Robert Neff
Be sure to read my review of my Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Charles Grado at the bottom of this page and also in the IA section under Plastic Surgeons
04/14/03 384 (pounds @ surgery) (BMI = 52.1)
07/27/03 284 (Down 100 since surgery)
08/15/03 269 (Down 115 since surgery)
09/08/03 258 (Down 126 since surgery)
10/05/03 244 (Down 140 since surgery)
10/26/03 238 (Down 146 since surgery)
12/07/03 215 (Down 169 since surgery)
12/28/03 208 (Down 176 since surgery)
05/08/04 185 (Down 199 since surgery)
07/24/04 183 (Down 201 since surgery)
05/24-16 260 (Down 124 since surgery - Up 53 from my low)
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At the time of surgery, I'm a 49 y/o male with Diabetes and high blood pressure. Both are under control with oral meds. However, the weight isn't.
I have a wife of 29 years, and three kids .... ages 27, 18, and 17. My youngest is my daughter which we adopted from Korea.
Born and raised in Cedar Rapids Iowa, I now live 30 miles north in the boonies. I'm an Electronics Engineering Technician with Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Prior to this, I spent 8 years repairing banking equipment (like ATM machines and cash dispensers) for LeFebure. And before that, I spent 15 years doing organ, amp, and synthesizer repair. I'm a semi-professional musician and used to play keyboards in a six-piece dance band, doing the old Big Band stuff. I love certain types of jazz such as the works of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Ray Obeiedo. I also like jazz styles like the groups Foreplay and Weather Report.
Hobbies are computers, electronics, Ham radio, and photography.
I am sure that prayer changes things.
I've been heavy all my life, but really shot up over the last 10 years going from about 290 to 384. Eating habits are some of it, as is lack of exercise. But I also am frustrated by people who eat a lot more than I seem to, and still look like telephone poles! :-) My goal is back down around 210.
I've tried diets (Weight Watchers), shots, and pills the doc gave me. This surgery is my last effort to get the weight under control. I feel confident that once the surgery is over, I'll be able to focus on eating the right stuff, going walking and biking again, and have a healthier 2nd fifty years of my life.
This site has been a God-send. The e-mails of support and prayers since I joined has been overwhelming, and appreciated. I only wish I'd somehow known about the site sooner. It would have pushed me to do the surgery a few years ago when my PCP first mentioned it.
I love getting to know people and I'm a great listener. So if you feel the need, write!
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07/27/03
Well, it's been three months and thirteen days since my Open Distal RNY surgery. I thought it was about time to update this profile, especially since I hit a "mark" this morning. I don't get on the scale every day, but about three times a week. And believe me, it's a bummer to sometimes see a pound or two weight gain. But overall, it's been a wonderful journey.
That mark? According to the ole Health-O-Meter scale, I've lost 100 pounds as of this morning! Not too bad for a tad over three months.
Now it hasn't been all roses. I've had a couple of bad episodes of throwing-up. One lasted twelve hours! But I'm pretty convinced it was some stomach bug that was going around. My PCP however thinks that I might have had a small-bowel obstruction, which he says is common in people that have had any abdominal surgery. He also said that once you have one, you're likely to get another. So time will tell. If it happens again, I guess I'm in the hospital for a day or two with a tube through my nose and into my stomach. Yuk.
I also have an occasional case of the "foamy-heaves," as I call them. Haven't figured out why yet, and may never. Possibly ate too much, or food disagreed? Who knows. I hope they go away in 6-8 months as I've read.
Lots of foods still don't agree, and I tend to eat a lot of soups and refried beans ... mushy to soft foods. But occasionally, I do seem okay with more solid foods. However, meats, fish, and poultry are still issues.
Overall, I'm still happy about this. Soon I'll upload pics of the new me, now that I've reached that first 100 pound mark. It feels so good to get comments from people of how great I'm looking. I still have about 80 pounds to go, but I think I'll make it. The wife is also loosing weight with Weight Watchers (she wasn't anywhere near as big as me). We can both go for walks now down our gravel road, and I'm not huffing and puffing after 50 steps.
I just had a large blood workup this week. My PCP called and said everything looked really good, except the iron. Normal iron levels are between 40-200. Mine was 39. So I'll try an iron pill once a day. I've already been taking two multi-vitamins each day. But I guess the absence of red meats, plus the malabsorption makes a big difference. One plus, I've been taken off my blood-pressure medications, and I'm down to 1/2 of an Actos pill for my diabetes! I'm betting I get taken off that too in the next few months, as the blood sugars are way down now.
Oh, and if anyone is looking for a great-tasting protein bar and reading this, a friend of mine told me about Detour bars. A bit high in calories and carbs, but 30 grams of protein in one bar. And you'd almost swear you're eating a Snickers. Also a bit pricey (about $2.00/bar with shipping to Iowa.) But darn good! I eat one bar about every 2-3 days for lunch and dinner, or a snack.
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08/15/03
Just a couple of things. First, if you're a fan of Milky Way bars and want a high protein, fairly low calorie alternative, I've just tried U-Turn bars. They're made by the same folks that make Detour bars. And they're both yummy in my opionion. A great tasting way to get a good dose of protein. Do be careful about heat though. I order mine through the internet, and they come from somewhere in the Rocky Mountains to Iowa. In the summer heat, they tend to exhibit a separation of the GlycerLean, which causes a thick greasy-looking substance to form in the wrapper. It's nothing harmful. Just doesn't look too pretty. I simply scrape it off and toss it aside. The bars still taste great.
Since I've been having issues with vomiting every 4-5 days, my surgeon set me up with an Upper GI this week. I got to watch some of the procedure on the monitors. They taped a penny to my chest for comparison of the exit in the pouch. It sure looked to me like the exit was a lot smaller in diameter than the penny was. Even the tech came out and told me he'd seen quite a few of these done with WLS patients and that mine looked pretty small. But just my luck, the surgeon called the other day and said that everything looks exactly like it should .. pouch size, and exit size. So ... back to square one. Why the heck do I vomit for no apparent reason? I know for a fact it's not from too much food, or eating too fast. And the weird part is, a food that I can eat just fine one week, will make me puke the next. I was really hoping I just needed to be stretched a bit.
Oh well ... I'm only 4 months out. And I've heard that some people take 6-8 months to get over most of the complications. So I'm trying to be patient. If you happen to read this, and have gotten over the same type of problems, I'd love to hear from you.
Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy life.
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10/05/03
I've posted a question on the site that deals with Vomiting episodes. I'm 6 months post-op and unfortunately still having severe issues with vomiting episodes that last from 4-12 hours, every 4-5 days. If anyone has any info that might help me, I'd sure love to pass it along to my surgeon or family doctor.
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10/09/03
Had a second Upper GI yesterday to try to determine the reasons for the frequenct and rather severe vomiting episodes. Of the twenty or so people in my Support Group at the local hospital, I'm the only one having these problems. I got a call from the surgeon's office about mid-day. According to the doctor who did the Upper GI, it appears I have an ulcer that they feel could be the cause of the problem. I have my doubts, but what the heck. I'll try anything at this point. They put me on Protonix. YIKES! I normally pay $15.00 - $30.00 co-pay for drugs ... the higher amount being for brand-name drugs. A six week supply of these cost me a whopping $77.00, with my insurance picking up the other $188.00! I sure hope they work.
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10/26/03
Well it "seems that the ulcer pills might be working, or so I thought until last Friday. But it's hard to tell what happened. I was so happy that I hadn't thrown up for about two weeks. That's a first for me since about 2 months post-op. I'd gotten very used to hours upon hours of throwing up every 3-4 days for the last few months.
Then came last Friday. I decided to try "normal" food for a change. The place where I work has a great cafeteria. So I got an order of scrambled eggs, and two strips of crisp bacon. The eggs looked pretty greasy, so I patted them on both side with some napkins. Same for the bacon. I ate about 3 teaspoons of the eggs, and had 1/2 strip of bacon. About 15 minutes afterwards it felt like a rock in my gut. That was at about 9:30AM.
Come noon, I heated up some soup I'd brought with me (Campbells Chunky Potato Chicken Broccoli Cheese.) I have had it several times before ... always pureed. Now you know at 6 months post-op, I shouldn't have to puree stuff ... but I still do. It seems to go down easier and cause less upset. Anyway, 2 teaspoons of that and my stomach said "no more." Come 12:30 it was all I could do to hold things down. Come 1:30, I knew I had to leave work. I made it out to the car before I hurled lots of saliva. Again on the way home twice, and when I got home another two times. Always saliva, and not much else. Unlike other vomiting episodes, it only lasted about 2 hours total ... which I was happy about.
So ... am I having a relapse? Or was it the greasy foods for breakfast? Hard to say. But I do understand that greasy or fried foods are to be avoided after our surgery. So maybe it was my fault for trying the eggs and bacon. Anyway, the weekend has been uneventful and I'm going to keep nursing the ulcer with pureed foods that aren't greasy or fried and see how it goes.
One bad thing about not throwing up as much ... I'm on a plateau now. Or perhaps I should say that the weight loss is slowing down substantially. I'm not too worried as I know I was losing pretty quickly there for the first 5 months. No wonder since I wasn't eating much more than an ounce or two at every meal. A friend of mine who had surgery two weeks prior to mine can already eat a 6" Subway!
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12/15/03
Well, still having problems throwing up every few days, mostly
1-2 cups of saliva and very little food. Wish I could figure out why. I got referred to a gastroenterologist, and will have an endoscopy this next week. Hope they find the problem.
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12/27/03
Belated Seasons Greetings to anyone reading this. The result of my endoscopy was not what I had hoped for. I was counting on them finding the exit scarred over, or an ulcer. Neither was found. The exit is perfect, and no ulcers. What they did say is that I have Gastritis ... a fancy name for inflammation of the stomach lining. I'm on Carafate Suspension, a chalky but pleasant tasting liquid, four times a day. I've been on that about two weeks and I'm still throwing up every 3-4 days.
They also did a biospy and checked for the H-Pylorie. That was also negative.
I bought a food processor and turned a bit of turkey (about 3/4 cup) into sawdust. Added some gravy to that and it sure tasted good. But I spent the next four hours tossing it up on Christmas day.
I'm still happy about the weight loss, getting off the blood pressure pills. And my blood sugars are very low (for me) now ... averaging about 90. So I'm pretty sure I'll be off my Actos after the next blood workup. But I do worry about the continued throwing up and weight loss. I still have about 30 pounds to go to get to where the government charts say I should be for my height ... around 180. But what if I can't maintain that weight? My wife is very pleased with my looks right now, even though I still have a tummy that hangs down and seems to be the majority of where the excess weight is still hiding. After it is gone, I'm not sure what's going to happen.
I never dreamed I'd have so much problem holding foods down at this stage of the game. I could care less about meats and poultry, if that was the only issue. But there seems to be no rhyme or reason for what won't stay down. Foods that might stay down two or three times, will come up the next. I'm eight months post-op, and still needing to puree Campbells Chunky soup in order to eat it and keep it down. If it try to eat it out of the can as it is, it either sits very badly when it goes down, or comes back up a couple hours later.
Most of what comes up is the thick saliva. Very little food comes up, except this last time with the "sawdust turkey." No one can explain to me why this is. A week ago I was very thrilled to have eaten a taco (minus the lettuce) and it not only went down fine, but stayed down fine. But a few hours later when I ate a few tablespoons of soup, I spent the next three hours tossing up the soup and about 2 cups of saliva. So was it the taco, the soups, or what? I wish I could figure it out. I wish my surgeon or Gastro could figure it out.
I am noticing that almost every time I end up puking for an hour or more, I seem to have a "movement" the next day. That continues to make me wonder if I'm plugging up down below somehow and that's why things are backing up and then coming up. They have me on Miralax to help that issue. But there are days I don't take it as I should. I continue to "go" only about once every 3-4 days which my family physician says is not acceptable. I'm also on Zelnorm to help things down there.
So people keep asking me, "knowing what I know now, would I have still done it?" I might have given it a lot more thought, but I still think I would have. The puking is not an everyday problem, though it has caused me some issues having to leave work to come home. But I have a very understanding boss. I enjoy the new me, the "socially acceptable look" I now have. The energy, the stamina. The good looking clothes. So yes, I would have.
If anyone reading this has gone through the same issues with puking for no good reason, I would be appreciative to hear from you and how things are going for you now.
Happy New Year everyone! Robert
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12/30/03
New pictures below of my journey to date (down 176 pounds.) I've begun to slow down the weight loss quite a bit now. I was loosing about a pound every day or two since surgery. Now for the last three weeks I seem to be holding steady, or loosing only about a pound every week. For me it's a good thing because I had become worried that the weight loss wasn't slowing any for so long. I guess that's one worry I can eliminate. I would now like to bottom out at about 170 - 180 which isn't that far off. But it will take more effort now since the automatic weight loss has slowed considerably, and I'm throwing up a bit less .. now about once every two weeks ... for reasons still unknown. I'm eagerly awaiting Spring here in Iowa to where I can once again take my daily three-mile walk around our country roads. That should help speed the weight loss a bit again, and build more muscle. Until then, I'll continue to eat small but satisfying portions. My last endoscopy showed that my stomach is still only about 2 ounces in volume, so it hasn't stretched out much. Another good thing since I can't take in that much. Take care all.
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Hi all. Well it's been a few months so thought I'd do a little update. I'm nearing the -200 pounds mark, and pretty near what I never thought I'd ever get back down to ... 180. Wow, it's hard to believe. I got my drivers license renewed today and the lady did about four double-takes at me and my old picture ... then the listed weight of 325, which wasn't even my heaviest weight. She couldn't believe it was my photo, and seemed to not be able to stop complimenting me on how I looked now. Gee, maybe she was fishing for a date? Flattering anyway.
The episodes of throwing up seem to be getting less and less ... finally. I've gone from months of throwing up every 3-5 days, to once now every 3-4 weeks. What a relief. I still have to watch what I eat and pay attention to my tummy feedback, but it's nice to be getting to the point where most of my surgical friends have been for many months now. Just goes to show that people can be affected by the surgery in different ways. So don't think there's something necessarily wrong with you if everyone you know is feeling different than you are after surgery. It just may take your body more time.
Now that I'm nearing 180, I still see some fat around the tummy and thighs and think that it might not be so bad to go down to possibly 170, even though the charts say 180 is optimal. I figure if I feel good, don't worry about it.
May think about plastic surgery in another year. Hate those bat-wings on the upper arms and thighs. But then again, if the excess skin doesn't cause me any medical issues (rash and such), I may just live with it. I only did this to become a healthy person again, not to be a movie star.
There are still foods that don't agree. Although I do seem to have more options open to me now. I just did some mini-ravioli tonight with excellent results. Wow ... "real-people" food!
Taco's also seem to work which is nice. Haven't tried burgers yet, and may not for a while. I still can't do fried foods, but that's probably a plus. Diet pop is back in my diet and sure tastes good in place of water all the time. I do make sure I flatten it out or my tummy rebels real fast.
I suppose the best news to date is that I had a major blood workup done a couple months ago. My family doctor called me back and told me to stop taking the diabetes meds, as the glycolated hemoglobin count was way down and now well within normal range ... meaning the diabetes is gone. So no more oral meds for diabetes or high blood pressure. The only meds now are two multivitamins each day, one in the morning and one at night. Those also seem to be keeping my iron count in the pink. One vitamin a day was not enough to get me to even a minimum iron count, but two a day seems to be doing the trick.
Well that's it for now. Have a great summer everyone. I think I will. I'll be wearing shorts and a tee-shirt when I go walking this summer ... instead of my usual dress slacks and long sleeve shirt ... for the first time in almost 25 years.
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07/21/04 Hi all. Just a short update here. Just got out of the hospital after an ambulance ride four days ago, and then two days in ICU and two in recovery.
I took an ambulance ride to Mercy Hospital Wed around 6 PM after coming home from work very light headed. Had a large bout of very black diarehea. Went to lay down on the bed. Got up to use the bathroom again, and found myself staring at the bedroom carpet with a bump on my head from our excerize machine ... and not knowing how I got there. Turns out I passed out when getting up from the bed to use the bathroom again. Wife got me to the bathroom, and I had another large movement of very black liquid. Got back to bed. Now, my fingers and hands were totally numb, my face was numb, and I couldn't form words. Wife called 911.
Got to Mercy's ER. Had all kinds of people working on me. Had to use the "boys room" again. They left the room to give me a bit of privacy, not knowing I guess how bad things were. Next thing I knew ... I was on the hard floor of the ER with about five people trying to see if I could hear them.
Got two IV's in me in a rush. One was replacement blood. Shoved an NG tube down me. That was fun ... I gagged for about ten minutes utnil they sprayed my throat with something that helped a bit. Rushed me into the Endoscopy room about an hour later ... (got the NG tube pulled out .. thank you doctor) where a Dr. Weinman did the procedure and found a badly bleeding ulcer right where the pouch has the small intestine sewed to it. He cauterized it.
I spent 1 1/2 days in ICU where I got three pints of blood and other liquids, then down to 4th floor. I came home late Sat afternoon. My arms and hands have needle marks like you wouldn't believe. Blood drawn every 4 hours since I got there. They've put me on Protonix and Carafate. Protonix is $225.00 for 60 pills and I'm supposed to take 180 of them!! Dr. Keating saw me a couple times. Says that this type of ulcer is not uncommon for us patients and usually happens right where mine is ... where the pouch is sewn to the small intestine. If it doesn't clear up, we'll have to talk about going back in and possibly taking the bypass down. Time will tell.
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03/16/05 Had a check up with Dr. Weinman who took care of my bleeding ulcer last year. He stated (again) to me that he was very concerned about it's severity. I told him I'm taking the Prilosec OTC EVERY day like I'm supposed to, staying away from Aspirin, Motrin, Advil, caffeine pop, etc. He said my color looked good, as did my eyes, and he doesn't see a reason to scope me as it would appear that the ulcer hasn't come back. I hope to God it never does, as I never saw it coming the first time.
Today I had a consult with Dr Grado who is a Plastic Surgeon in Cedar Rapids. Seems I'm a "good candidate" for an abdominoplasty. Good to hear as I really hate that fat-skin deposit that no amount of excerise can ever get rid of at my age. I've got the typical bat-wings and bat-thighs. But those don't bother me as much as the hangy-down tummy. Now we'll see if my insurance company will help out. As of late last year, the word in town is that insurance companies have clamped way down on the number of bariatric and plastic surgeries they want to pay for. Must be hell to tell your stock holders that you've only had a profit of $50 million dollars this year instead of $75 million. Oh well, health-care in the US huh?
I've gone up a few pounds over the winter. I'm still not eating as well as most other people I know in the area, and after two years, still have to puree some chunky soups and can't usually do things like tuna, chicken and such. And there are the occasional bad days where something that worked last week doesn't this week, and comes back up after an hour or two. But it's a small price to pay for the weight loss and health gain. And the few extra pounds should come back off as the weather outside warms up enough that I can start walking the country roads again. Have a great summer!
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05/27/05 The tummy tuck has been approved. I've been saving money for the deductible, about $2400 in my case. The thought of being able to lose this saggy tummy is wonderful.
But as fate would have it, the tuck may have to wait for a year. A few weeks ago, we had a large oak tree brought down on our property. To save a lot of money, I decided that I would saw it up, split it up, and stack it all myself. No biggie, I've done such work many times before. But I guess at my age, one "might" have to think twice before doing such work.
A week after all this work, I began to have sharp pain in my lower neck. A pinched nerve I figured. I tried some IcyHot which didn't help. Of course, X-tra Strength Tylenol didn't work either. A couple days later, the pain began to creep down between my shoulder blades. It was bad enough so that I couldn't lay on my sides, and I was not able to sleep more than a few minutes at a time on my back.
A trip to the ER one morning at 4AM got me a shot of Ibuprofen, and the advice to consult with a Chiropractor. I found a Chiropractor who took X-ray's and showed me that my spine was curved the wrong direction in my neck. He began gentle manipulations for a week. But even he wondered why I wasn't getting better yet.
The pain was now radiating to my left shoulder, and soon my left forearm. I began to lose the ability to lift anything with my left arm. The pain was everything from dull aches, to burning, to stabbing. After two more days went by, I went to my family doctor. He ordered an MRI.
I should have seen him much sooner. The MRI clearly showed that I had ruptured the disc in my neck between C4 & C5. The rupture was pressing tightly against the nerve bundles that control the left shoulder, and forearm. Surgery was needed NOW!
I went in the next day, which was last Wed. The surgery was called a Cervical Fusion. The ruptured disc was removed, and donated bone was put in it's place. Titanium plates and screws were used to fasten the vertebrae above and below the disc together. It will take about 6 months to a year for the graft to fuse as one. I'll lose about 10% - 15% of my neck's ability to move around as it has in the past.
The pain is mostly gone now. The scar site swelling is going down. Only a few stabs of pain are felt in my left shoulder now. The left arm may take up to a year to get it's strength back. These problems were due to the nerve damage from the ruptured material pressing and chaffing against them. Those nerves have to heal. But at least I'm sleeping again.
The tuck? Well, the Cervical Fusion sucked in my deductible I had saved up for the tuck. So I'll probably have to wait until next year and hope the insurance company will grant it again.
Peace and love to all.
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07/12/05
Talked to my insurance company two weeks ago. Luckily(?) due to the Cervical Fusion last month, I've met all my "out-of-pocket" expenses for the year. So ... the tummy tuck will be all paid for now. No reason to wait. I see Dr. Grado this afternoon for another consult (been several months), and then it will be scheduled for sometime in late August.
I was actually told by the insurance company that I might as well get everything done this year that I had ever planned in the way of elective surgeries, since I won't be paying any more out of pocket. So ... Thursday is "V" day. Yeah, time to keep those healthy swimmers from roaming free! Besides as my wife would say, "I was only good for shooting boys." Anyone know a good brand of frozen peas? :-)
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08/30/05 - 09/08/05
Had the abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) on Aug 30th in Cedar Rapids at St. Lukes Surgical Center. Things went well, although I did have problems coming out of the anethesia. And then every time I got up to use the bathroom, I would drip quite a bit of blood down my legs and on the floor. They said nothing to worry about. Surgery took 1 1/2 hours and I went home about 8 hours after I got there. The surgeon had wanted to do more for me, but insurance would only pay for the medically necessary part of it all. He and I both knew this going in.
It's now Sept 8th. I saw the surgeon's nurse two days ago. She took off the dressings and took out 1/2 of the staples. Have to tell ya, a few of those hurt like hell when they got removed. The incision line looked a bit more red than they'd like to see it, so they put me on antibiotics just in case. The surgeon takes pictures of the surgery which I'm waiting to see.
I go back in another 6 days to get the rest of the staples taken out and "hopefully" the tubes and resevoir. But that depends on the daily fluid collection. It has to be down to a certain level before the tubes come out. That's all very frustrating as the two tubes come into a resevoir the size of a canteen ... which will be near impossible to hide under clothes when I go back to work the day after the next appointment.
All in all, I think I'll be happy with the result. Although right now with all the swelling and bruising, it's hard to tell how it's going to look any better than it did.
To be honest, the tummy tuck has been much more painful that the full-open incision of the gastric bypass was. I suppose that's because that incision was only about 6-7", and this one was clear around my waist from one side to the other.
I have to commend Dr. Charles Grado of Cedar Rapids for a professionalism I've never seen before. He "personally" called me from his home the night of the surgery, just to ask how I was doing.
About four weeks after my surgery, I had a small problem come up with the drainage resevoir not wanting to hold suction. I tracked the problem down to one of the drains where it went into me. I knew Dr. Grado was out of town, and it was about 10PM on a weekend night. So I called his office and left a message, knowing it would be forwarded to another surgeon. Within five minutes of hanging up the phone, I got a call from a familiar voice. Dr. Grado was calling me back ... on his cell phone ... from Chicago!
In my 52 years of life on this world, I've never had a doctor do this ... twice! That is, call me personally I'm just old enough to remember when a few doctors still made house calls. Well Dr. Grado isn't that old, but apparently he cares enough about his patients to do his best to stay in touch personally when it's warranted.
Besides his caring, his mannorism is refreshing. He's just a "normal guy" ... and talks to you like one. Only you know from the diploma's on the wall, that he's been through the necessary training to do his job. And he's got a great sense of humor. Well ... what else can I say. I give him two thumbs and two big toes way up! My wife has also met him and feels exactly the same.
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05/24/16
Wow ... hard to believe it's been 11 years since I've been back here. In that time I've gone through a lot of changes, including a divorce and a new marriage.
I don't have a lot of time, but one thing I wanted to do is to let people know if they want to get in touch with me, I have a new email address which I'm trying to figure out how to get changed on here. But in the meatime, you can reach me at [email protected].
I wish I could say I'm still down around 207, but since my last update on here, I'm now back up to 260. Not as bad as the 384 I started with. But still, not where I'd hoped to be this many years after the surgery.
After the divorce, I stopped walking 3 miles a night. That's a big part of it. I also found over the years that even though there are still foods I simply can't tolerate, I can now eat 'regular' things like a cheeseburger or even a BigMac when I'm in the mood. I know that eating full size foods hasn't helped any. I'm sure I've stretched out my stomach some.
But considering I lost 100 pounds in a little over 3 months way back when, it's a blessing in a way to be able to eat more normally. Back in 2005, my surgeon was thinking he might have to go back in and reverse my plumbing because I was loosing too fast and not able to hold much down.
All in all, I'm still glad I went through the surgery. And I still don't have the diabetes I had, so of course that's a good thing.
I recently bought a Bowflex MAX and am hoping to start getting back down to my 190 goal. We'll see how that goes. I've never had good will power. I'm just hopng it doesn't turn into a clothes rack.
Anyway, that's it for now.
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04/29/21
Haven't been on this page for a LONG time. For anyone reading through this long blog, the Bowflex got sold. I'm now 67 and it just seemed too hard to use. I went through a second divorce I didn't want in 2018. and my weight is at 275. I'm still down from my max on the day of surgery. but I'm upset with myself for letting this much weight go back on. I saw a photo of myself at work from 2004 this morning. I haven't been that happy with my looks since then. And I guess that's what brought me back here.
I eat from stress and boredom. And I eat the wrong kinds of things. My downfalls are salty snacks meaning carbs, and chocolate. That's been the story of my life. I'm still hopeful of dropping some weight. I had Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion surgery in Jan 2021 and since then have dropped 20 pounds, so maybe I can keep that going. I haven't been able to handle eating steak since my surgery, so I eat a lot of seafood which isn't a bad thing ... except I like mine breaded.
The main thing if you go through this weight loss surgery ... don't let bad eating habits creep back into your life. They will if you don't put your guard up. I started drinking pop years back when I knew I shouldn't. The bubbles help stretch your new stomach. And that in turn allows you to start eating more. And it goes like that. Before you know it, the pounds are going back on. I've thought about revisional surgery, but I don't know if my insurance would pay for it. And if I did it, could I stop my bad habits ... at my age? I'm not sure.
I still occasionally eat something that doesn't work, and then spend hours throwing it back up like I used to after I'd first had the surgery. But I've realized that it seems to have something to do with getting plugged up down below. And once I stop throwing up, I hear a lot of intestinal noise. The next day I usually have a trip to the bathroom. So maybe I should be taking Miralax or a fiber supplment everyday?
The diabetes came back when I put on the extra pounds, but it's still under control with oral meds. I have some arthritis in my knees so I have a hard time walking as much as I'd like to. I wouldn't doubt that the excess weight all my years has played a part in that. But some of the issue is genetics too.
Anyway ... Best wishes & stay strong !
About Me
Before & After
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