I am 39 years old, I am married to an amazing woman who I love deeply. I have 3 children, 15 year old son, 6 year old girl and 5 year old boy. Today marks 45 days since I had my gastric bypass (RNY) surgery. Before I get into that let me go back a little.
I was not really overweight as a kid or teenager. In fact I was quite skinny at 6'2" weighing in at 170 lbs. I didn't start gaining weight until I was in my mid 20's. It started fairly slow at first and came to a peak this year at 363 lbs. I work a desk job, don't get much activity, and love to eat carbs.
During this time I tried several times to lose weight through many diets, exercise programs and such. My most successful attempt was through Weight Watchers. When I started WW I was at about 350 lbs, and through mainly WW and working out at the gym at my work I was able to loose about 55 lbs and get below 300 lbs for the first time in a long time. I felt great, I loved and looked forward to time in the gym. Unfortunately, this is when I went through a rough time in my life, had a battle with some depression and made some bad decisions that almost ruined my life in ways I would forever regret. I still regret this time in my life very much... but we are getting off topic here.
During and after this time in my life, my new lifestyle went out the door. I stopped working out, stopped eating smart and started putting on the weight again, except this time I got to my all-time highest weight of 365 lbs. I was not sleeping well. I snored very loud, I would wake up several times while sleeping because I was uncomfortable. My back hurt a lot. I could not walk much without having back pain and numbness in my legs. Going shopping was a nightmare.
My wife and I had discussed weight loss surgery a few times, but did not have a real serious discussion about it until after a family gathering where I had a long conversation with my cousin who had recently had weight loss surgery. On the ride home from this event my wife asked me if I was interested in looking into weight loss surgery. I admitted to her that I was in fact interested in finding out more, but I felt that I really just needed to start eating right, perhaps weight watchers again and if I could just lose about 30 lbs I could start working out again. I admitted that I felt that surgery was "the lazy way out" and the cost of it concerned me.
Not long after this we tried starting the weight watchers plan again, but it didn't stick long. My wife also had some health issues and started becoming concerned for her own health. She took the initiative and did some research and found that our insurance actually would cover a large part of weight loss surgery. She decided that she was going to start the process as due to her health issues, our whole family getting sick earlier in the year enough that we were very close to our out-of-pocket maximum for our health insurance. She found a doctor who got her started on meeting the requirements to qualify for surgery insurance wise and referred her to one of the best bariatric surgeons in our state. It didn't take me long after looking over the materials and talking to her to decide that I needed to also pursue the surgery.
I realized that I have three beautiful children that I have an obligation to take care of as long as possible. I could barely keep up with them physically, and felt that I was not providing them with a very good example of healthy living.
My first doctor appointment went well, we talked about the insurance requirements (3-6 months supervised diet plan, health issues like sleep apnea, blood pressure, diabetes, etc) and took some blood work. My blood pressure was good as always, and I have not been taking any medications and felt that for an overweight guy, I was actually pretty healthy otherwise. Well, a week later I got a call from my doctor with the lab results. My bloodwork determined that I was diabetic. My A1C was at 8.4, Glucose levels were at ~180. If this was not treated it could become very serious, very soon. In addition my cholesterol was in the dangerous range, not by a lot but still too high. My wife had her surgery first, and I had my surgery a month later.
We were fairly lucky that our surgeon did not require the 2-3 week liquid diet before surgery. I had to go on the liquid diet the day before surgery only. The surgery went well. It is still kind of a blur. I remember being absolutely terrified the morning of surgery. I went in at 8am and they weighed me, took my vitals and gave me some great drugs to help me relax. I vaguely remember being wheeled into the OR and being put in the table, and a mask put on me. Next thing I knew I woke up in recovery, but I only remember a couple flashes. Then I was in the room I would stay in the remainder of my stay. There really was not much pain through the whole thing. I had a morphine drip and a button I could push if the pain got too much which it didn't often. I was able to get up and walk that night. The worst part of this whole process was the catheter. My hospital stay was two nights, I went home on day three.
Once home I was on liquid diet for 10 days. This was the worst. During this time I didn't really get hungry. Probably because I was constantly drinking PowerAid Zero. That did not stop the cravings. During this time I had some serious moments of emotional regret. If I saw a food commercial, saw food in the fridge (my in-laws live with us and since my wife and I were not eating the food that we used to, there were LOTS of left-overs) I would really struggle with thoughts like "If I didn't have this stupid surgery I could be eating that RIGHT NOW!". Mentally I knew that I made a good decision and long-term my life would be better because of this decision. It didn't make it easier.
Once the longest 10 days of my life were over I graduated to the "Puree foods" stage for the next 14 days. I could then have baby food meats (eww no thanks!), mashed potatoes, refried beans with no cheese, jello, protein shakes, apple sauce. In addition, I could only eat 1/4 cups per meal - 3 - 4 times a day. This stage was better, but the next stage was "soft foods" which was much better. I could have foods that I could "puree" in my mouth by chewing. This continued for another two weeks which brings us to today. Now I can have pretty much anything (still 1/4 cup), with a few exceptions. No added sugars, no carbonated drinks, no alcohol.
I have a nutrition plan with my nutritionist, which I am doing my best to follow. As of my last "official" weigh day which was monday, I have lost 51 lbs, to bring me to 313 lbs! This is most evident to me in my face, Shoulders, Arms and hands. My pants do fit a bit looser too. Most important my A1C has dropped, I am no longer on diabetes medication! Also, my back pain has diminished significantly, I can now go shopping for much longer and my back does not hurt like it did before. I feel that I am sleeping better.
Last night I went to the gym at work for the first time in 3 years. I took it fairly easy but I did some stretches, squats and slow-motion burpees before riding stationary cycle for 30 minutes and 6.7 miles. It felt great to accomplish this, but it was very hard to get started. I felt very stiff and sluggish. I am looking forward to when this goes away.
That is it for now.
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