ouroborous

Society teaches us that "real men" don't ask for help, "real men" don't admit that they're sick or not doing well or are scared or struggling. Society teaches us that women only want "real men" who never get sick (or at least, admit it when they are), who never talk to their doctors, who never have surgery. Society teaches us all those things about "real men." Statistics, on the other hand, teaches us that "real men" die about ten years younger than women. I'd rather have an extra decade of healthy, happy, productive life, than the small vanity of thinking that I'm a macho man.

Unfortunately, the only really good advice we can give is to see your doctor, as this isn't normal. You could do a testes self-check, since this is the only really at-home test you can perform, but the odds that this dark semen is due to testicular cancer are vanishing. Hopefully this has self-resolved. Should still see the doc, though.

Yeah, this is abnormal, and I WOULD talk to your surgeon and/or PCP about it, as it is a bit of a concern for pneumonia. Most likely, some of the nerves connecting to the diaphragm were injured or cut. I've never heard of this before with the VSG. My experience is that neither of these things (laugh tone, cough strength) have changed for me.

It's important to remember that medicine is a game of odds; there is ALWAYS a chance of a bad reaction or bad surgical outcome, even with the best doctors. When a doctor has a complication rate at or below the median rate for that procedure, it shouldn't be seen as a negative for the doctor; nor should a zero complications rate be seen as a positive. Complications are due to individual physiology -- e.g. my body may be more aggressive with infection and inflammation than yours, and yours may be better at building fibrous scar tissue quickly; how could the doctor know that before hand? -- and pure old random chance. So I'd say that your task in picking a surgeon is to look for one whose complication rate isn't ABOVE the median rate. Beyond that, I would just not worry too much, since it's all a game of chance as long as you're following the post-op instructions carefully. Patient non-compliance is by FAR the biggest cause of post-surgical complications, BTW. That should tell you something right there...

It's orthostatic hypotension (fancy words for "position-based low blood pressure.") I deal with it all the time and I've learned to just cope with it. It only lasts a few seconds, and if I stand up slowly, I almost never have problems with it. It's also seemed to improve over time since my surgery. It's extremely common among WLS patients, and not really a concern if you just make sure to stand up slowly (and make sure there's something around you to hold onto in case you forget and it gets bad). Drinking more Water may help, but to some extent it's just something you have to deal with; in the list of pro's and con's of WLS, it is one of the (small) con's. Edit: I should mention that it makes no difference what your BP is when sitting or standing still. Orthostatic hypotension is a BP drop when you change positions (specifically, when standing quickly). Unless you happened to be wearing a BP cuff and measuring your BP just at that moment, you'd never be able to detect it.

I told anyone who would ask, and have had nothing but supportive responses. I must say that I'm somewhat baffled to hear about people who judge or attack those who've had WLS. Why on earth should anyone who really cares about our well-being object to us doing something that will make us healthier and happier? And why on earth should we care about the opinion of anyone that judgmental and ignorant?

So last night was a (hopefully successful) experiment. I focused on limiting caffeine during the day and eating properly, plus I got in some decent aerobic exercise (~2 mile fast walk). When I came home from work, I had a very protein-heavy supper, and no food after ~8:30 pm. Then, at bed time I drugged myself to sleep; although this isn't healthy or sustainable, I had suspected that I might be a little hypoglycemic at night, but not enough to be really dangerous (just judging from the symptoms), and that what was really hurting me was the lost sleep. In fact, all day yesterday I had odd shooting pains that (in retrospect) I recognize as the effects of sleep deprivation. And the result was the first good night of sleep in a week or so -- I slept straight through from about 10:00pm to 6:00am, without getting up once. I'm going to repeat the process today, going from the theory that as long as I'm doing all the things (eat right, exercise, limit caffeine) that I know are good for me, and as long as none of my symptoms are truly dangerous, it's more important for me to get a good night's sleep than it is to wake up and fret about mild nocturnal hypoglycemia. It's strange how much like a scientist you have to be, if you want to lead a healthy life -- you have to perform all these little experiments, and monitor the results, then adjust your behavior based upon the outcome!

Tiffykins touched on an important point; if you really want to learn to be happy with your body, at some point you're going to have to stop focusing on your body, and start focusing on your thinking. My mom was in AA, and although I'm not super fond of that organization (long story), some of their little slogans and sayings sort of sunk in for me, and as I've gotten older I've really started to understand them. Now, I'm not a religious man, but one phrase that sticks is to cultivate an "attitude of gratitude." This means, changing your thinking to finding things to be grateful for, instead of looking for flaws. If you're atheist or agnostic, like me, you may not have any "being" or person that you're grateful TO, but the important thing is to change your thinking from "this sucks, why aren't I good enough, what's wrong with me?" to "I'm SO happy that I've lost so much weight! I'm so glad that I can fit into 'normal' sized clothes! I'm so much healthier; the odds are that I'll live a much longer, healthier life than I was likely to lead when I was obese." I know that that probably will feel fake, and forced, and artificial at first, but thinking like this is a habit you have to build. Over time, it DOES get easier, and more automatic to "look on the sunny side." If you're like me, you may have a fear that being like this will turn you into some chirpy, brainless person who's always cheerful and never sees the bad things that life DOES hold coming, but this just isn't true. Learning to see the glass as half full doesn't mean ignoring the bad stuff in life; it means making a conscious choice to focus your attention on the good things. Remember that the bad stuff and the good stuff are both going to exist whether or not you pay attention to them, so which would you rather do -- pay attention to all the flaws in your body, all the problems in your life, and make yourself and maybe those around you miserable? Or focus on the good things, how much better you feel, how much better you look, how much healthier you are? I say all this from experience; by nature, I tend to be a very negative, cynical person. It's not something I'm happy about or proud of, but it is true. I have to focus on the positives in my life or I can very quickly spiral into Bad Places, and often take everyone else with me! But I notice that when I make a conscious effort to focus on the positive, interesting things happen. First, it very quickly stops feeling "fake" and instead it's like... hard to say, like a cloud passing from in front of the sun, do you know how that is? All of a sudden everything just suddenly gets brighter -- the whole world. And people react to me better; people want to spend more time around me and talk to me more. And things that seemed impossible... doors that seemed shut... suddenly these things don't feel quite so out of reach. And the things that truly ARE out of reach -- I'll never be a 20-year old man again, no matter how positively I think -- don't seem so horrific when I can say "yes, well, what I've lost in youthful beauty and vigor, I've made up in the self-confidence and [hopefully] the wisdom of a grown man." I know, if you're like me, I know that this sounds like foolish, wishful thinking, polyanna claptrap. But it is really true. It really works, but you have to do the work. You have to cultivate the habit of looking for things to be happy about; you have to cultivate the "attitude of gratitude." It is worth the effort! Sorry for the long-winded reply, but this topic is near and dear to my heart!

I think I have a blood sugar meter somewhere, and I'll try to dig it up. I guess I've been avoiding directly measuring my blood sugar because FWIK non-insulemic hypoglycemia is usually caused by problems with your pancreas, which I do NOT want to contemplate... For now, since the problem seems to be related to/worsened by my caffeine intake, I'm weaning myself (further) off caffeine, and trying to stick with the "many small, protein-heavy meals," and I'm going to try to have a protein-heavy "snack" before bedtime (probably just a Protein shake). Oh, and cardio exercise, since that seems to help people with hypo-g.

So, again with the bedtime hypoglycemia, although not as bad. It's 2:00am and first I was up with the shaky/wobbly feeling, which I dealt with with a small glass of skim milk. Now I have all kinds of aches and pains and bad gas. Almost feels like flu, but it's not. So instead of reactive hypoglycemia, maybe this is just nocturnal hypoglycemia? I don't have diabetes, so this is all really confusing. I can't wait till I can see a doc again...

Thanks for all the followups, folks! I've discovered (I think) that most of my problems with RHG are due to caffeine; when my caffeine intake is too high, any deviation from the "perfect" sleeve diet (you know, mostly Protein with some complex carbs thrown in, in small portions regularly) can send me into hypoglycemia. Today I cut my caffeine intake about in half, and so far I'm having NO problems. Of course, it's now bedtime, which is traditionally when I have issues, so... we'll see. I have some blueberry juice and Protein shakes in the fridge in case I need a late night blood sugar/protein boost. Hopefully, I won't need it.

You simply CAN'T focus on day-by-day weight loss, as there are too many things that happen on a daily basis -- eating/drinking, elimination, Water weight gain/loss, hormonal changes, exercise-related changes, sleep-related changes -- for a daily weigh-in to be useful at all. Frankly, even a weekly weigh-in is almost too much, but it is the most frequent you should weigh yourself. Day-to-day changes in weight are nothing to really pay attention to.

So after a couple of unpleasant incidents, I've done some digging, and as far as I can tell I have been suffering from reactive hypoglycemia (RHG). All of the symptoms I get are hypoglycemic (flushed/chills, nervousness, trembling, slight mental confusion, feeling like I'm going to collapse, etc., all coupled with a sort of panicky hunger -- "I have to eat NOW or I'm going to fall over!"), and it's relieved by eating (but only if I'm careful and eat high-Protein foods, carbs just make the swings worse). I'm curious if anyone else has gone through this with the sleeve. Incidentally, some call this or confuse this with "dumping syndrome" -- they're not the same, but they may be related. Eating in a way that leads to dumping apparently can dump a lot of blood-sugar spiking food into your small intestine at once, faster than your body can properly deal with. So part of the "eat every two hours" thing is to eat smaller meals and avoid dumping. The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_hypoglycemia) mentions this. I am not diabetic, according to NUMEROUS tests by my PCP (given my weight and a family history, it seemed like a good precaution). Apparently, RHG is very common for WLS patients about 15-20 months out (I'm ~19 months out). It's made worse by not eating lots of small, high-protein meals, by not getting enough cardio, and by consuming too much caffeine. I'm guilty on all counts, but it seems like caffeine is really the worst offender for me. I don't do well with moderation, and I've discovered that when I really go overboard on caffeine, I get bad RHG, often at night. Also, it seems to be the combination of caffeine and carbs for me -- I don't drink caffeine at night, but my nighttime meals lately have been carb-heavy (spaghetti, for instance), mostly for convenience. And it seems like my RHG is happening mostly in the evening. So, I'm curious who else has struggled with this, and how you dealt with it. Unfortunately, since I changed jobs in mid-June, I'm not yet eligible for health benefits so I can't go see a doctor about this. That will be changing soon (next week, I think), but I really don't think this is an emergency condition, especially since I seem to be able to manage it by eating healthier, avoiding caffeine, and so on. Mostly I'm looking for support and advice

Thanks all, it's a wonderful feeling to be overweight! I don't dare hope that I'll ever be "normal" weight according to the height/weight charts, since that would require me to drop almost another 30 pounds, which -- with my build -- just ain't happening. But now, if I ever have to fill out one of those singles/dating profiles, I don't feel guilty saying that I'm "about average" in shape. Huzzah!

According to the height/weight charts, as of my last (Friday) weigh-in, my BMI is now 29.9, which means I'm -- just barely -- "overweight" instead of "obese" for the first time in, well, ever. As long as I've been weighing myself, anyway! WOOOHOOO!

Has anyone here learned (or tried to learn) Tai Chi as an adult? I'm trying, without much success (so far). What's discouraging me is that I've realized that I've lived my entire life in a sedentary, cerebral manner. While that has benefited me greatly in some ways (I'm super well educated and make lots of money in high tech) in other ways I've missed out -- I was (obviously) obese, and I'm still rather uncoordinated. So, because of this, I decided that maybe studying a gentle fitness/flexibility program like yoga or Tai Chi might help me. The problem is, I think I'm TOO uncoordinated! I don't have any MEDICAL conditions (meaning, I'm not injured or medically incapable of performing the movements), but I'm having serious problems with muscle memory -- trying to remember the forms and the movements -- in addition to balance (things where you have to stand on one leg or sweep your weight onto a leg or something cause me to almost fall over!) Is this just typical beginner's problems (I've been to ONE group class, where I was lost, as well as watching some online videos and reading about it, so I'm a true beginner) that I just need to push through, or are some people just not capable of "getting it?" I'm very curious if anyone on here has tried this sport/fitness program/martial art and can comment.

My entire relationship to food has changed since I had the sleeve. I used to love, love, LOVE food -- food was recreation, food was comfort, food was self-soothing. Now, food... I can take it or leave it. I feel like I need to "feed the machine" periodically, and I do my best to put in high-quality fuel to keep myself healthy and happy. But I no longer have such a strong emotional connection to food. In the long run, I think that's a good thing; it's part of why I got obese to begin with!

Well, I don't feel at all sick or in any way under the weather today. Honestly I think I'll have to chalk it up as "just one of those things that happens." It's possible that I may be running a little dehydrated lately (I've noticed other symptoms) and this may have been related (the tiny bit of exercise/sweat from tai chi may have been the tipping point), so I'm focusing on Water intake today. 30 oz down and counting!

So, yesterday, I went to my first tai chi class (ever!) I felt a little self-conscious (since I felt so clumsy next to all of the graceful tai chi and kung fu students) but I muddled through it. It didn't seem terribly "hard" -- the stretching at the beginning was a little challenging, but not overly so -- nothing really hurt, and I didn't even build up much of a sweat! On the way home I was thinking -- "okay, well so tai chi won't be to build muscles or burn fat, but rather to work on balance and keeping limber" and I was fine with that (I work out nearly every day to build muscle and burn fat, so it's okay if tai chi is more about meditation and stretching than bodybuilding!) Then I came home and had a quesadilla and ate it a little too fast (I was starving!). I had a bit of acid reflux, but I thought nothing of it and took a couple of antacids. In about 20-30 minutes, I started getting really bad calf cramps, started feeling achey all over, and then started feeling really, REALLY tired. I went to bed and took a tylenol PM (I was achey, plus the PM part of tylenol PM is diphenhydramine, which is basically Benadryl, which helps my night time allergies). Today, for the first time in a while, I woke up really kinda tired and groggy, and I'm still a bit draggy! So I'm trying to figure out what happened; was Tai Chi harder than I thought, and despite not feeling tired or achey at the time, I was really worn out? Or maybe the fatigue plus cramps meant I was borderline dehydrated or low on some micronutrient? I thought I drank plenty of Water yesterday, but maybe not enough -- I recall that I did have more coffee than normal yesterday. The answer could be as simple as "you were tired, dummy!" (I AM over 40 now, after all!), but I'm wondering if there's some other lesson to take home here. Any thoughts?

Well I think that's sort of the point we're all trying to make; the BMI and height/weight charts are approximations -- we all know that -- but how do we come up with a realistic number? I know that at 230 I'm not "done" yet; I still have what I call the "jelly roll" around the middle. I've also come to terms with the fact that it's not going to be effortless anymore like it was in the beginning; just as I'm getting to a more "normal" weight, I'm also going to have to do what "normal" people have to do if they want to lose that last 20-30 pounds -- work my butt off for it! And that means watching what I eat (carefully!) -- no more snacking and junk food and STILL losing weight -- and hitting the gym several times a week (as well as lots of cardio). But still, I have no idea what's a reasonable "target" weight. I guess, like the definition of pornography, I'll know it when I see it!

Hot mama! You're looking great, Tiff

I'm struggling with the same issues, trying to figure out if a goal weight of around 210 is reasonable (I'm bouncing around 230 and have been since February). The BMI charts say that I "should" weigh 190, but THAT will never happen! BTW: chilo, from the other thread, you're looking marvelous; I know we tend to be our own worst critics, but this man's outside opinion is that you don't need to change a thing. I can only hope to get to where I'm looking so lean and trim and happy!

I think you might be on to something -- it might just be that I'm actually getting RESTFUL sleep for the fist time in years, and I'm not used to it! According to the bed partner: "you sleep like the dead, on your back -- you do not snore or gasp or anything." So maybe I'm just not used to having enough ENERGY to get by with only six hours of sleep. Ah well, I guess it's a good thing, right -- I'm rested, and I have all these hours in the morning to get my day started (I'm finding that doing my workout calisthenics routine in the morning works well; I've still got lots of energy, and it gives me something to do besides shove food in my mouth!)

According to what I've read, while you can definitely stretch the sleeve to some extent, the part that gets cut out (the fundus, technically) is the really "stretchy" part. According to my doc (and folks on here), the remainder of the stomach is about on par with football leather in terms of how much you can stretch it -- very tough indeed!

Hate to say it if you're burnt out on Water, but -- DRINK MORE WATER! Keeping VERY hydrated (get used to it, for us sleevers, it's a long-term thing!) will help with almost every aspect of healing, as well as the likely orthostatic hypotension that you'll deal with once the pounds really start dropping. So: drink water! It won't fix everything, but it might make the lightheaded feeling a bit better.