LittleBill

@@BigJohn58 I don't think I can give you a better answer than @@theantichick gave you. Essentially, my friend has chosen to ignore any healthy diet choices, and makes symbolic efforts on occasion that might have been useful pre-op, but are useless post-op - like eating salad instead of protein.

I've taken to wearing a light jacket when I go out, and keeping my winter coat with me as backup. Light jacket for me has been an insulated long sleeve shirt, but now it works well for wearing them inside instead of outside.

And it wasn't for an appointment. When I was in the hospital right after surgery, I had an incredible team of professionals looking after me. They were quick to respond, they were compassionate, and above all, they were competent. About two weeks after I was discharged, I even got a card signed by all the people who cared for me, wishing me luck and encouraging me to stop and visit sometime in the future. So I did. I had some other business close by, and used the opportunity to take some thank you notes addressed to each of them up to the floor I was on. As I was walking along the main floor toward the elevators I needed to take, I saw my surgeon standing along the wall with another gentleman in a white coat. I figured he was a doctor of some sort too. Anyway, my doc saw me coming, and apparently recognized me, as he got a big smile on his face and said, Hey, how are you doing!?!" "So, you recognized me with my clothes on, eh?" That got the both of them laughing pretty hard. I stopped to speak with him, and his next question was, "How far down are you now?" "One hundred fourteen pounds since the beginning. I'm slowing down a little, but I am about 40 lbs from my original target, 60 from my revised one." I turned to the other gentleman standing there, and said, "He did a good job slicing me up. I did ask him to make mine bigger". My doc started laughing again and said, "I remember that!" It was a conversation we had as they were wheeling me into the operating room. The other doc said, "I wish someone would operate on me to make me taller". I am 6'1", and my doc is about 6'3". This other guy was about 5' 7" or so. So I said to him, "We could always nail your feet to the floor and kick you in the... well, you know." That got a shocked look from both of them coupled with a second or two of complete silence, and then some uproarious laughter. I went on to say, "The Bible says, "Which of us, by taking thought, can add a single cubit to our stature? We are born the way we are, and height doesn't matter. I was born to be tall and fat." The short doc responded, "Well I was born short and fat, and I would like to be taller!" We all engaged in one final round of polite laughter, and I parted ways reminding my doctor that I would be seeing him in a week. I am pretty much a blue collar guy with a bit of an education. I have had surgeons and other doctors as students of mine. Doctors don't intimidate me. I think I might have shocked them a bit. It was worth it.

I have the female version! Carrying things in my arms and feeling my jeans slowly departing from my waist, praying no one notices. I am putting new holes in my belt every week! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App There is a cheap and easy solution you know. We can all go out and buy some plaid boxer shorts, and wear them up high. Then, when our pants droop down, people will just think we're trying to be gangsta.

My next checkup with the surgeon’s office is looming upon me. I think this time I will get to see the Surgeon Himself. I am not sure exactly why. Perhaps he wants to admire his handiwork, as evidenced by my smaller, but slightly more wrinkled body. He is a nice enough guy, but I get the impression he is constantly preoccupied. In preparation for this particular appointment, I was sent to the lab to have blood extracted for testing. This is always fun, as I don’t get to eat anything, drink anything (except a bunch of Water to make it easier for all involved when it comes to puncturing my hide accurately), and there is always a line. When my turn finally arrived, I was ushered to the Chair. I know it is supposed to make me comfortable, and give my arm physical support for the deed itself. I’m not even afraid of needles. But I always feel like I am about to be strapped in and hooked up to electrodes. Maybe my imagination is too vivid. Maybe one of these days, I’ll settle in and the lady will grin evilly, and whip those electrodes out! You never know! After installing me in the chair, she proceeded with the paperwork. With the way our medical system is, you can’t even bleed without filling out papers first. She tapped away on the computer for a few minutes, asked me some questions, and then the printer started. They have a couple of printers. One is for full, 8 1/2” x 11” sheets of paper for the receipts. Because we all need giant receipts, right? But the other one is the special printer. It is the one that prints out the labels they affix to each little tube of my essence, my life’s blood. Well, she turned that little printer on, and it started churning out labels like it was printing confetti for the next ticker tape parade! My eyes were getting wider and wider as the strip curled over the front and started for the floor. “Are all those for tubes!?!”, I asked, with just a hint of alarm creeping into my voice? “Yep!… Just about”, she replied. “I hope there’s enough in there. I still need to drive home, you know.” She just laughed a little and told me not to worry. The next thing I knew, the needle was in my arm. This lady is a regular Dracula when it comes to that. She is very good. Usually the “filling process” goes quickly. Today I felt like I was at the gas pump along with everyone else. You know how the pump slows down every time someone else squeezes that trigger? That was how my blood was oozing out into these tubes. And they kept coming. I think she had to go to the supply closet for more. She said, “Do you know they’re testing you for zinc?” “No! I don’t know WHAT they’re testing me for, except that I asked for my HVAC level to be checked.” They were cool with that. “Why would they want to know if I have zinc in my system? Lead, I can understand. I handle lead on a regular basis.” She had no idea. I thought about it for a moment and said, “Maybe since they are testing me for everything else, they decided they might as well throw in the kitchen zinc.” “Oh, hee hee hee, that’s a good one. You’re funny!” I thought it might be the last joke I ever made. I watched as she started wiggling the vials, tapping them, and doing all the little tricks one does when the flow begins to slow. I had visions of my vision blacking out. I literally thought she was going to have to squeeze me to get the last few drops she needed. I’ve been having some low blood pressure issues, after all. But finally, she removed the last vile vial, and plucked the needle from my arm. The stick point didn’t even bleed. I checked my bandage later on, and there was not a spot. I think I am down about a quart right now. That would explain this overwhelming urge I have to go bite someone on the neck.

We live in an old cold house. We can literally feel the air moving through our bedroom on a windy night. I have always been very warm, even when I was skinny in high school. Post surgery, I have woken up many a night, freezing. I have taken to wearing a knit cap from time to time. It protects my solar panel, since all it's natural covering vanished years ago. That helps quite a bit, although Mrs LittleBill refers to me as Ebenezer.

I did not read all the answers, but I think the most important issue will be making sure your bowels regularize themselves before beginning this kind of exercise. It should not take too much imagination to figure out what the outcome could be (on a couple of levels).

I am in danger of developing "Plumber's Syndrome", what with my drawers starting to slide on me. Mrs LittleBill just teases me. She says, "Just say NO to crack!"

I laughed. The closest I came to having any kind of sex right after surgery was when they came in and stuck a catheter in my you know what. I will tell you right now, that diverted my mind from any licentious thoughts. The effects lasted for days.

Probably one lapse will not affect your surgery. The larger question though, is will the underlying mindset affect your overall success? That is a question only you can answer. My program has the philosophy that things (food) should not be absolutely forbidden. That's a good thing. However, there are times when it HAS to be forbidden. You just gave in to a craving pre-op. All your insides are still in their original condition, so it probably didn't do too much damage. I can't really say. I can tell you for sure though, if you decide two or three days post-op, that you need to give in to the same craving, and chow down on a Big Mac, you are going to be sorry. And it might be a whole lot worse than just some temporary guilt or discomfort. There are reasons why you need to follow your plan strictly, and bending or breaking rules is a real bad idea until you get a handle on things and learn what is going on with both your mind and body. This process requires dedication and discipline. If you don't have those, you need to find them. Otherwise, you are going to be wasting time and money, as well as enduring a lot of pain and suffering for nothing.

I like it. Of course, I usually slather on their fire sauce. It is hard to mess up Beans and cheese though. Well, Bueno is just another chain restaurant, so no espanol necesito. But it's a higher quality of chain TexMex than The Bell. Around here it can be an issue no matter where I go. I was in Walmart last week and the man could not answer my question about tartar sauce. He had to go get his pal. The two of them conversed in Spanish for a while, and were able to help me find it after that. I was a moderator in another place for a while, and various restaurants would come up frequently -from international chains to sole location, one of a kind operations. It was GUARANTEED that as soon as someone posted about their enjoyment of the food, several other people would surface to declare that the food sucked, the service was awful, etc. Then a fight would start, I or one of my fellows would arrive to dole out punishment to rule breakers, people would complain about heavy handed moderation for infractions that were clearly outlined in the rules, so on and so forth. The only other chain around here for this kind of food was Chi Chis, and they went belly up after they poisoned a whole bunch of people. Before that, it was pretty good.

In my profession, most are hobbyists, while some of us are professionals. Many of us who are pros make part of our living demonstrating and teaching. Some have developed tools over the years, which they use very well to accomplish various tasks. Those individuals often make a significant dollar selling those tools to hobbyists in various places they visit. These folks buy the tools, and then wonder why they don't work the same for them as they do for the pro who spent years developing them and learning the best way to use them. They seem to think that the tool comes endowed with some special force field or something to make it work. Personal application is not even considered. It is so bad that a friend of mine made (and sells) a T shirt which says, "I am only one tool away from greatness".

We don't have a lot of choices around here, unless I want to go into the city. But, I do not habla español. I do make my own dish of beans and cheese, and mix in some of Mrs. Renfro's hot sauce. I am working my way back up to her ghost pepper sauce. I didn't want to try that straight out of surgery. I always order a glass of Water when I am out now. That keeps the server du jour happy, and if I need a sip because something gets caught, I have it handy. I do not drink it though, unless I have at least 15-20 minutes before the food is going to arrive. My friend is as stubborn as they come, and even older than I am, so he is set in his ways. I hope he will emulate me in at least a few things. He was a student of mine, so he has a lot of respect for me.

This really is bariatric related. Today I received a visit from a very good friend of mine. He started out as a student. We became friends about eight years ago, and have been close friends ever since. He had sleeve surgery about four years ago. What is strange though, is that of all the people who knew I was doing this, he has been the least supportive. He practically begged me not to do it. He came to visit immediately after surgery, and fairly shocked me with his imagery of huge sandwiches, sumptuous meals, and high calorie Desserts I would never be able to eat again. I have been learning more about him and about this new lifestyle, and how the two aren't working out so well. We are still friends, and will remain so, but following is a lot of what I learned. My friend is one of those who is failing, and will continue to fail. I am pretty sure he was coerced into the surgery by his wife, who didn't want to see him dying prematurely of all the things that were going wrong with him. As far as I can tell, he never really bought into the premise of changing his lifestyle along with the surgery. As such, he has not changed it. He had enormous success during the honeymoon period, but has since regained at least 80 lbs of the weight he lost. His blood pressure problems have returned, and if I had to guess, he is going to have blood sugar issues again, if he isn't already. So he came to visit this morning, and we had a fairly blunt conversation. He was impressed with my progress to date, so I let him know, un no uncertain terms, that it was because I was FOLLOWING THE RULES. He does not eat Protein. When he gets hungry, he will eat a small piece of fruit, or a vending machine snack. He will often eat a Caesar salad for lunch. On his way to visit, had a coffee roll as the sole sum and substance of his Breakfast (along with coffee, which he drank to wash his roll down). When he is not hungry, he will not eat. I offered him several items, including some freshly made chicken salad, which I had for my mid morning snack. It was no go. It was kind of sad. I discussed some of his culinary choices, and offered him some ideas (he refuses to talk to a nutritionist). Simply put, he has not changed his mindset, and is fairly surprised that I have. But that is the difference between success and failure. While he was here, we were out doing some recon at the local Cabela's. I am about to embark on making my own beef Jerky, so I wanted to peruse the offerings they had in the way of food dehydrators. They didn't really have anything that got me excited. And we really did go to Taco Bell. We were on the way home, and I knew he had to eat something. Heck, I knew I had to eat something! So I asked him if he liked Taco Bell. I already knew the answer. It was kind of funny though. Even though he is completely off the reservation on content, he is chained to his sleeve for volume. So we go walking in, and up to the counter. I ordered a beef and bean burrito, figuring I would eat the insides and scrap most of the wrap. I also ordered an unsweetened iced tea for later on down the road. My friend said to the guy, "Can I get just one taco?" The kid taking our order looked at us like we were some sort of weirdos, eating practically nothing. He asked a few times if that was all we wanted. The total for our tab came to $6.43. For two people. I almost burst out laughing at the expression on the kid's face. As we were sitting at our table, slowing eating our pittance, a hugely overweight woman came lumbering by. She could not contain her interest in seeing two big guys eating almost nothing, and doing it very slowly. I almost wanted to get up and tell her why. He munched down his entire crunchy taco. I ate the insides of my burrito, and had a couple of very small bites which included part of the wrap. I tossed the rest of it. My friend was impressed that I did not stuff the whole thing down my neck. And the tea? It was awful. I don't know if my taste for tea has changed, or if it was just this batch or this brand. But I won't be getting any Taco Bell tea ever again, unless I am about as desiccated as a mummy. As for my friend, he has all the tools he needs. He just needs to change his attitude. I hope he does, now that I am in this thing right along with him. Why am I posting about this? This is for any of you out there who might be tempted to be like my friend. Most of this is in your head. You will win or lose mainly because of your mindset. Your sleeve is a tool, and one of many. If you learn to use your tools well, you will do well. If you think they will do the job for you, and you need not put any effort in, you will be left wondering why others are enjoying success while you linger in the land of the large.

Merry Christmas to you too!

I packed almost nothing, but I am a guy. I took my phone, and relied on Mrs LittleBill to take care of anything else. I was in less than 24 hours. When it was time for me to leave, she showed up with some clean underpants for me, shoes, and a few other similar items. I made it out the door and back home with a minimalist approach.

You only have to do this for one day. Then, the next morning, you only have to do it for one day. So on and so forth. Good for you for making a hard decision the right way.

I had a smooth surgery too, but took eight weeks off because my job involves lots of heavy lifting. It is really up to you to decide how you are going to do. I had no stamina at all for the first few weeks, but it is coming back now. Good luck with it!

@@doxaholic, @@MsShortyDee, @ Thank you all!

Thank you, and Merry Christmas to you too!

Merry Christmas to you too!

I thought this was going to be a post about going off the wagon and under the table. I've tried a few different ones, but I really like a couple from Gold Standard. Their extreme milk chocolate comes very close to Nestles Quik, and their strawberry comes pretty close to Nestles Strawberry, both of which I enjoyed (a little too much, apparently) before I embarked on this path. I've been drinking both for about six months now, and still have not lost my taste for them.

Thank you, Kate! Writing them is a form of recreation for me. I am glad others get a kick out of them.

This is very true. I have a hilarious story about a very similar event where the very young lady DID have one in her purse, but it only has been related orally so far. I may have to write it out.

Since it is Christmas time, and since I already posted one essay, here is another Christmas related essay I wrote a couple of years ago. I hope some of you reading this will find it edifying and educational. As we approach the celebration of Christmas, the Christmas story is told again and again, both in the church and outside as well. Even those who are not believers know the story of the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph. But most people do not know why these people were chosen. Who were Mary and Joseph, and why were they chosen by God to be the parents of our Messiah? Throughout the Old Testament, God foretold of His plan to send a Messiah. While those who received the prophecies did not always understand them completely, we have an advantage. We have seen some of those prophecies fulfilled, and we have had thousands of years to study both what has happened and what is to come. The earliest promise was made to Adam, and continued through to Jacob, and then to Judah. God’s plan follows a very specific plan through a very specific family. I will not take the time or space to include those references here, but I will pick up with the promise made to King David. Toward the end of his life, David received a promise from God through Nathan the prophet: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ 2 Sam 7:8-16 The key portion of this passage is the last two sentences. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” God promised David that his lineage and his kingship would live forever. That is a pretty impressive promise. David trusted God, but for those of us who came later, it might seem that something went wrong and either God changed His mind, or was unable to fulfill His words. Neither of those are true. God was setting things up so that they could only occur in one way, under His terms and His timing. Many of David’s direct descendants followed after him as kings over Judah. Some were good, but most were wicked. The wickedness of the entire nation finally got to the point where God punished them by sending them into captivity for 70 years in Babylon. As for the last king and his line, God had other plans. We read of his fate in Jeremiah 22:24-30. “As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah. After promising David his line would be established forever, God seemingly cut it off abruptly with His curse on Coniah and his descendants. There is no equivocation, no “out” that God leaves for Himself in this. No descendant of Coniah, and by extension no descendant of David’s line of succession would ever come to the throne of David and prosper. But the story does not end here, and God does not make promises in vain. The tree of David’s lineage had been cut off at Coniah. It was now a stump, and no man would ever come to the throne through that route again. How could God possibly fulfill His promise without breaking His own word? We see another facet of God’s promise of the Messiah through the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 11:1-5 we read: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. Jesse, David’s father, is depicted as a stump with no tree left, thanks to the sins of David’s descendants. But the promise is given of a branch coming from that stump. God would provide a way for the Messiah to take the throne of David, and at the same time assure us that no pretender could try to do the same. He did this through a miracle, setting things up so no one could possibly doubt that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Isaiah gives us an indication of this as well. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 Something would happen which could not happen. A virgin would give birth, having never had relations with a man. This is impossible as far as men are concerned, but with God, nothing is impossible. Now, we fast forward to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Both of these men, working with the Holy Spirit, thought it important enough to include Jesus’ genealogy. Matthew starts out with it in the very beginning of his book. Luke writes it out in Chapter 3. There is only one problem when we compare these two. Almost none of the names match up. Unbelievers will laugh, and point to this as evidence that these men were so foolish and so divided among themselves that they could not even get something like a simple genealogy right. These are usually the same people who accuse the writers of the Bible of conspiring to fool the rest of humanity as they wrote it over a period of approximately 1600 years. There is no problem with either of the lists of names in Jesus’ genealogy. Matthew shows us his lineage through his adopted father Joseph. We see the father to son relationship traced all the way back to David, and even back to Abraham. We see Coniah (Jeconiah) mentioned in verse 11 of chapter 1. “…and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon…” Joseph was not just a carpenter. He wasn’t just some righteous man who God thought would make a good father for Jesus the Messiah. He was the legal King of Judah, and even of all Israel. He was and is, the direct descendant of King David. So why was he pounding nails into boards and building stuff? Remember that curse? There was no throne, and there was no way to come to it even if there was. So the man with legal title to the throne of David was living his life as a common carpenter. What about those other names in Luke? If you look at it, it looks like those are Jesus’s ancestors through his adopted father Joseph as well. But they are a different set of names altogether. Once we get past Joseph, all the names change until we get to David again. This is Jesus’ lineage through his mother, Mary. Women did not get listed in genealogies back then, so Jesus’ father Joseph’s name was substituted in her place. As in the case of Joseph, Mary isn’t just some righteous woman who God decided to bless out of the blue. She is very important for a very specific reason as well. She and her husband Joseph, are both direct descendants of King David. In her case, is she was not of the noble line. In other words, her line could not come to the throne legally. But she did have royal blood, a requirement for any King. So now we have two people coming together in God’s plan. One has legal title to a throne he cannot assume, and the other had royal blood in her veins as well. God’s timing has arrived, and the stage is set. The Holy Spirit does a work in Mary, causing a baby to form and grow. That baby is the human form of the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. Through the miracle of the virgin birth, God bypassed His own curse, a curse designed to prevent pretenders, as well as show His divine providence in providing a Messiah as only He could. Through His mother Mary, Jesus traced His lineage back to King David, and through His adopted father Joseph, He gained legal title to the throne. God brought His plans to fruition at the right time and in the right circumstances, and in the process blessed not only these two people, but all those who He would call into His Kingdom. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:4-7 It is my prayer that if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior God will open your heart to His word the Christmas season, and that you too might experience the blessing of His Son, and His work on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.