Dixon
I'm a 37 year old male. My weight gain began slowly at 18. I was 310 at 24 and went back to finish my degree and lost all the weight. After just a few months my improved social life had me going out a lot more which led to bad habits and the weight started slowly coming back. It took me a couple of years to get back up to 300 and I stayed around there for a long time. I own a construction company and worked on the job all day long which help burn most the calories I ate. I really wasn't uncomfortable at that weight, I'm tall and muscularly built, 220 is about where I need to be.
Once I stopped working on the job daily and taking more of a management role the weight started piling on. My job is stressful and I have a secondary interest that deals with investing in highly speculative markets which just adds to the stress. Eating is how I deal with the stress. I don't eat poorly; I don't eat sugar, I watch my carbs, I don't eat fast food. But I would go to a buffet almost every day and eat until I couldn't eat any more. I'd usually only eat once a day, additionally hurting how my body dealt with the calories.
A few years ago I had a physical and it was the first time I had been weighed in some time. I wasn't surprised that I was 350. I was almost hoping that the doctor would give me some dire news that would motivate me to get healthy. As always I was disgustingly healthy. The doctor talked to me about losing weight, and while I knew I needed to I just couldn't find the motivation.
From there my eating got worse. On top of my normal mid day gorging, I started eating late at night.
My knees started hurting and I was having some trouble getting up and down stairs and I knew I had to do something before I was one of those guys on Big Medicine. I was also planning to start traveling. I've worked hard my entire life and always planned to semi-retire early and spend a couple of years traveling the world. You can't do that fat, or at least I can't. Planes are pure hell as it is, let alone when you're super obese. I certainly didn't want to be the stereotypical fat American lumbering around looking foolish. More than anything I felt like a ticking time bomb and I had to stop that countdown. At best I had 20 years left and I just couldn't accept that.
I bought a scale to find out how bad it was. I was shocked to see I was 450. I thought maybe 400. It was then that I knew I had to do something and do it soon.
I had always kept the threat of gastric bypass over my head to get me to lose weight knowing I could most likely never go through with the surgery. The idea of rearranging my insides and all the stories I read of complications scared me especially since I'm self pay. I had recently heard about the lap band and thought that would be perfect for me. So I started researching and read everything I could find. I was a bit bothered by some of the complications, but more concerned that the nearest fill center was 2 hours away. As I researched I came across vsg, but immediately discounted it because it was so new. I waited 15 years to get my eyesight fixed just to be sure about the long term effects. But I kept seeing doctors and nurses who had the procedure and I did like that it was a one time deal rather than a fairly long term and sometimes involved effort to keep the lapband working correctly. So I started reading and quickly came to this forum. Over a week I read back hundreds of pages. I did searches on every doctor. I doubt there is any info out there that I didn't read. After a week I was sold on the procedure.
Everyone spoke so highly of Dr Alverez, he quickly went to top of my list. I was, of course, very leery about surgery in Mexico. While I would rather have the procedure done in the states, you just can't beat Dr Alverez's experience. Why should I pay more for someone who has done a few procedures when I can have someone who has done hundreds? A few days later I scheduled my appointment and started my liquid diet. The liquid diet was tough, but I was eager to get started losing weight.
The experience in Mexico was a good one. While the facilities were older, they were very clean. Most the nurses didn't speak English, but it didn't create any problems. My only complaint is that almost all the tv stations were in Spanish and the two that were in English keep repeating the same two shows. One channel repeated two episode of Larry King, one with Sting and another with Paul McCartney. Both good, but not more than twice. The other channel repeated two shows hosted by people I can't stand, but their names escape me.
I recovered quickly from surgery. Really no discomfort. No vomiting. The worst part was not being able to take in any water that first day. After a while of dealing with a dry and gummy mouth I figured I could at least brush my teeth if I didn't swallow. That worked great. I must have brushed my teeth every hour. The second night was hell. Not because of any pain, I was just bored out of my mind and couldn't sleep. I didn't sleep at all. They finally discharged me about 8AM. I could have stayed in Eagle's Pass for the day, but I was feeling good and decided to start the drive back. I drove about 7 hours spent the night in a hotel and finished the drive the next day and I was back at work to following day.
I was a bit tired that first week or two, but not bad. Just slept a few extra hours. I've felt a bit lethargic at times, sometimes a bit out of it, but who knows if that is the surgery or not.
As I write this I'm 12 weeks out from the surgery and including my 2 week liquid diet I've lost 107 pounds. I find that astounding. Lately I've had a few flat spots where my weight stays the same for a day or two, but mostly it just seems to fall off. I've not started exercising although I intent to start that soon. I have been very strict about my diet eating between 500 and 900 calories a day. I eat deli turkey and cheese twice a day. Once a day I'll eat some sort of fish or an omelet. I don't really snack much, maybe some cheese or jerky if I get the urge. I really don't eat on a schedule either. I'm never hungry when I get up so I'll usually eat something a few hours later and again every 3 or 4 hours.
Hopefully in the next 6 to 7 months I can get the most of the weight off. I'm hoping I won't need plastic surgery, but I can' t imagine losing that much weight and not needing it. I'm really dreading that part of this journey.
Hopefully my story will be helpful to those considering the surgery. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
