Don's Freakout Palace

8 months
198.8 lbs
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I was getting pretty irritated with the camera on my phone before I finally got a usable shot.

Favorite pair of Goodwill shorts is too big now. THey're 36s so I knew they'd have a short shelf life. Into the suitcase of misfit clothes...

The dam broke loose yesterday. Ate lots of fat to help things along. For now the plan is I'm taking Proferrin at the end of the day (the same time as my Mag Citrate), we'll give it a week and then adjust as needed.

Im getting infusions of injectofer and all the other vitamins every week. See if a hematologist will help out with some injectofer. If you have a ppo you can make appointment and discuss it without the middle man aka your primary care dr.
 
My husband goes to a salon - his hair is longish - and he’s always had good beard trims. And mustache and eyebrows too. This is one time I got a pic of him right afterwards:
Most men wear shorter hair which is typically cut with clippers not scissors. My Charles can tell a barber exactly which depth to use on his hair and on his beard. Charles has used a salon. But he has more consistent results with barbers.
 
I seem to have found a rhythm with iron I'm taking proferrin 3 days a week (Su,Tu,Th) and DHC for the other 4. I want to work in some Calcium in the near future (right now I'm just doing a double dose of BoneUp). Bowels aren't amazing (Thursday was an 8x day, Friday a 2x) but don't seem to be getting completely locked up on the new pattern.
Beginning to wonder if all the KIND protein bars I'm living on during the week might be part of the frequent BMs. Normally I have 4-5 a day along with 4 protein shakes. Since I don't journal I've been using the bars and shakes to be sure that I am getting more than the minimum amount of protein a day. I figure roughly 150 grams from the bars and shakes which ought to at least got me to the minimum. I'm eating about 22 grams at breakfast every day (1 egg, 2 strips bacon, one protein waffle) plus about 25 from the protein powder I use to sweeten my coffee. Eat another 15 grams or so from my lunch (a Hillshire small Plates Salami and Cheddar lunchable), and about 10 grams with my bedtime/last vites of the day snack (though sometimes I don't have room for all of it). During the weekends I still eat the same breakfast but the rest of the day I stick to real food. Sometimes the wife and I go out for one meal. I'd guess during the workweek I'm getting 200 grams a day and during the weekends maybe 130 a day (I'm a lot more confident in the accuracy of the weekday amounts).
Got some new glasses. The frames are blue, usually I get brown or natural metal color.
Weight seems to have decided to drop again after convincing me once again that I was in maintenance. Starting to feel like Charlie Brown kicking a football.
 
10 months postop
189.4

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I am going through another phase where I think I look different. Objectively my face hasn't changed that much but I look at a stranger in the mirror most days. Also freaked out the other day when I put on a new pair of pants which still had the crease from the factory pressing. It looked like the pant leg was almost flat like my shoe was attached to the end of a stick rather than a leg. I keep oscillating between "Man I'm skin and bones" and "Man I'm fat." Also it is unnerving to be able to be all the moving parts in my shoulders. I prefer a little more mystery as to how the magic happens.

I am taking a bit of a leap. One of our drivers quit and I asked to take his spot. I have been doing a job where I mostly just drive. This job is a little bit of driving but mostly it's hand unloading and wheeling product in to customers. It's very hard work (you handle about 5-7 tons of groceries a day, often more than once), and I would not have had a prayer of making it work preop. It's still a stretch, but the boss agreed to let me give it a try for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that switching to a daytime schedule and getting much more active will help me get the last few pounds off and more importantly, complete the mission of getting healthy.

My maintenance weight goal going in was about 200 pounds (I set a "bottom" goal of 185 just to allow for regain). I go back and forth on whether I want to set a new goal lower than 185. It'd be kinda neat to objectively not be overweight but I think 168 is probably not achievable (and certainly not maintainable for any length of time). Also I'd like to build up a bit more muscle which probably will limit how much further down I can go. The magic wonder scale in the bathroom says my body fat percentage is 25.6% which is just over the line so I suppose there's a bit more fat to work off.
 
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I keep oscillating between "Man I'm skin and bones" and "Man I'm fat."

your brain just needs more time - the change happened faster than you can adjust to it.


I'm hoping that switching to a daytime schedule and getting much more active will help me get the last few pounds off and more importantly, complete the mission of getting healthy.

I think you are right to want to be more healthy - STRONG! - rather than have your weight or pant size at a certain number.


you are doing great!
 
Well, I think I am not up to doing the delivery job.

My joints and back are complaining pretty hard. I certainly have lost some weight (actually low level concerned because this week is the second 5 pound weight loss week in a row). According to the magic smart scale I have lost 5 pounds of muscle and 5 pounds of fat in the last two weeks so that's kind of a mixed blessing.

One surprise change is I am eating very little. I have no appetite in the morning. After throwing away most of my breakfast the first two days I am just doing a protein coffee in the morning and adding food later if it seems like my stomach will tolerate it. While I am out on the route I am eating a little protein (salami or jerky and cheese) and one or two protein bars a day along with drinking one or two protein shakes. I do eat a bit in the evening before bed but I am marginal on protein for my activity level and low on fat intake (probably a little low on carbs too). The route isn't the same day to day so I have struggled with keeping my vitamins on schedule. Unfortunately sleep has been a real battle, I'm only getting 4-5 hours a night and have a lot of fatigue. I was really hoping that a daytime schedule would be conducive to getting better sleep.

My company's issues (poor quality, missing product, damaged product, failures in communication, etc.) make dealing with customers pretty fraught. After a year and a half of failure they are all on a pretty short fuse. I am conflict averse so the stress is a bit intense. I suppose there's a reason most of the drivers who have been delivering for this place for a while smoke....

Told the boss I love being able to move more and that I wish I had done this (getting the surgery and a more physically active job) ten years ago. But I am almost 50 and going through essentially a boot camp experience might be a bit much. Anyhow I am doing this for another week before I go on vacation and we'll reach a final decision then but I am 90% sure I'm going to go back to my old job. I suspect that we probably won't last much more than a year regardless. My location has had declining sales and been losing money since they were purchased about two years ago. Corporate is distracted right now by a major acquisition but sooner or later they are going to get around to us and they have closed poorly performing locations before.
 
Sorry work is a mess. I think it’s so interesting that we seem to have ebbs and flows on the scale concurrently. I get to have a colonoscopy on Dec 5th, if you have any good advice for me? I still think to myself, did we really have a surgeon with a black eye operate on us in Mexico?
 
Sorry work is a mess. I think it’s so interesting that we seem to have ebbs and flows on the scale concurrently. I get to have a colonoscopy on Dec 5th, if you have any good advice for me? I still think to myself, did we really have a surgeon with a black eye operate on us in Mexico?

I started a day early on the prep and 12 hours early on the final prep and I still wasn't cleaned out all the way. Our motility is lower than a normie. So starting earlier is better (don't want to be too early because once you are empty apparently mucus will start to build up interfering with the view). From reading old threads it seems like starting a day ahead of the instructions on prep works for most people so YMMV. Apparently Suprep is brand of prep you want (the other brand is the huge jugs which is too much volume for our sleeve). Be sure to mention to the doc (and more importantly the nurse) that you've had a DS. Love my PCP but it wasn't in the system that I had bariatric surgery even after going to her for my followup care.

The whole Mexicali experience seems like a dream at this point. I hope Dr Wilhelmy isn't picking any more fights to warm up for surgery (I know the black eye was almost certainly from a totally innocuous reason but the thought of a doctor going to some underground fight club to get in the zone for Surgery is amusing to me so I'm going with it).
 
Re vitamins

I decided long ago that I'd take most of the vitamins in two batches: morning and evening. I prepare them before hand in those little pill boxes Good for a week so I don't have to think about it

The exception is calcium and iron which don't mix and can't be taken all at once


For calcium I stick 4 chews in my pocket and eat them spaced through the day

For iron I take a pill before bed and when I get up
 
11%20Months.jpg

11 Months postop
185.0 pounds

Cold weather is definitely a struggle. We had a couple days with below zero wind chills and temps in the single digits and teens overnight and I thought I was never going to get warm. The Carhartt Arctic coat I bought in anticipation of the weather was a disappointment, it added a lot of bulk but not a lot of warmth versus my usual jacket. Plus it's a Carhartt so with the double team of being super stiff and the balky zipper they love zipping up can really only be started when you are standing up (ie already out in the cold with an unzipped coat). Gloves are another problem area, bought a smaller size of my go to cold weather work gloves and my fingers were frozen all night so that's another thing I'll have to try to sort. Discovered Darn Tough socks, the extra cushion socks are amazing, so it wasn't all bad.

For good and ill I seem to have lot less difficulty with food. I can do pizza now. Still isn't something I want every day and with the restriction it's not the same experience as preop (working down the equivalent of a slice over a couple hours versus preop where I might put away half a pie in that time). But it's kinda nice to not feel locked out. It's better for my mental state and my food choices if I feel like I could have it but choose not to versus feeling like I am not allowed.

VItamins are kind of a pain. It seems like several will run out at the same time which gets annoying. We can swing them but especially while trying to find clothes that work the constant drip of $ gets a bit tiresome. Foot cramping (and muscle cramps in general) seem to be making a comeback so I'm going to try going back to the last brand of magnesium Malate I was taking.
 
I'm so glad you eat pizza, doesn't that feel good. and you are looking so slender! but I hear you on the cold - when I was a size 4 the first time I took a trip to Florida and about froze to death in the air conditioning!
 
Re vitamins... thank goodness for Amazon... only way I can keep up.. only the calcium chews come from elsewhere.. and they are on autopilot

Re pizza.. had a roadside slice of pappa ginos pepperoni on the way home from a family reunion.. split it with my wife in the car.. it was delicious. It's been about 2 years since I had a taste... these days splitting a slice will do me.

Don't know about you, but the VSG restrictive part really puts a lid on what I can eat at one sitting. On vacation recently, I just gave up ordering full meals. I'd order soup, and have a bite of whatever my wife ordered. If I ordered an entre it would just go to waste,
 

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