50 YO male - Sleeve tomorrow 2/23/21

Hello fellow weight-challenged and former weight-challenged friends!

My name is Scott, I'm a 50 year old male, 5'11" and weighed 285 when I began the process to have gastric sleeve. I'm on the lower end of weight for what many would think makes such a drastic step called for (including some of my family and many of the friends I have told about it).

Before I get into a little about myself, I first want to tell you why I'm even posting on here. I am doing it as a THANK YOU to all of you former posters, and also hoping to get another male story out there as they are a little less common. What an amazing resource this is. So anyway - thank you to those of you before me who took the time to detail their journey. I plan to tell my story here in as much detail as possible, hopefully less for me and more for somebody else down the road. So here we go...

My background and reason for deciding to move forward with surgery is that I have battled weight my entire life. I was a chubby little boy and as an adult my "average" weight was around 260 with swings up to the highest I ever saw at 318 and the lowest I can remember at 239. After around 45 years old, I found it increasingly hard to drop the weight. That said, with hard work, I can drop weight to get down in the 250s. But then, inevitably, it comes back and it's a cycle that gets harder each year. I have high BP, high cholesterol, frequent knee and back pain. My hope with surgery is that it will drop my "base line" down to around 200 and allow me to be so much more active and just enjoy life more.

A unique speed bump I ran into was, I was originally scheduled for surgery in late November. The hospital stopped electives and my procedure was postponed. I was so disappointed, but took it in stride. It did cause some weight gain, as I went on what I assume most of us do, which is a "feast on my favorite foods" bender for what I thought was one last time. Well that turned into a couple months. Went from 285 up to 305. EEK. Luckily I was able to drop most of it in the 10 days or so leading up to surgery.

My doctor called for only a 3 day pre-op liquid diet, but knowing I had gained some weight, and being impatient and excited to start, I began liquid 5 days ahead. I have lost 10 lbs as of this morning on liquid diet. Liquid diet didn't bother me terribly. My doctor called for 4+ protein shakes per day (80g+ protein) and I utilized Premier Protein shakes as the source. TIP: I didn't purchase any flavorless protein powder, and would have in retrospect. The shakes are good when you are drinking 1-2 per day. 4+ gets tough after a day or 2. I would have mixed some powder into broth / strained soup had I known better. I drank a lot of water and water even starts to get a little bitter / different tasting but never enough where I can't drink it. I was taking in so much liquid, I honestly was never terribly hungry. Some grumbling the second day or so, but it really wasn't bad.

So pre-op I am writing this on day 5, my daily regimen didn't change much:
Early AM - Premier Protein Cafe Latte (especially if coffee drinker, these are best as they have a hint of savory / not just sweet as gets old.
Late AM - 1/2 PP shake - see below
Lunch - Strained can of soup, added some beef or chicken broth
Afternoon - PP Carmel (also great, and same - just not as sweet as others)
Dinner - PP CL
Evening - 1/2 PP shake

So I actually was only taking in 3 shakes on last few days, below what surgeon was wanting. By dinner time I was just shake'd out and not sure why (and thankfully), the hunger just wasn't really an issue. I wish I'd have had the protein powder to fill that need in the soup. I think the clear liquid drinks and protein powder have definite place for us - I have powder on order.

I tried a bunch of the Premier Protein (Costco sells some, others available online) and they have great texture and flavor. I'll continue these for life. My tastes were:
Cafe Latte - amazing, and I'm not a coffee drinker. If you hate taste of coffee, this won't be for you. But as I said, it has less sweet taste and that's huge during liquid phase.
Carmel - also very good and same as above
Chocolate
Strawberry - good in beginning but get too sweet
Cookies and Creme - I did not care for this one at all and they went in garbage
Cinnamon Roll - OK, but too sweet
Pumpkin Spice - I have high hopes, ordered it too late though and it's still on the way. I'll have it for post-op

Last thing I think might be helpful to others: This isn't a big thing, but after I got a confirmed surgery date, I told many of my closer friends, family, and even co-workers about the upcoming surgery. With my situation and surgery getting postponed due to COVID, the time up to surgery got extended and I got a lot of "when is it" and such. In retrospect, I think I'd have kept it to myself till after. I suspect that many don't tell everyone about it, but for whatever reason I didn't care what people think and chose to share. It's not a big regret, and hopefully nobody else gets postponed like that, but now I would've waited.

OK - that's all I can think of in my pre-op review. I will post pre-op photos next week or so when I'm home recovering. Again - THANK YOU to every person who has posted to this forum in the past. YOU are why I'm writing this today.

how was it?!