Yesterday I had my 2 week, post-op followup with my surgeon. He was extremely pleased with my progress, 60lbs down since I first met him, 40 since I started liquid only, 20 since the morning of surgery. My incisions are healing wonderfully and he approved me to start eating soft foods. One meal a day this week with 2 shakes, next week 2 meals and 1 shake, and so forth. I was so excited, went straight home and made myself a small omelet, 2oz of egg whites and a tiny bit of mozzarella. It tasted like the best meal I had ever eaten, even without any seasoning (I thought salt and pepper might be a little harsh so decided to leave it bland).

Also spoke to him about last weeks issue with sluggishness and all, he said it is likely because I became overly ketoic, dropping 40lbs in 4 weeks on liquid only and struggling with daily protein shakes in the last 2, likely slowed my system down. I was instructed if I feel like that again to get a small amount of sugar, either some apple juice or Gatorade. When I was feeling it on Friday I had a small glass of apple juice and the improvement was almost instantaneous.

Now that I'm on real foods, I shouldn't have that issue anymore, but it's good to know that it isn't that uncommon of an issue and can be easily remedied. But the last 3 days I've felt better then I have in, I don't even know how long. I have a ton more energy, I'm sleeping through the night... and best of all, today I'm at work wearing a suit that hasn't fit me in almost 11 years.

Anyway, thank you everyone for all of the support on here...

Congratulations! Your progress sounds amazing, like you went back in time 11 years. Thanks for sharing!

How long did you take off from work?

Took off 9 days, Surgery was on Monday May 26th, returned Wed April 4. Thankfully I spend 90% of my day at a desk, so it was an easy return.

Glad you're feeling better!

Awesome awesome awesome for you! 60lbs down is AMAZING and 20lbs in 2weeks? I am so very excited for you. I am glad your recovery has been smooth. What would you say contributed to that?

1 minute ago, Kay07 said:

Awesome awesome awesome for you! 60lbs down is AMAZING and 20lbs in 2weeks? I am so very excited for you. I am glad your recovery has been smooth. What would you say contributed to that?

Honesty I think part of it is that I struggled hard with my post-op protein shakes... some days I didn't drink anything, and some days I could maybe force myself to get one 4oz shake down for lunch. So I think the lack of intake probably caused a little extra loss. I've also been mixing a serving of benefiber into my drinks twice a day, which likely contributed to helping keeping my system nice and clean (to put it nicely).

Noted! I am soooo hoping my tastes don't change too drastically after surgery. I have a variety of protein shakes I can drink, but my absolute favorite is 1/2 premier protein (either chocolate or caramel) added with 1 cup of Decaf coffee. Hopefully I can still tolerate it post surgery.

7 minutes ago, Kay07 said:

Noted! I am soooo hoping my tastes don't change too drastically after surgery. I have a variety of Protein Shakes I can drink, but my absolute favorite is 1/2 Premier Protein (either chocolate or caramel) added with 1 cup of Decaf coffee. Hopefully I can still tolerate it post surgery.

I have chai tea bags. I'd use some vanilla Premier Protein as the "creamer" in my Chai latte - delish!

3 minutes ago, Kay07 said:

Noted! I am soooo hoping my tastes don't change too drastically after surgery. I have a variety of Protein Shakes I can drink, but my absolute favorite is 1/2 Premier Protein (either chocolate or caramel) added with 1 cup of Decaf coffee. Hopefully I can still tolerate it post surgery.

When is your surgery? It's a tough one, I wouldn't say my tastes changed (at least not that I've noticed yet), but somethings became hard to stomach for a while. If it's a little too thick of a shake, it can occasionally sit in your stomach weird and make you feel fuller faster. I really struggled getting all of my fluids in for the day.

But it's important to remember that everyone's journey is a little different. So you might have no problems at all, I wish you all of the luck in the world.

May 14th, I can’t wait!

4 minutes ago, Kay07 said:

May 14th, I can’t wait!

That's great... it'll be here before you know it.

3 hours ago, Czuck1983 said:

That's great... it'll be here before you know it.

So ready for it! So what are you ongoing plans? Do you plan to get a trainer or introduce new exercise routines? Do you feel like you have more energy now that you are 2 weeks out? And you mentioned you went back to work this week, right? How are you feeling?

I'm not too sure about my plans for exercise. I own some yoga dvds that I used to do, so I'll likely start that again. Aside from that, I have some back issues, so I can likely get an rx for physical therapy and that will prob be cheaper then joining a gym for now, since my hospital stay helped break my deductible and my out of pocket maximum for insurance.

I definitely notice more energy and an increase in my quality of sleep. I don't remember the last time I slept through the night without meds, but the last 2 nights I slept great and woke up feeling rested.

Work has been good, first few days were rough, but that's because of the ketosis issues I mentioned above. But since I overcame that, I've been feeling great. Almost as if I could run a marathon... Which I may consider trying next summer if all is good with my physical issues.

Do you have any plans post-op? Anything you'd like to do long term that you couldn't do before?

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I hear you on the deductibles! Milk that free healthcare as much as possible. Yoga is fantastic. At least, it should be. Not tremendously easy to do when you are larger (despite what those "Plus Size Yoga!" books claim. I want to pursue that after surgery, it's supposed to be great for your mind and body.

I also plan to get a personal trainer, dependent upon whether I can find one that doesn't charge a small fortune. I don't think I will need them too long, just a few months to tell me how to do things, which exercises to focus certain areas etc. I haven't seriously worked out in over a decade, and I highly doubt the exercises I did then as an athlete would be the best idea now. I also have a nice expensive elliptical I hope to actually be able to use. I purchased it at my highest weight, then swiftly realized that if I used it for me than 10/15 minutes my knee would swell to the point I couldn't walk. Yeah... my knees haven't taken this whole being 280+lbs thing very well.

The thing that I am looking forward to exercise wise is to be able to go for a run. I used to love it. Hopefully, I'll get back to doing morning runs every day.

I hear you on that one. At 325, the only machine I was able to do without severe pain was a treadmill. I have several herniated disks in my back and a small knee issue that's never been officially diagnosed. Weight loss is essentially my last effort to avoid back surgery.

I used to do and about to restart DDP Yoga. It was developed by a retired pro wrestler, Diamond Dallas Page and I loved it. Was easy to do and I dropped about 15lbs with that alone in 2014. Problem was I got lazy and let myself slowly stop working and I gained everything back plus some.

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