your body is in complete and total shock and it needs time, just like you will, to adjust to the new changes. Believe me, it will come down, just have to give yourself some time for everything to return to what your new normal will be. Everybody here who is post op has gone through a momentary gain or stall and we all freak a little bit. Just have to take a deep breath, pack the scale away for a little while (trust me, it helps. the scale is a great tool to completely screw your mental health) and just keep on track.

I was about 380 lbs when I decided to do this. Sleeved 2 1/2 weeks ago and down to 345. I will probably never be considered "normal" on the BMI charts, but all the potential health complications from being 350+ will be GREATLY reduced.

I drove 2 days after surgery, was off pain meds before I left the hospital so I didnt have any reservastions about meds impairing my motor skills. I figured as soon as I could move around easily, driving woundn't be an issue. Like everyone else has already said, you will recover at a different rate. Go by what your body is saying, you should be able to tell what you can handle. I took 8 days off of work.

Man, I cant seem to keep up with these as much as I had hoped too. I am now almost 3 weeks post op, feeling great, pain free and losing poundage on a regular basis. I still havent bought a scale, but clothes are fitting better and better everyday. I got lucky, I suppose, I went home the day after surgery and didnt have to take any pain meds after leaving the hospital, quite happy about that actually. So far its been really easy. Water goes down without a problem, food intake is simple, small, but simple. With my surgeon, we are able to move to a more normal diet in week 3, it's been a blessing for sure. Hoping that things progress as as easy as it has from here on out. Down 28 lbs, lots to go!

Well hello there blogs! It's been a while. Anywho, final appointment went well, packet submitted, got denied for some dumb stuff, then approved. I figured short and sweet was the way to go with that. I'm kind of glad the blogs have been down as I havent had much nice to say lately. Surgery scheduled for Nov 20th, a mere 11 days away and I start pre op diet next Tuesday. Let me tell you, looking forward to that (HA! yeah right). But it will be ok. Somehow I talked my boss into giving me 2 weeks off, how? I haven't quite figured that out yet, guess he was in a good mood that day. Obviously nervous about the procedure as a whole, but it seems as though most are doing or have done alright with it, I just hate hospitals.

My date just confirmed today, Nov 20th! Good luck everybody

this is what my doc wrote me, Cigna had no issues with it. All of my denies had to do with the location of procedure and some mix up with psych paperwork

Dont feel too bad about it. I was denied 3 times for a whole slew of "mirco" things. Just took a little time and patience (and a good rep at the surgeons office) to get everything in place. On the fourth try, I was approved (today, actually). Dont give up, it seems pretty typical with Cigna

Good deal, thanks for the information.

Dude, congrats man. Thats an awesome amount of weight in less than a year. I am pretty much right where you were. 6' 369. How did the tattoo hold up on your forearm? Too say I am heavily tattooed is an understatement. Sleeved both arms shoulder to wrist, and have one leg done knee to toes. Off all the things to worry about with having major surgery, my tattoos are the only thing I am worried about. My surgery will be scheduled soon (just waiting on final approval)

True statement. Sucky thing is, I have a house, and I wont be permanently relocating anywhere any time soon, it's just the nature of the job. But, I am able to provide for myself and my wife gets damn near anything she wants, so its a decent balance (HA! yea right). I completely understand where you are coming from though. Up until 3 years ago, I moved to a different state, city, and 3 times I changed continents about every 6 months. SO glad that's over.

Happy Labor Day everybody! I'm doing exactly that, laboring. We don’t get holidays in the oil and gas business, so I am stuck here for 4 more hours trying like hell to keep things going in a positive direction. Had my second visit about a month ago, managed to lose about 4 lbs., which is good, I guess. I haven’t really changed much in my overall diet; just stopped eating so much crap and cut out the sodas almost entirely. Scheduled to have my 3rd and final visit tomorrow, we'll see how that goes. I know I will not get my packet submitted until I get my psych evaluation and find a doctor to give me a surgery release; just haven"t had much time to get these done. Moving around make it really difficult to have an established GP, you know? But anyways, hoping I can stick around home for a month or so, I slept in my own bed a total of maybe 4 days last month, starting to wonder if I should pursue a new career path, I'm tired of always being on the move.

I can completly understand where you are coming from, Sharon. I had decided as well to try and do it on my own after the insurance mix up, but as you can imagine, it didnt go so well. I'm not backing out this round, for anything. Thanks Sharon and Melissa for the kind words. I wish you both the best

Yep, I am about 4 months pre sugery, paperwork sucks and so do all of the pre op doc visits. But I keep telling myself it will all be worth it!

Well, hello all. I suppose this will be where I will share the journey of my future sleeve. I'll start off all formal. My name is Eric. I am a 28 year old oil field mechanic working for one of the largest well services companies in the world. I love my job, always have. I have been in south Texas for roughly 3 years now, last 2 I have spent in a supervisor role managing equipment repairs in our maintenance department. The first 4 years of my career I spent as a field mechanic living out of an F-550 service truck. Spending that much time on the road, in hotels and sleeping in a truck really kills any good intentions of eating well. in the last few years, I put on about 70-80 lbs. But enough about work. I currently weigh in at 376 lbs with a BMI of 52 I believe, seeing this number hurt. I don’t "feel" 376 lbs. I stay very active at work, walking close to 5 miles a day just around the facility, so I suppose staying up and on my feet doesn’t allow the weight to take its toll on me the way a sedentary person would, i guess. You could say that I am on the healthier side of morbid obesity (lol) as in, I take no medications, my BP is spot on, blood work has always been good. I have no bad number but my weight. So maybe that’s why I don’t "feel" 376. Maybe someone with a similar feeling can give me their take on that. I am lucky to be married to an awesome girl, who herself had the lap band put in about 4 years ago or so and dropped close to 100 lbs. Watching her struggle was tough, but we got through it together and I think I put on all the weight she lost. She is behind me 100% and I know for a fact this will be very important in the months to come. About 6 months ago, I had my first consultation with a clinic in San Antonio only to find out a month later that the hospital they use for the surgery wasn’t "approved" by my insurance as a facility to perform the procedure; obviously, this was a progress killer. I became kind of bummed about it and let it go. Here we are in June, (bite me, I'm a few days late ) and decided that I wanted to try another stab at it. So I found an approved hospital, and then tracked down a doctor that used it; backwards i Know, but had to be done. So last Thursday I had another consultation, awesome doc, nice staff and has totally re-lit the fire that I had 6 months ago. I the six months that passed between consultations, I had only gained 3 lbs, not bad i guess considering my bad habits. So thats me in a nutshell. I'm here, ready to do this. Started my 3 months of supervised weight loss per insurance regs, and I am going to take it seriously. I'm tired of being the big guy. I put a few before pics on here from my wife and I's diving vacation in the caribbean from last August, I think I will use these as my before pics, because the Caribbean has been our best dive trip so far, so good memory with a fat picture, haha. Later, Eric

Totally get where you're coming from. I am a mechanic by trade, I used to always get the "little" guys that would come over and ask me to help them move/loosen etc something, regardless if I possesed the strength to do so or not. But just asking the big dude was help enough. I've carried the nick name of "polar bear" for years, and now that I've made my decision to change, that moniker is going to have to go out the window! I'll second JohnnyZ's comment, I never cared if my friends called me big guy, but it would send my BP through the roof if a stranger did it.