Ok ready to post my final before and after photos. Before is around 350lbs, 3 or 4xl shirt. My highest ever confirmed weight was 356 and this was very close to that date in 2014. The other is today, wearing a size medium shirt. Surgery was June 12, 2020, weight 334lbs, 6’4” BMI 40. I hit this weight (193) about 10 months post op and have been maintaining fairly evenly since (up a couple down a couple etc). For anyone on the fence about surgery, do your research but don’t let the scary stories you read here overwhelm you or give you a false sense of their frequency. Yes, bad things can and do happen in any endeavor. No one has a crystal ball, but the statistics of health issues from being obese and the statistics of coming through gastric surgery safely and enjoying positive results speak for themselves. I never dreamed I would feel this good again. I didn’t even think I was that fat…. Just a “big guy.” Looking back at old photos I’m mortified. Looking forward I’m so optimistic and full of life and joy. I feel like this is the “me” that has always been in there, hiding, hoping, waiting to come out. What “you” do you have inside longing to come out and face the world?
