Dub

Nothing to be embarrassed about. I've never regretted getting hurt when it was doing stuff I truly enjoyed....thus the knee surgeries, ankle tendon repair, several broken fingers, broken ribs and three broken metatarsal bones in my right foot.......each sustained at different times doing stuff I truly enjoyed...sports, play and hobbies. Sadly.....none were done during sex. I'd have really worn those injuries as badges of honor. Not making light of your situation, though. Like anything else pain related, if it persists an any symptoms occur, I'd be reporting it on Monday to your surgeon's nurse. She may have other questions that help you rule stuff out and feel better about the situation. Sorry you were injured, but I respect the hell outa how you did it. Quality of life and enjoying things is what this surgery is all about, right ???

The cool thing about this surgery is that it doesn't only help you change your weight......but it helps you reach a point where you can let go of all sorts of stuff. The biggest "let go" item for me, for example, has been hesitance to be in social environments. I'm not anti-social by any means, however I wish I could have a Harry Potter wand to shrink myself when going places. During my 20's and early 30's things were fine. If I was out somewhere and wearing a t-shirt or polo that had my favorite NCAA or NFL team logo....I'd often be asked when I played for them. Buddies would go nuts because I'd not work the angle at bars to get us free beer & shooters. The last 15 years, though......the weight reached the point where, except for a 3 year health kick-weight training kick, I was simply not comfortable in my own skin. Now......those feelings are fading. I don't shy away from public situations. I sort of laugh inside thinking to myself, "Well, dude.....you just met some folks that will not recognize you in just a few months when you see them again". There are other areas of negative thought that simply are now GONE. It is liberating. Being able to see things more clearly without the filter of pain and self-doubt is a gift from God. Please, please, please tap into this new superpower you'll receive from your surgery. Let the doubting thoughts simply slip away....sorta like your old clothes that are getting loose and baggy. Let the negative stuff just slide off like Water off a duck's back. GONE. I don't know your husband so please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way, but us guys aren't very complicated. Sometimes when you see a strange look on our faces....it isn't that we are contemplating something deep.....we may just be trying to remember where our favorite old sneakers are.....not unlike a dog thinking of where it left it's bone. Don't overthink anything we say or do. We are simple....not far removed from the knuckle dragging stages or our hunter-gatherer genetic code. We sit around and scratch....and then burst into action......and then pile up on the sofa to scratch some more. Unburden yourself of the doubts. Engage in conversation with him. Talk things out. Let him know how you are feeling. We are not mind readers and we have short term memory (that's why we lose our sneakers that were kicked off in some random spot). Do not give us more credit than we deserve and work up any deep scenarios in your head. You'll go bonkers and then later on be shocked at the low level thoughts that were taking place in our heads....not the deep pondering you may have thought. One of the benefits of losing weight is losing the negativity. Roll with it. If you find yourself getting smacked on the butt more often......then roll with that, too. It's all good stuff. Feel good & be good. Being a member of the male fraternity......I can share a secret or two from the clubhouse. We need to be taught some things. In many ways were are much the same as that Labrador Retriever puppy you bring home. House train us and let us know the ground rules and we will enthusiastically carry them out. Some, though, never learn not hump your friend's legs when they come over. Sorry.....you gotta decide if you can live our worst flaws or can they be trained out of us.......... Hell yes. Let the mind game thing melt away....right alongside the unwanted weight that is burning off. Way to go, Dub!I'm having a very emotional day and reading that made me tear up! Jerk. Haha love ya! ???? Those aren't emotions......just the endorphin rush you've been feeling from the killer exercising you've been doing. I gotta get my arse in gear and follow your lead......get into BEAST-mode really dang soon or I'll wind up looking like the skinny-fat dudes who wear Speedo bathing suits at the beach.....but should NOT. I do not want to be that guy. You, on the other hand, are getting into bikini shape and will arrive there well before beach season arrives. I'm grooving on your enthusiasm and loving your zeal for it. You are the patient my surgeon yearns for. He's been on me to kick it into gear. He'd take you and have commercials made to showcase how it can happen for folks. Wonder Woman forthcoming. He'd have you on all the billboards all over town. Much respect. I'm buying you a virtual ice cold beer and tipping it your way. Please send me details of when and where you'll be debuting that beach body. I'll be on that beach, too. The skinny-fat guy with the sombrero on....dark sunglasses and bucket of ice cold Messican cervezas beside my worn out beach chair. I'll be there to sit back and take in the sights. Will NOT be wearing a Speedo, however. Full blown Perve-mode.

I stayed on Protein shakes for the first 3 weeks. After that my surgeon moved me over to Greek yogurt, eggs, baked fish, soft baked/stewed chicken, cottage cheese and etc. Even though my calorie intake was about the same as before....my weight loss paused for two full weeks. Drove me nuts......then it started moving again. I'm really not scared of anything that comes across the Thanksgiving table this week, Week 6. Turkey, ham, deviled eggs. It is my sincere hope to score a few oysters before Mom puts them in the dressing for everyone else. I'll hit them with some Ed's Red Hot Sauce and down the hatch.

Very well done !!!!!!

You are doing the two things that I would recommend. I think the walking is the real key.

I really didn't do the puree stage..... Protein shakes for 3 weeks post op and then my surgeon put me on soft foods like soft baked salmon, flounder, tuna and stewed chicken, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt and etc. Chewed very, very carefully of course. I'm glad it was like this. Much of the stuff that I see commonly eaten during the puree stage don't really support high protein and weight loss.

Outstanding !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are doing great. Safe travels and have FUN.

Mark, I agree. Quest bars are excellent tasting. The Fiber amount in them are substantial. I find them to be an excellent addition to the menu. I have one every two or three days when something sweet just seems good. The extra fiber is certainly welcome with a low carb diet, for sure. I look at the labels of the various flavors and select ones with less sugar alcohol. I understand there is now a pumpkin flavored version, too. Cool stuff. I was in Academy Sports today with my son and we found them for sale in there over by the weight lifting gear. Super cool. I seem to go to Academy on a weekly basis anyway....now I'll grab them as I do. They had over a dozen varieties.

I'm just a little over a month out of surgery. My wife was a full supporter of me doing it. She's ridden the rollercoaster with me this last year as I went from one specialist to resolve one issue....then onto another for another. It was getting old and I was feeling old. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. She was getting worn out with the unpredictable nature for me to do anything....plan anything.....hurting all the time.....struggling at work and dead tired on my days off. All the specialists said the same thing, "Lose big weight young man.....or you'll not live to be an old man". Well....I'm very relieved that after 5 weeks things are going well. I can see the distant light at the end of the tunnel. My back is doing much better. Knees are coming along but protesting anyway. I'm slowly adding Advil into my diet and it's helping the knees some. Blood pressure is way down and some of the meds are now gone....remaining meds are cut in half dosages. The side effects are going away, thankfully. I've not bought any new clothes....but the stuff that I'd bought a week or two prior to surgery is no longer fitting. She's been laughing along with me at the baggy-wear. She keeps telling me to shave off the beard, which I did the night before surgery, but let it grow back. I told her the beard will be here until turkey season comes in/out in the Spring. I think she's enthused to hear me talking about hunting again. I'm eager, too. Been talking to some buddies about leasing some decent land for next year's deer season and getting in there and working on it this January & February. It feels good to be getting back to looking ahead at the old hobbies and hopefully being more active with old friends. That's just a small part of it, though......the best thing is that my relationship with her and our son is much better. I'd become an ill-tempered bastard aching and hurting all the time. Fear of whatever future curveballs were coming had my anxiety high. Not being able to do my job properly wore on me. Now.....those fears are gone. Optimism has taken their place. I'm no longer the old grumpy guy that only the dogs want to be around. Marriage is better. Fatherhood is better. Worklife is better. Jettisoning ill-fitting clothes is going to be fun. I'll have to involve her in my future clothes buying at the regular-sized men's stores. There is absolutely nothing that I regret about this surgery and the weight loss to come. Leaner life will be better. I'll save a ton of $$$$$$$$ next year since I won't be going to some new doctor every month. So very grateful.

Their pre-mixed shakes sure worked good for me during pre-op diet. 23 grams of protein and they are mixed really thick and keep you from being hungry. I did best when I drank 4 per day.....spaced out every few hours with tons of Water in between. Post op I did better with the Premier Protein pre-mixed as they were thinner and easy to get down and the 30 grams of protein was great. I typically drank 3 per day. I used Chike coffee powders, too, along with some unjury powder.....just mixed them with ice and water.

Every time you cave in for a cheat meal it makes it harder to stay on track the next week. Before long your intervals between cheat meals will become smaller. Once you kick the sugary carbs they won't kick back.

How much were you able to lose in the 6 month supervised diet ?

Well said !!!!!!!!

Well done, brother, very well done. You have your priorities in order and your head screwed on straight. You'll make some seriously good health changes and already are. Fight the good fight !!!!!

Augusta area, here.

The very best advice I can give is to begin the Atkins style diet on the day you begin your process. Transition to the liquid diet when it is time and stick to it. The goal is to lose weight.....not to hold off until you've had surgery to lose weight. Every pound you get off this week will get you closer to your goal. The liquid diet is short and you'll do a version of it post op while your stomach heals. You won't experience hunger after a sleeve surgery, most likely, either. If you do, it's mostly head-hunger that you need to fight through and it will subside and not longer bother you after a couple weeks. I did a mix of pre-made and powdered Protein drinks. The powdered ones were always mixed with ice and Water......never milk. I saw no need to use milk for anything.....too much sugar in it. Premier Protein is fairly thin but provides 30 grams of protein. All three flavors were good to me. Pure Protein is very thick and filling and provides 20+ grams. The chocolate is awesome. I relied heavily on the thicker Pure Protein prior to surgery and then more Premier Protein afterwards. Stay as active as you can before your surgery.....it will most certainly help you recover more swiftly. I wish I'd done better with this aspect.

Outstanding. You have been working hard and have made some amazing progress. Huge respect for what you've done. You just made my day !!!!!!!!

If you are getting too much Protein then that simply means you are eating too much. I've never heard that bit about not losing weight due to not eating fruit. Vitamin supplementation comes into play to take care of the lack of fruit.

Ok, so this is one of the last things to do for you, they said to schedule one right away since it might take a while to get in No....don't do it the way I did. I followed a screwball timeline leading up to my sleeve surgery. Everything changed for me once I decided to self-fund the surgery.....it sped up quickly and time crunch was worsened by my surgeon's pending vacation. He was awesome, though, realizing I was in serious daily pain with back issues and juggled things around to get my surgery in asap. He was also the one who did my endoscopy. He wants to be the one to look around and not have to trust in another doctor's report. It also cuts way down on any delays between the endoscopy and his receiving the results. My surgeon was a straight shooter throughout my entire process. He didn't candy coat anything and everything he said was going to happen worked out exactly to the letter. Your program administrator will lay out the timeline for your scheduled events. Follow their instruction and timing.....don't rely on my oddball sequence of events.

Both online and in local stores. You can go to their website and they have a search feature for local stores that stock them. Sort of new, but they are certainly going to grow tremendously. I'm very grateful they now make them in men's wide sizes. So comfortable I want to sleep in them, too. No kidding. Crazy comfortable.

Hoka One One makes the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn. Foot, knee, hip and back pain is gone.....gone......gone. No break in. Take them out of the box....lace 'em up and profit. http://www.hokaoneone.com/shop.html?source=msn_ppc Second to that I would say is Brooks and then New Balance.

Take it as a compliment and move on to another subject. Let's face it.....most people in today's society are overweight. This brings on the issues that we all know very well. Talking about it with folks is almost pointless unless it's someone truly interested in changing their lives. It's a subject I simply steer away from.....like politics and religion. Folks will make compliments on my progress and I'll thank them and say something like, "Thanks....just trying to give the old knees a break" and leave it at that. I see the same reaction from people who see a peer driving a brand new car......they'll get a case of the "wants" and then self-evaluate why they can't drive one, too. It may lead to their mismanagement of funds, low paying job, etc. Bad feelings come to the surface and it becomes easier to simply think nefarious thoughts of the peer with the new car, "he must be cheating on his taxes.......he inherited his money.........etc, etc". People can and do say the most bizarre things to each other.....things that show a lack of mental filter or perhaps they don't care how stupid or rude they sound. Let the idiots do their idiot-ting.......you just stay the course and keep getting lean, healthy and happy.

Keep on dancing !!!! You are going to grooving to the "next size down" tune quite a bit in the year ahead.

I started off thinking I was going to use my insurance.....6 month pre-op supervised diet and the works....I wound up deciding to self fund about 3 months into it and had my surgery a few weeks later. I still wound up going through all the classes....some of them twice and I'm grateful for them....the material presented was very helpful but even more were the other participants and the discussions that came about. Good stuff to galvanize me to make the effort and change the mindset.

It was a complete non-event for me. I'd schedule mine for the first available slot....6:00am. Exactly one week prior to the surgery date. Wife drove us there and I was suited up in my ridiculous looking hospital gown and grippy socks in no time.....in the hospital bed.....and being wheeled into the room in short order. IV went in easily because I'd been staying very well hydrated. Bright lights.....several medical staff members suited up.....very much reminiscent of an operating room. They turned me over on my left side and slightly elevated. Was a bit awkward due to ongoing back trouble (much better now after my sleeve surgery). A sweet little lady (looked EXACTLY like the medium from The Poltergeist )......came in real close and put a fixture in my mouth and ensure it was comfortable. She then placed a mask over my nose & mouth and ask me to take several deep breaths.....very calming. Instantly relaxed and at peace with everything. They explained that the next step was going to be a sedative administered via my IV and for me to continue breathing nice and deep and enjoy my great nap that would take place. That was it. Over. I woke up in the room I'd started off in. Head was clear. Body was relaxed. No hangover. There had never been any pain whatsoever. My surgeon (he'd done the endoscopy, too) came in and explained what he'd seen and that everything was a go for sleeve surgery in a few days. I felt great. Wife drove me home. I did sleep great for a few hours in my recliner and woke up feeling better than I have in ages. Heck.....I'd go back today and do another endoscopy if they'd let me. Best sleep ever. Enjoy yourself and relax. It'll all go well. It's a big non-event. Same thing can be said about the sleeve surgery, too. Nothing to it but to do it.