Dub

I hank you both so very much for your responses. My reply is short now....in bed and sleeping.....getting ready for night shift tonight. My iPad keeps crashing due to being overly full....memory maxed out. This sight runs very slow on it. Better response will come later when I can get to laptop or PC. Thank you. It's going to go well, I believe. I'll use my time ahead wisely and educate myself as well as continue to adopt new methods now. No more diet soda? No more coffee? Wow. That is going to take some mental adjustment. More than the sugary Snacks I've been dropping from the menu. Diet Dew & coffee is like a food group for me. :rofl:

I've worn 5xlt and 6xlt shirts for most of the last 15 years. Five years ago I became highly motivated to adhere to strict diet and exercise like crazy. 120 lbs of weight dropped and I was down to wearing 3XLT and some 2XLT shirts. Gained it all back and am feeling every ounce of it right now. Hoping everything lines up and this bypass surgery takes place as hoped in December 2015. Ideal size was the question.......I saved most of my smaller sized clothes in belief that someday....somehow....I'd get back to wearing them again. Tossing them just seemed like I was giving up the hope. If I was wearing 2XLT & 3XLT shirts with 120 lbs off........and I truly need to lose 200+ pounds.......then I'm anticipating wearing an XL or XLT sized shirt by the end. 6'4" at 250lbs sure will beat the current 6'4" 450lbs. Lord knows I can't wait to get there.

YES ! Yes, I do. I've had two prior umbilical hernia repairs over the past 7 years or so.....and now I have a monster sized one. I'm hoping that I can hang on over the next 6+ months before my anticipated surgery date. I want to be exercising now and adapting to whatever suggested way of eating the dietician suggests on our first appointment on July 7th. I'll see the doctor on July 1st for first visit and hopefully get hernia recommendations and evaluation. I'm hoping there is some type of abdominal wrap I can use to ease things up so I can burn calories on the treadmill walking inclines. It's a safe way for me to walk as doing open road stuff on uneven pavement is no good on my worn out knees. I want to loose as much as I can prior to this surgery some 6 months from now because every pound off is a step towards less arthritic pain.....lower blood pressure......better blood flow.....etc.....etc. I want to learn what is acceptable hernia pain......and what is scary-dangerous pain that may require immediate repair. I feel for you. Hope you can get it evaluated and hopefully there is something that you can do to ease up the pain.

Yup.....I learned on the second hernia surgery to keep a pillow tucked against my abdomen.....slight pressure. That pillow helped ease the pain of movement and deep breathing, clearing through.....and God forbid a sneeze. I'm hoping that I can employ this same tactic while healing hernia and doing the stuff they'll want me to do for bypass.....leak checks and such. Much respect for 4 weeks out on knee replacement. That is some serious effort on your part. Well done !!!!

Amazing results!!!!!

Outstanding and inspiration!!!!

I'm just now beginning the appointments. I'll be on a 6 month wait that begins on July 7th after the first visit with dietician. I have a massive umbilical hernia (previous surgery on twice for similar repair) that I'm hoping to have repaired at the same time that I have the bypass. The surgeon has a firm 2-3 day hospitalization window with bypass. This is good for the hernia repair, too, I think. The last two were outpatient basis and recovery was NOT fun. I'm concerned about having gastric issues at same time of hernia recovery. I know it'll hurt but at least taking a month-to-six weeks off work to recover from hernia will allow good timeline for bypass adaptation. Thoughts? Insight? I'm lost but feel better about the direction my weight battle is now heading.