Starting the next Phase of My Life
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rpyle111
Posts: 1,066 Member
Greetings!
I've been playing with the idea of WLS for a number of years, and finally have 'flipped the switch' to get going on changing my life.
I have been fat since childhood, but at least since college an athletic fat guy. I hovered in the 300's for most of my adult life, diving down to my lowest adult weight of 260 in 1993. That bout of almost normal weight was interrupted by a blood clot in my leg, which took me out of sports (which were my main source of exercise) for over a year due to blood thinners, and I got married at 300 pounds. After that, stress and life changes kept the weight gain moving (in a bad way). We moved to England for three years for work, and I came back about 40 pounds heavier. Cam back from Europe with our first child and spent about 10-12 years working hard to lose weight, being successful for about 6 months at a time, and then losing the motivation to keep up whatever program had been successful, and gaining most or all of the weight back.
About four years ago, I started having problems with my hips, and have been diagnosed with arthritis in both of them. The right is worse than the left, but the left is catching up. That put a damper on my sports and exercising. I play less basketball, my golf changed from walking and carrying my clubs, to pushing a cart, to riding. And my weight took another ugly turn up to my current 425.
I have a very supportive family. My wife has gained along with me, and I feel terrible about that, as I have been a bad influence on her. She has stepped up her exercise and uses Weight Watchers. My PCP has been suggesting WLS for a number of years now, in a very positive way, letting me know the statistics that people at my weight are almost never successful at losing weight the 'classic' way. She has been a real help for me. My mother and sister have both had RnY surgeries a number of years ago (my mother is just hitting her 5 year anniversary).
I got all the way to the insurance approval in late 2011, but then my insurance plan got dropped by my employer and it was clear that I could not proceed when I was going to be changing insurance companies (with different Bariatric center, etc.) so I got discouraged and did very little for a year or so. I finally got my butt in gear again and worked with my PCP to get the six months of monthly appointments where we worked on portion control, nutritional information, etc. but the insurance clearance finally came due to the final 10 pound gain, which put me over the 50 BMI that got an easier approval (I do *not* recommend that as a strategy
). Medically, I have plenty of co-morbidities (apnea, BP, cholesterol, arthritis), most of which are being successfully medicated, but I need and want to be healthy!
Mentally, I always had a hard time getting my mind around the surgery. I was pretty negative (hopefully quietly) when my sister had the surgery. I came to the grudging realization that I might need to have WLS as my doctor kept gently prodding me. She said some things that really helped. She told me that Cancer patients don't get excited about Chemotherapy, they do it because it is necessary! That helped me somewhat, but I was still going into the first attempt at surgery with more dread than excitement, and in hindsight, I think it was a good thing that it didn't happen when I was in that state of mind.
Fast Forward to now, and I am getting more excited about the surgery. My wife and I went to the NP-led all-day informational seminar and I came out more excited about the surgery as a tool that will help me. I still have fears about making such a radical change to my innards and whether or not I will be able to make the life changes required long term to be one of the successful 50%.
The NP told us to start logging, aiming for 1500 calories per day, starting to learn about protein powder and how to incorporate it into our lives and get moving! I had heard of MFP, but never looked at it, because I wasn't doing anything useful to lose weight anyway. So I joined last week, and the ability to log food and exercise any time has been a real eye-opener. I also fouind this group, and have been reading the back discussions and seeing how many of you are successful, helpful, and downright nice people.
I've been to the gym a couple of times, trying to re-find exercise that I can tolerate as my hips get worse, and so far, not too much lingering pain post-exercise. More walks with the dog (he loves it!) and I hope I can make that habit come back pre-surgery.
I have the program required exercise training appointment this Wednesday, where I will get a chance to talk with the physiologist to help me find some exercises I can tolerate, then my first appointment with the surgeon June 11. At that point, assuming I get the required medical stuff done (blood draw, EKG) and have successfully stayed on the MFP logging and lose some weight (which I'm not worried will happen), I should get my surgery date! I also need to write a letter to the surgeon about my understanding and commitment tot he surgery. This diatribe is part of my practice for that letter!
I'm going to try and be active here, as I can see the benefit of having an active community at all stages of the process. As you can see, I can be long winded, but hopefully will be a long term member! I don't do social media (no FB, Twitter, etc.) but am going to dip my toe here, so if anyone wants to friend me, feel free and I'll see how it goes!
Rob
I've been playing with the idea of WLS for a number of years, and finally have 'flipped the switch' to get going on changing my life.
I have been fat since childhood, but at least since college an athletic fat guy. I hovered in the 300's for most of my adult life, diving down to my lowest adult weight of 260 in 1993. That bout of almost normal weight was interrupted by a blood clot in my leg, which took me out of sports (which were my main source of exercise) for over a year due to blood thinners, and I got married at 300 pounds. After that, stress and life changes kept the weight gain moving (in a bad way). We moved to England for three years for work, and I came back about 40 pounds heavier. Cam back from Europe with our first child and spent about 10-12 years working hard to lose weight, being successful for about 6 months at a time, and then losing the motivation to keep up whatever program had been successful, and gaining most or all of the weight back.
About four years ago, I started having problems with my hips, and have been diagnosed with arthritis in both of them. The right is worse than the left, but the left is catching up. That put a damper on my sports and exercising. I play less basketball, my golf changed from walking and carrying my clubs, to pushing a cart, to riding. And my weight took another ugly turn up to my current 425.
I have a very supportive family. My wife has gained along with me, and I feel terrible about that, as I have been a bad influence on her. She has stepped up her exercise and uses Weight Watchers. My PCP has been suggesting WLS for a number of years now, in a very positive way, letting me know the statistics that people at my weight are almost never successful at losing weight the 'classic' way. She has been a real help for me. My mother and sister have both had RnY surgeries a number of years ago (my mother is just hitting her 5 year anniversary).
I got all the way to the insurance approval in late 2011, but then my insurance plan got dropped by my employer and it was clear that I could not proceed when I was going to be changing insurance companies (with different Bariatric center, etc.) so I got discouraged and did very little for a year or so. I finally got my butt in gear again and worked with my PCP to get the six months of monthly appointments where we worked on portion control, nutritional information, etc. but the insurance clearance finally came due to the final 10 pound gain, which put me over the 50 BMI that got an easier approval (I do *not* recommend that as a strategy
). Medically, I have plenty of co-morbidities (apnea, BP, cholesterol, arthritis), most of which are being successfully medicated, but I need and want to be healthy!Mentally, I always had a hard time getting my mind around the surgery. I was pretty negative (hopefully quietly) when my sister had the surgery. I came to the grudging realization that I might need to have WLS as my doctor kept gently prodding me. She said some things that really helped. She told me that Cancer patients don't get excited about Chemotherapy, they do it because it is necessary! That helped me somewhat, but I was still going into the first attempt at surgery with more dread than excitement, and in hindsight, I think it was a good thing that it didn't happen when I was in that state of mind.
Fast Forward to now, and I am getting more excited about the surgery. My wife and I went to the NP-led all-day informational seminar and I came out more excited about the surgery as a tool that will help me. I still have fears about making such a radical change to my innards and whether or not I will be able to make the life changes required long term to be one of the successful 50%.
The NP told us to start logging, aiming for 1500 calories per day, starting to learn about protein powder and how to incorporate it into our lives and get moving! I had heard of MFP, but never looked at it, because I wasn't doing anything useful to lose weight anyway. So I joined last week, and the ability to log food and exercise any time has been a real eye-opener. I also fouind this group, and have been reading the back discussions and seeing how many of you are successful, helpful, and downright nice people.
I've been to the gym a couple of times, trying to re-find exercise that I can tolerate as my hips get worse, and so far, not too much lingering pain post-exercise. More walks with the dog (he loves it!) and I hope I can make that habit come back pre-surgery.
I have the program required exercise training appointment this Wednesday, where I will get a chance to talk with the physiologist to help me find some exercises I can tolerate, then my first appointment with the surgeon June 11. At that point, assuming I get the required medical stuff done (blood draw, EKG) and have successfully stayed on the MFP logging and lose some weight (which I'm not worried will happen), I should get my surgery date! I also need to write a letter to the surgeon about my understanding and commitment tot he surgery. This diatribe is part of my practice for that letter!
I'm going to try and be active here, as I can see the benefit of having an active community at all stages of the process. As you can see, I can be long winded, but hopefully will be a long term member! I don't do social media (no FB, Twitter, etc.) but am going to dip my toe here, so if anyone wants to friend me, feel free and I'll see how it goes!
Rob
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Replies
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Good luck! I had RNY 3/2012. I'm down 176lbs with 35 left to go. Best decision I ever made. My husband did it 2 months later and is down 180lbs and at goal. My best advise is do what the Dr. says to do, even when you don't want to. My surgeon requires that you get up and walk in the hospital post op every 90 minutes or they remove the bed from your room. At 1st I really didn't want to do it and it hurt and I hated it. But after 2-3 walks it started feeling better and better and it really did help me heal faster. I had surgery on a Friday morning, was released on Sunday morning and my husband went back to work leaving me home alone with my 3 & 5 year old sons all day on Tuesday. And I was fine. I couldn't lift the kids, but I was fine. I never took a pain killer after I was released from the hospital (though to be fair I have a very high pain tolerance, I also never took a pain killer after hospital release after 2 C-sections). My husband had a similar experience.0
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Good luck to you! You sound like you are in the right frame of mind to do this! I think many of us have dealt with the same things you have - struggling with weight for most of our lives, being unsure about surgery. I know I just got to the point where I knew I had to do something or I would never be able to live the life I wanted to live, because the way I was at 382 lbs, that wasn't living at all.
I had sleeve surgery last October. I had lost 70lbs prior to surgery and 84 since. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I feel amazing.
I didn't have any problems with the surgery. I was only in the hospital one night, and like Dannadl, after I got home I didnt take any pain meds. I also second the advice of doing whatever your surgeon and his team tell you to do. I was up and walking a couple of hours after surgery. I had to adjust to my "new normal", but now it's second nature.
I chose to have surgery to improve my health and my quality of life. I can honestly say I have done both. One of the happiest moments for me was when my PCP took me off my blood pressure medication. It was a HUGE victory!0 -
Hi Rob,
Aside from the extensive travel (very cool), sounds like you and I could be brothers...
I started the process in October of last year with the insurance approvals and such. Finally got through that mess and went through the Gastric Bypass on 4/2. I've been bouncing between 250 and 330 several times throughout the years, but my body would always adapt to whatever program I was following and pretty much flatline at 250.
When I stepped into the doctor's office the first time, I was 298 and climbing. After the 2 week liquid "cleanse" diet pre-surgery, I was at 279 (morning of surgery). Now, 26 days later, despite a complication (Gout flare up) which has kept me from exercising, I hit the scales this morning at 262.
Lemme tell you. As a pizza afficionado, it's still incredibly weird to never be hungry... Not since the surgery have I actually really WANTED food. I've been curious enough to experiment, but that's been mostly "to see if I could" (stuff like tuna salad).
Now I've just started the "mushy/soft food" part of my diet, so naturally the weight loss has slowed, but so far nothing has been difficult at all (except for the first few days)... Like I said, the weird part has been having to mentally remind myself to eat or drink anything at all...
Day one and two (after surgery), you'll be dealing with a lot, and you'll probably think -- like most people do -- that you just screwed up big time. My advice to you is simply this....
Don't.
The surgery is a big deal. It is a huge change, and will change everything you know about food. When you get out of surgery, you may even have a good bit of pain and discomfort (normal) but give it a few days to just chill out and relax and to give your body time to accept the changes to your system.
When it's over, you'll be glad you did.
Wayne0 -
Welcome and best of luck to you on this journey. It sounds like you have thought it through and have a number of supportive people in your life, so I am sure you will do great.0
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Thanks, all, for the kind words and the friendly welcome!0
