I started at 126.2kg and today am 83.2kg (currently sitting at 43kg lost) , These days I can eat any type of food I like, although generally not much of it. I can even drink soft drinks (although it takes a long time and I really have gone off them).

I have before and after photos, without shirt but decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to post them here as I think people really don’t want to see it.

The other day I was watching the new ads that were telling me to have a waist less than 102cm. I’m currently 81cm so I finally am average. If I lost another 7 kgs, I would be ‘normal’

Just thought people would like to know :-)

Also, I always assumed that seeing your life partner in a group of people was always easy. This was some inate ability than when someone was so important to you that you had them imprinted on your head in such a way that you could always recognise them.

Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. Often now I’ll be looking for Libby in a shop or similar and will often look right past her. As it turns out, I think I was always able to see her just because of her size. Now however, after losing heaps of weight, I have to look more carefully for her. It still seems strange when I see photos of us together that we are not huge. I can also now not only put my arms around her and touch on the other side, I can touch my elbows on the other side. We have lost about 80kg between us and I think the key words are ‘between us’.

Life is good.

I’ve now lost 32kg and am going on with life with all the benefits of the vsg but there is really nothing that requires thought anymore. I just eat till I can’t eat any more (well, 99% of the time I know how much to get so I don’t feel so full i’m sick)  and then go back to doing something else.

I’ts the easiest way to lose weight and its really just part of my life now. So, basically, unless someone asks, I don’t think about it. This will probably be the last post on the subject.

Please don’t mis-understand me to think that its not important. Its probably the best thing I have done for my health ever and I would do it again without question. Its just like any illness you may have. Once its fixed, you tend to go on with life and not dwell on it much longer.

I’m also very glad I saw Dr Talbot. From what I have read about other experiences people have shared on weight loss surgery forums, he’s by far the best at getting in and out with no pain or complications. If anyone is considering similar surgery, you really should see Dr Talbot.

Anyway, theres no operation site pain at all, and only occasional nausea after food so it’s definately getting better.

I probably should, but havent yet, order a new set of work clothes in a smaller size but I’ll just cope with these for a while longer. I was told today that my work shirts are too baggy. This is strange as I couldn’t do these up when I started. I also don’t feel any different after losing the 18kgs and thought I would. Maybe its the lack of protein in my diet (its hard to get 30+ grams per day) or the lack of water (I should be drinking 1.5l per day but am only getting about 500ml)

Anyway, onwards we go and hopefully I’ll be better at eating the right stuff. I’m still able to resist bad foods so it’s helped my will power so far.

In hospital, I had some fruit juice and cordial and thought that was ok to have. Aparently not. He proceeded to tell me that I can only have no calorie liquide from now on.

Since then, I have accellerated weight loss even more (its not that hard apart from breakfast where I habbitually have an up’n’go drink).

So, Now im at 108.8kg, and still seem to be losing at a decent rate. The lowest I’ve been in 20 years is 105 so it should be nice to be lower than that.

The ‘vomiting’ period last week (twice) has gone away so I think I’m back to normal now.

My miracle recovery is now less than perfect. I was yet to vomit at all post hospital but the other day (while on the snowy ride ). I was really unsure as to weather or not to do it but decided to anyway. It was at a restaurant on the saturday night when I had an issue. I had a little bit of chicken, some red wine, about 4 chips and some pumpkin and it was either the wrong food or too much because one bite I was feeling fine, the next really needing to vomit. I sat there for a while and decided I needed to get rid of this feeling. I went to the toiler to see if I could throw up and on seeing the state of the toilets, it was no longer an if.

Then again this morning, I had a sip of ginger beer (I love ginger beer) that I had let go flat overnight. I hadn’t had anything at all so far today (apart from vitamins and Nexian) and it all came back up. I’ve done this before with no problems (only at night though) so its a little strange.

I hope this doesn’t start a new trend.

Anyway, I’ve now lost 15.7kg and am finding it quite easy to live with (unless I eat the wrong stuff)

I have an appointment for wednesday afternoon with the surgeon and will ask about the vomiting. He will probably just tell me its too soon and to slow down a bit.

I am also starting to not feel hungry (some people are a little slow, like me) so thats a good sign. Aparently the ghrelin can take a while to get out of your system.

A meal consists of a piece of bread with something on it, or a glass of skim milk (which I actually like now) or anything similar size.

It takes me about 30 mins to have a piece of toast or half a sandwich. Twice now I’ve been stuck at shopping centres and needed to eat. Its very strange to only get something really tiny and not be able to finish it. Its even stranger to be satisfied with that.

Anyway, I’ve now lost 14.3kg and am still going. The only trouble I have is trying to get enough water to drink. I think I’m dehydrated most of the time.

So, in summary, its been a very good choice and I’m happy. Now, if Libby gets through hers as well, we will be happy and thinner together :-)

Its now almost 12 days since surgery.

Everything I read said you can move on once you tolerate food so I’ve
been ‘testing’ things as I go. I’m now on ‘normal’ food and as my job
involves a lot of lunch meetings etc, I’ve eaten out a number of times.

Theres one place we go to quite a bit and i just ask for an egg on
toast and normally finish about 80% of it. I ate too much a few times
and it just hurts and then I tend to get the hiccups.

I can easily drink a 250ml up’n'go for breakfast so I’m guessing the
VSG turned out to be that big but when I eat solid food, it seems much
smaller. Maybe my pyloric sphincter muscle is lazy and letting liquids
through too easily.

I also get distinct head hunger and can defiately still feel stomach
hunger as well. When I was in a shooping centre on thursday night, I
was really starving. I looked for decent food and the best i could
find was a chinese takeaway. I had a $8 plate, only put a few things
on it (much to the amusement of the woman behind the counter as
everyone else piles them really high) and only ate about half of that
(probably about 1/2 cup of food) before I was really full.

I still don’t seem able to space drinking/eating 30 mins apart so that
seems to severly limit how much food I can get in.

I’m also going away for a weekend next weekend (on the snowy
motorcycle ride) so that involves many hours of riding and eating what
we can find. Ill take some optifast shakes and protein bars but i
think i should be able to work it out easily. The only issue is if we
all stop for lunch, I take about 30-40 mins to eat what I get so if
others are in a hurry, ill probably end up just having liquid meals.
Maybe I should take some up’n'go’s or get some of the service station
sustagen drinks etc.

Anyway, I’m doing quite well i think. I haven’t had salad yet (or
untoasted bread) but only because I haven’t wanted it yet.

So in summary, I had a good optifast trip (although I complained at
the time), really good surgery and a quick recovery onto normal foods.
I can’t imagine anything going better really.

I gave in one night and had some chocolate (haloween night) but after
a brief depression about how weak I am, I think i’m over it and
haven’t done anything like that again.

I do get a little pain if i eat too much in
a single swallow. The operation pain is mostly gone. There is only a
little pain at the wound sites but they are healing really well and
being male, once the hair grows back in you won’t be able to see them :-)

Bending over isn’t a problem for me, strangely enough, it was a
problem before but i’ve lost 14kgs now (in a month) and its easier to
bend over.

Today I was out again and went to a service station, got a sandwich
and thought I would be able to eat it all (I also got a drink but was
going to wait 30 mins after eating to have some). Anyway, my first
time on untoasted bread worked fine and I ate 1/2 the sandwich and was
quite satisfied. If someone had told me that weeks ago theres no way i
could believe it. I’ve just had a small apple now for an afternoon
snack (it took about 45 mins to eat) and I’m full again.

Now the only stumbling block is salad and I might try one tonight. Its
only hard to make food when there such little quantities. I also
haven’t had enough protein or my liquid vitamin today so thats all
gotta happen too. maybe a salad will have to wait till tomorrow.

I do seem to get the ‘I need to burp’ feeling while eating all the time. You know the feeling
when you feel a little bloated and then it up or move and you get the
gurgling feeling, thats what I get when eating and for a while after.
I guess when my stomach was larger it would just accumulate until
later but now it seems to just want to burp up.

I guess its better than vomiting though. the only vomits I’ve had were
2 I had in hospital (1 on day 1 and 1 on day 2) and nothing came up. I
was very worried a the time about tearing staples but have since
learnt that the staples are pretty hard to damage. The staple gun they
use puts 3 rows on each site. Dr T said it costs about $350 per time
they fire the stapler. On the video I saw, they fired it 5 times !

I’m feeling fine now. I just have trouble getting enough water and am
trying to not eat from habbit.

sometimes I’m not entirely sure anything was changed like when I
forget what I’m doing and drink 200 or so mls of water in one go
without noticing.

Othertimes, I try to eat a little childrens custard container (140ml)
and can only at about 100mls worth before it gets painful

All the sensations like, hungry, full, needing to burp, about to throw
up are all different and take re-learning. The ‘about to throw up’ I
learnt fairly quickly though as when you try the ‘I wonder what that
means’ approach, it gets a little messy.

I was in the OR on monday afternoon (about 1pm) although I was ready
at 8am and on Thursday when I came home, I was a little tired. I
decided to go to work on Friday (only 3.5 days after operation) and
was planning to come home early. Anyway, as it turns out I spent over
10 hours at work (sooo much to be done) and we also went to the
basketball at night (we have season tickets).

I found the Hospital staff fantastic and had just the right amount of
support vs letting you do things yourself.

On tuesday morning, to get out of ed for a walk, I needed them to help
me get dressed (well, tie the gown up anyway). but after that, they
were happy to let me walk around by myself.

This morning, I had a skim milk chai tea (about 200ml) for lunch there
was some ‘stuffed eggs’ and I had 2 halves and some small amount of
potato, then this afternoon I had some blueberry yoghurt. Now im
drinking about 100ml of water with the syprodyn multivitamin in it
that I was told to have every day. For dinner, Libby is planning on
chinese (its her last meal before optifast) and < ?xml:namespace prefix =”" st1 ns =”" “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Ill get a short soup,
blend it up, and it should last 2 or 3 meals.

Last night we had a party and I had water and some skim milk but then
the real foor turned up (fried chicken, pizza etc).

I got 2 chicken nuggets, placed them in the blender with a little
sweet chilla sauce and about 2tbsp skim milk and pressed go. It looked
terrible but tasted great :) Most of the people at the party were
interested in the surgery and the strange way I had to eat.

I downloaded a youtube VSG video from youtube, converted it for my
nokia phone, and can show it on demand when people ask about it. It
answers lots of questions (and also gets conversations going).

I wish I could understand these feelings, I’m finding it strange not
being able to tell between full, hungry, operation pain and just ‘im
bored, lets eat’

Still, even with the fried chicken I had, In such small amounts I
can’t see maintaining my weight (and im still losing about .8kg/day)

I even had a small piece (really small) of chocolate today and It
tasted really strange. Not really enjoyable at all. Maybe (I hope) I
will be not wanting bad stuff much more. The vsg makes it easier but I
find I still need willpower. Lets hope I can find some.

So far its been

• Surgeon $4000 (deposit only, the don’t know the full amount before surgery in case something happens)
• Anethesist $500 deposit (same reason as above)
• Hospital $500 (excess for the health fund) other than that, the hospital should be covered by the private health insurance
• Pathology $311.30
• Surgeon pre op visit 1 $150
• Surgeon pre op visit 2 $80

I don’t yet know what medicare will cover but I’ve been told its very little. The health fund will probably match what medicare pays aparently but I will find out soon.

So, Total so far is $5543.30

I’m just waiting for all the final bills to come in so I can go and visit the medicare office and upset the people in line behind me.

Theres still some pain occasionally. It comes and goes in waves.

I have had some skim milk with protein power today but really don’t know the difference between hunger, thirst, fullness or operation pain. It seems that you just have to re-learn what everything feels like all over again.

Things I would have done different.

1. During optifast, had more water
2. Day before operation, had lots (really lots) of water. From midnight I couldn’t have anything and was very thirsty.
3. Pressed my pethadine button more in the first 24 hours
4. Asked for a private room (the person next to me was a grumpy guy) and between his and my IV machines (2 each) running out or needing attention, plus the 2 hour observations, I was woken every hour or so.

Other than that, I’m now down to 115kg and feel better every day. With the amount I can eat, I can’t see being able to not lose weight.

Im now sitting in the chair next to my bed typing and going through some work emails.

Its really strange that the 5 stab wounds (ecach about 3–5cm long) don’t hurt at all. Its only the internal pain thats an issue. Its sort of like really really bad indigestion.

Anyway, I didn’t go throuh the ‘what have I done’ phase so its not so bad.

Libby and her parents came to visit but I was still high on pethadine and ended up sleeping through most of their visit. Later Libby and the kids came up and I was more awake then although the pain had startd to come back.

Night time sucks becuse they still wake you up every 2 hours for obs and the beds are not comfortable. The drip is also annoying as you are always not wanting to roll over and pull something out. The pain had mostly gone but occasionally It would come back in short waves. You would have no pain, then 10 seconds later it would hurt lots, then 10 seconds later it would go back to nothing. This lasted until about 8am when I got up for more walks with the phisio and had a shower.

I had to answer about 100 questions about history etc, get wrist and ankle bands, get changed into the backless gown and then wait some more. Eventially they allocated me a bed and we were moved to another room (Libby was with me the whole time)

We spent about 2 hours in there before I was told I was being called in so Libby left and I wen’t to the next waiting room. This one was the room actually outside the theatres. Theres 12 Theatres here so it was a little busy. Each one had a waiting bay and I was infor number 7. I had a canula inserted here.

On being wheeled into the theatre, I moved onto the table and had 2 large pillows put under my back which was very uncomfortable. I was about to say something and thats the last thing I remember.

On waking up, I was in quite a bit of pain and not really ‘with it’ yet. I had a tube pulled out of my nose (by the anethesist, although I couln’t tell at the time) and was repeadly told to push my buttin (the PCA machine with pethadine). I pushed what I could but Its like everyone is speaking another language and youre totally unable to understand whats going on.

I don’t remember getting to the ward but Libby was there when I woke up properly. I say properly but it really wasn’t until the next morning when I was really awake.

I was out of surgery at about 3pm.

On one of the online forums, one patient that had the procedure last friday has just posted her story and it doesn’t sound that exciting. Lots of pain, worry and frustration. I’m guessing everyone goes through the ‘what have I done’ phase but everyone I have spoken to after this still says its worth it.

I guess we will see next week.

Heres whats going with me

1 Corinthians 2:9-”Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

Nahum 1:9- “Affliction shall not rise up the second time.”

When we all ascend to heaven, we will be restored and will get all our bits back. This may very well be lovely when you are missing an arm or a leg but I’m having part of my stomach removed so that I’m able to lose weight and have a better, more fulfilling and able life.

When I get to heaven, It will be restored and will start getting fat all over again. Bugger.

LUKE 12:10, “And everyone that says a word against the Son of Man, that will be forgiven; But he that blasphemes against The Holy Spirit will not be forgiven”

So that gives me an out right here. “God Sucks Bottom!”. There, I’ve said it and it’s unforgivable so at least I should be able to stay a better size in hell. I wonder if Satan ever wants to restore bits. Maybe I should have read about that first. Does anyone have a copy of the Satan gospel for me to read ? It can’t be worse than the bible. At least Satan doesn’t ask people to kill their children, bring plagues upon whole populations or drown everyone including men, women, children, babies and animals merely because people didn’t pander to him enough.

The operation does 2 things. Firstly it reduces the stomach size to that of a banana (100–150ml). Secondly, it changes the hormones associated with eating, being hungry and being satiated. This 2 weeks (ok, 1 week and 3 days so far) really sucks and if there were no end in sight I can’t imagine I would be able to continue. I’m really not that strong and have very little will power.

That said, there are some apparent downsides to the operation. Heres what I can think of.

• With a stomach size of 100–150ml and a can of coke being 375ml compressed it will never be able to work again.
• You cannot drink within 30 mins of eating or all the liquid will back up behind the food and fill you up even faster.
• Lunch will consist of 1/2 a sandwich, not the usual 2 that I may be eating now.
• Business lunches (which I have quite a few of) will consist of a small part of an entree and thats it. For the Americans reading this, entree in Australia has the original meaning of small starting meal, not what you seem to call it.

Now, this sounds bad I admit however

• What I ate before is obviously too much (even though it didn’t seem like it)
• After discussing this with a number of people post-op, they tell me that it too freaked them out but they consider that normal now and are always happy after eating.
• Not a single person (repeat, NOT ONE) of the people I’ve discussed this procedure with who have had it done, even people who have had quite severe complications, regret getting it done. 95% seem to say its the best thing they have ever done and 5% said it didn’t solve the problem but its helped.

The only downside I really am concerned about at this stage is with eating so little, its very important to be able to get enough protein to sustain yourself. This can be achieved with some of the protein drinks that are out there or just being careful enough to make sure you have meat, soy etc at least once per day. I don’t this is really too much to deal with for being able to live longer.

If I just stay on this pre-op diet (as suggested) I could probably live for a very long time its just that doing this would make you want to die.

This reminds me of the old statistic that says that married men typically live 3 years longer than single men. The reason its funny is that married men are normally more willing to die. :-)

I’m booked in, paid for and am only now waiting on a theatre time for the 22^nd October. Aparently it’s a morning ‘list’ that Dr Talbot has so it should be (according to his office admin) either a 6am or 7am arrival.

The only issue is that I’m on liquids for the next week, then clear liquids the week after (but at least its after surgery). AFter that you get 2 weeks of ‘mushies’ which seems to be anything you can get through a straw. After that, its back to normal with far less hormones to make you hungry and a stomach the size (and shape) of a banana.

People report being able to eat almost everything the like but the main thing is they don’t want to. Thats what I’m looking for.

Anyway, a week to go and It’ll be almost over :-)

I’ve lost 5.8kgs so far although I’m still tired. The first few days was like I was constantly drunk. I had headaches and tiredness.

Once you reach about day 4, its ok. You seem to (although I don’t have the equipment to tell) go into ketosis and slowly get back to almost normal. Believe it or not, I’m having trouble eating enough of the stuff to make the 600–800cal per day. I know people don’t really care about this but its being recorded here because I have no where else to write it and somebody, somewhere may care  :-)

Anyway, I just worked out I’ve been on 533 cal/day and thats not really enough. Ill investigate some other things im allowed to have so ill make between 600–800 that im supposed to have.

This is not a good way to survive.

At least theres only 11 days to go.

It’s all downhill from here (hopefully)

The diet is basically 3 optifast ‘things’ per day. They have milkshakes, deserts, soups and bars (like museli bars).

1. Being harassed by people for being too fat
2. Being too fat.

So… I’ve decided to have a VSG. I saw the doctor (Dr Talbot) on August 8th 2007.

He pretty much told me that the Band and Bypass, while suitable and would work, would be inferior to the VSG. Apparently he has done about 100 VSGs and has had good success with them.He seems to be the only person I can find that will do it laproscopically so it seems like hes the right choice for a provider.

I had to go and get blood taken (lots and lots of it) and then booked in again to see him.

On the second visit ( Aug 22) I booked in a theatre date. I’m booked in for Oct 22nd.

Theres a pre-op diet of “meal replacement” drinks. This is apparently to make the recovery faster but i really suspect that surgery would be far easier for the surgeon with less of a fatty layer on the stomach and a shrunken liver. The stomach of course is partially under the liver and needs to be accessible to rescect it.

He told me I need 3 weeks from the surgery to recover. I’m currently planning to be back at work the following week (7 days off)

The surgery will cost me about $6000 directly in total (including pathology) and with lost income to the company while I’m away, it gets far more expensive. Being back at work, and being able to work while recovering (home and in hospital) is very important. I’ve got a mobile internet connection and will be able to work from anywhere with coverage.

Luckily I’m in an industry where physical location is not important and as the supervisory staff at work are great, I don’t need to actually be there.