Hello all, New male member just sleeved on 3-14-16

[Dren11]

Hello all,

I am a 54 year old male that just had sleeve surgery on 3-14-16. I just wanted to do a quick intro. Here are a few quick takeaways from my experience to date:

1) I started this process on 11/27/15 at the WLS seminar in my area. I met the Bariatric nurse for the first time on 12/22/15. Going into this process, I did not have any real health issues aside from some arthritis pain in my right hip. I was not taking any RX meds of any kind. In per-surgery blood tests, my A1C was borderline and my cholesterol was now in the "high range" for the first time in a very long time. So troubles were brewing on the horizon. Add in the pain in the hip from all the extra weight and I had alarm bells go off. In general, I think this could be summed up as a pretty healthy fat guy that had a very strong likelihood things were going to get worse as time went on.

2) Surgery was 3/14/15 so about 9 weeks from my first meeting with the nurse.

3) I have found the entire process very interesting. There is a lot of steps/hurdles to go through but you just take them one by one then move to the next step. You can't get bogged down in the process; You just work though it. There were a lot of firsts for me (EKG, Upper GI, sleep study, meeting with Physical Therapy to discuss walking etc) and I found the entire process interesting. I actually enjoyed learning about each step and learning the results of each test.

4) Surgery was very routine and I had very little pain or discomfort. In fact I used the PCA maybe 4-5 times and only on the first day. No nauseousness in any way. I was in the hospital from 6:00AM on 3/14/16 and went home about 7:00PM on 3/15/16. I walked out the hospital on my own with near zero pain carrying my own backpack. I say no pain but I did have a fair amount of tenderness in the belly area.

5) I found day 3 was my toughest day. First full day home and I had difficulty in drinking liquids. I got them mostly all down but I noticed every sip and I had pain after. I took a sip and knew the pain was coming next so that made drinking a challenge. That got better and better each day. Here at day 8, I just drank a diet Snapple over about 30 min without any issues at all. Also at day 8 I have only very little tenderness in the belly area. I should mention that the Surgeon did some repair work on a older umbilical hernia that had been repaired back in 2006. I think a lot of the tenderness was related to that work more than the sleeve surgery.

6) My wife told me yesterday that she has not heard me snoring in the last couple days. She said I did my share of snoring pre-surgery Of course I told her that's strange because I don't snore she assured me YOU DO. I was told just before the surgery in my sleep study that I had mild sleep apnea. The Sleep Dr. and I discussed this and he felt focusing on the weight loss with sleeve surgery should address that issue so I never used a CPAP machine.

In summary I have found the entire process pretty straight forward. From 12/22/15 to today, I have lost 41 lbs already. I lost about 27 lbs pre-surgery and 14 post. Not bad for 8 days. I have plenty more to go and will take this process one day at a time and I will take advantage of this opportunity to get my lifelong weight struggle under control once and for all.

I did a lot of reading and watching materials on the web. I saw how lots of folks have had various issues along way. I am happy to report that I have not had anything yet that was what I would consider a real issue. I was very fortunate that my insurance covered the surgery 100% beside a few small co-pays along the way. I was also very lucky to have a excellent surgeon and bariatric team. I feel that I have been given an amazing tool that will benefit me for the rest of my life. I look forward to the challenge and excitement of leaning the solid good clean eating habits that will work with my amazing new tool to get me to goal weight and keep me there for the rest of my life. If you asked me a year ago would I be doing weight loss surgery and I am sure it would have been a flat no. The more and more I learned about the process plus the fact they say that 90% of all "diets" (non surgical related) fail, told me this was the right thing for me for so many reasons.

[HawkwindScho]

Welcome aboard, Dren11. As a male who is just entering the process, I find your story VERY encouraging. Once upon a time, I was you!For a long time I was also a pretty healthy fat guy. Adult-onset Epilepsy fixed that for me, though, and I am now really looking forward to relief from many conditions when my sleeve is done. Keep us posted!

Jeremy (aka HawkwindScho)

[amelia]

Hello all,

I am a 54 year old male that just had sleeve surgery on 3-14-16. I just wanted to do a quick intro. Here are a few quick takeaways from my experience to date:

1) I started this process on 11/27/15 at the WLS seminar in my area. I met the Bariatric nurse for the first time on 12/22/15. Going into this process, I did not have any real health issues aside from some arthritis pain in my right hip. I was not taking any RX meds of any kind. In per-surgery blood tests, my A1C was borderline and my cholesterol was now in the "high range" for the first time in a very long time. So troubles were brewing on the horizon. Add in the pain in the hip from all the extra weight and I had alarm bells go off. In general, I think this could be summed up as a pretty healthy fat guy that had a very strong likelihood things were going to get worse as time went on.

2) Surgery was 3/14/15 so about 9 weeks from my first meeting with the nurse.

3) I have found the entire process very interesting. There is a lot of steps/hurdles to go through but you just take them one by one then move to the next step. You can't get bogged down in the process; You just work though it. There were a lot of firsts for me (EKG, Upper GI, sleep study, meeting with Physical Therapy to discuss walking etc) and I found the entire process interesting. I actually enjoyed learning about each step and learning the results of each test.

4) Surgery was very routine and I had very little pain or discomfort. In fact I used the PCA maybe 4-5 times and only on the first day. No nauseousness in any way. I was in the hospital from 6:00AM on 3/14/16 and went home about 7:00PM on 3/15/16. I walked out the hospital on my own with near zero pain carrying my own backpack. I say no pain but I did have a fair amount of tenderness in the belly area.

5) I found day 3 was my toughest day. First full day home and I had difficulty in drinking liquids. I got them mostly all down but I noticed every sip and I had pain after. I took a sip and knew the pain was coming next so that made drinking a challenge. That got better and better each day. Here at day 8, I just drank a diet Snapple over about 30 min without any issues at all. Also at day 8 I have only very little tenderness in the belly area. I should mention that the Surgeon did some repair work on a older umbilical hernia that had been repaired back in 2006. I think a lot of the tenderness was related to that work more than the sleeve surgery.

6) My wife told me yesterday that she has not heard me snoring in the last couple days. She said I did my share of snoring pre-surgery Of course I told her that's strange because I don't snore she assured me YOU DO. I was told just before the surgery in my sleep study that I had mild sleep apnea. The Sleep Dr. and I discussed this and he felt focusing on the weight loss with sleeve surgery should address that issue so I never used a CPAP machine.

In summary I have found the entire process pretty straight forward. From 12/22/15 to today, I have lost 41 lbs already. I lost about 27 lbs pre-surgery and 14 post. Not bad for 8 days. I have plenty more to go and will take this process one day at a time and I will take advantage of this opportunity to get my lifelong weight struggle under control once and for all.

I did a lot of reading and watching materials on the web. I saw how lots of folks have had various issues along way. I am happy to report that I have not had anything yet that was what I would consider a real issue. I was very fortunate that my insurance covered the surgery 100% beside a few small co-pays along the way. I was also very lucky to have a excellent surgeon and bariatric team. I feel that I have been given an amazing tool that will benefit me for the rest of my life. I look forward to the challenge and excitement of leaning the solid good clean eating habits that will work with my amazing new tool to get me to goal weight and keep me there for the rest of my life. If you asked me a year ago would I be doing weight loss surgery and I am sure it would have been a flat no. The more and more I learned about the process plus the fact they say that 90% of all "diets" (non surgical related) fail, told me this was the right thing for me for so many reasons.

you will no doubt have an amazing journey (as well as your wife) for both of you will reap the benefits!

[Melissa888]

Glad to hear your experience. Your story could be mine, almost verbatim, expect I'm female! LOL! I began in mid November and surgery was completed on March 15. What I am amazed at is how normal I feel. I little slower in the mornings, which I contribute to lack of caffeine, but other than that, I feel wonderful. My activity is fairly normal as well, taking walks, doing normal errand running and household chores. I have not used one pain med since surgery, no nausea, and am getting 90 grams of protein a day and 90+ liquids. (Thank God for unflavored protein, it will mix with anything!) Sometimes I ask if I had the surgery! I hope we both continue with this wonderful progress, good luck to you!