Ok, so after way too long a time of hemmin' and hawin', and gaining weight of cours, I have finally jumped through all the hoops and have been approved my surgery, which should take place in July.

Dave, Jake, I know you're out there... thought I'd post here, in the men's room, and see if other guys wanna open up about this a bit.

So, two months out from surgery and already the emotional rollercoaster begins... scared and excited, etc...

Other guys go through the same thing? From what I've been reading on the posts, it seems like doctors approach surgery in a lot of different ways; some have pre-op liquid diets, some don't.. some do it for 14 days, some for 3... I have no idea what my doc is gonna want me to do, but I'm sure I'll find out soon!

Anyway, I'm a walking poster child for heart attack, stroke, diabetes (wait... just got pegged with that.. now taking glucophage.. great job managing my weight on my own, huh?) you get the picture.

I guess the big mental game is... I did this to myself, why can't I undo it? and it goes on from there....

so let's open this up and let me hear from some guys...thanks!

Stan

Have you had the surgery yet?

I have the same feelings. I know I did his to myself. But I also know that I got a double whammy with addictive personality traits from both sides of my family. I just turned to food instead of alcohol. I am at the point you were at when you posted this. I am preop. I need to drop 28 more pounds before they will schedule my surgery, And they are not counting the 15 pounds that I lost between my letter of medical necessity and my first appointment from them, but my insurance company will. Sometimes it drives me nuts. I have my psyche eval scheduled and I am awaiting to hear when my preop tests are scheduled.

hey guys... I"m banded!!! July 1. feel great and am so glad I did it. AMayo1, hang in there and jump through the hoops. I can summarize my experience thus far... the two week liquid preop diet sucked, and I did cheat a very small bit. lesson learned there.. I didn't beat myself up and go on a binge; I just walked away from that one screw up and hopped right back on that preop pony, and it paid off. Doc was very pleased with shape and size of my liver during surgery.

Now I'm 11 days post surgery, and already I feel like a different person. still on the "full liquid" diet, and maxing out the Protein. my energy level has already increased.

Surgery: was AM on 1 July, a Friday. doc had me spend the night in the hospital, so home Saturday. catnapped in the recliner pretty much til Wednesday, but made it a point to get up and move every hour. 10 minutes, then 15, then 20... helped tremendously. Moving expels gas. I'll leave it at that. By Wednesday I felt pretty good; Thursday even better and went out of the house for a while on my own. Friday I cut the grass. Back at work Monday. stomache felt like I gut punched in the gut until about Wednesday; now there's just the slightest soreness every now and then. I go back for my two-week post op follow up this Friday.

for background purposes, so you can compare...I'm 52, 6'5", and weighed 380 when I started the preop diet. Believe it or not, I was, and am getting back to, fairly active. a lot of walking at work, go to the gym 3-5 times a week, do all the house stuff, get the dogs out for walks... I wasn't a couch potato; I was a pig. two sandwiches and a six pack for lunch on Saturday and back at it outside... know what I mean?

and now, 11 days into life with a band, I am absolutely amazed that I can feel so good on so little food. way cool.

that's it for now!

Stan