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Goals

Weight less than 100Kg..!

1 Person
 in progress, 
2 People
 achieved this

be able to buy clothes at a NORMAL store!

46 People
 in progress, 
20 People
 achieved this
View The Goals Page
Surgeon Testimonial

Charles Mosse, M.D.
Brilliant guy, easy going. Very concerned to make sure I had all the information before making any decisions.rnrnI mean what on earth is a surgeon doing with a personality :-)rnrnBy reputation is a very good surgeon, look forward to providing a first hand update.
mattman's Journey

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Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before learning about bariatric surgery.
Like most i guess, tried every diet under the sun... The most successful was Atkins.. I ended up having some hyperglycemia attacks and was advised to discontinue and immediately put all the weight back on.
Latest Surgery Support Comments

  • Comment by Arabella on 5/31/07 4:23 am
    Hey Matt! Was thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you were! Please post soon and let us know how everything went. No more OptiYuck! Yipee! Kim
  • Comment by claude L. on 5/29/07 10:16 am
    Just hang in there!!, I'm just one month out and I have no regrets and feeling great.
  • Comment by Felix P. on 5/28/07 5:10 pm
    Matt, I'm looking foward to having another sleeve-brother. I hope you have cute nurses to take care of you during your stay in the hospital
Click here for the surgery support page
Well, here goes nothing  :-)

I've had fatty liver for about 10 years and its never really caused any major issues, but my liver function tests have been slowly getting worse and worse.

Finally my GP told me if I didn't do something about it then i wouldn't be around to watch my kids grow up... hmmm

So tried Atkins (can't look at a steak again), hypnosis, CSIRO diets etc etc..

Finally heard about VSG and after lots of research have decided to go this way.

Hardest part so far is getting over the emotional thing telling me surgery is the failures way out....   Gotta say this group has been a huge moral booster  :-)
mattman's Blog
mattman's Blog


Long time no update....
on January 31, 2009 1:33 pm
Well its been a pretty amazing time really.

My weight is now around the 74-75Kg  (163 - 166 pounds)  I must admit its difficult for me to keep the weight on now... if I go away on a paragliding trip I need to snack continuously otherwise I come back even lighter.

My health is excellent, I'm still on the anti acid meds and daily multi.. and every month or two a B12 injection.

I do need to slow down with the drinking... sheeez.. my new sport has a big drinking culture...  Having said that I really only drink 6 beers in a night and the brilliant part is I don't get hang overs... NICE.

There is some excess skin, but its not causing any issues and I'm not inclined to spend the money on plastics and besides surgery and I don't really get along...

The only thing I miss is the muscles...  I used to be able to dead lift a 50Kg barrel up onto a table.. now days no chance.   Tried gym and hated it... yeck.. felt like a hamster.

So this is the new me... and its just fine... 

Matt
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Full circle.....
on August 11, 2008 3:48 am
So I started my journey having to visit "special shops" to buy my clothes...

Well......

On the weekend I needed some new jeans having shrunk out of my last pair and tired of my wife commenting on my saggy jeans....    Well apparently many of the shops don't stock size 82....

ARRRGGHHHHHHHH

So I'm stuck with "trendy" teenage jeans...  I just want some basic stone wash... not torn, written on graffitied or with a million buckles...

lol...  the irony is not lost on me...

Matt
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Bite my tounge.. or not...
on July 7, 2008 8:13 pm
Nope... can't do it. 

I'm seeing lots of people posting about how difficult it is the first week or two after surgery.. and I'm stunned...  (and I'm not picking on any individuals)

Do some people really believe this is going to be EASY...???   This is major surgery and I can't comprehend anyone doing it unless they had exhausted every other option.

Yes after a 2-4 weeks things to massively improve.. but even a year out I still can't finish a Mc Happy meal...

I'm actually really glad my surgeon put me through 3 weeks of liquid pre-op diet.. not only did it shrink my liver making the surgery easier it also prepared me for the post op lack of food thing.

Seriously, expect that you are going to have to go through a lot... don't do it on a whim.. if you happen to be one of the lucky ones then your in front.  But do expect the recovery to be very mentally challenging, consider some councilling so your completely ready to deal with it.

Matt
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It's my surgiversary...!
on May 31, 2008 3:49 am
Well, hello all,

It's my first anniversary... and I figured that I should wrap up the last year and post.

I had some challenges with surgery, woke up with chronic hiccups and then ended up being diagnosed with a stricture that was resolved in the 3rd week with an endoscopy.  So rough start really, in and out of hospital and stuck on a drip to ensure I didn't dehydrate.   Have to say the surgeon was excellent through this and the moral support from this board was incredible.

Well after the rough start things have gone pretty darn well... 

I've managed to fall into a few traps;
  Constipation so bad it was like passing a house brick.. YOUCH...  now under control with a mix of pear / prune juice, coffee and fibre.
  Malnutrition...  not good when you let your diet get so bad that you hit this... geez  anyway back on track.
  Eating to fast and throwing up..  still make the mistake couple months .. DOH..!

So how is my life now...  in a word incredible..!
  Buying clothes in normal stores.
  Fitting in airplane seats
  Fitness to burn, no worries running up stairs, no more puffing from walking
  I got wolf whistled at by a group of girls driving past...!  First time ever  :-)
  The liver troubles I had which the Dr had given me a few years before I was in seriously trouble.. ie dead is now completely resolved.

I now pursue my passion which is paragliding every spare moment and regularly hike up the hill with the 50 pound back pack... life is INCREDIBLE...!

Thanks to everyone here, I'd like to single out a bunch of you but am scared I'll miss someone.. so I wont...

Oh new photo's on my profile..!

Matt
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I'm BACK...!!!
on May 5, 2008 11:58 pm
Well that was just amazing...

First thing I need to do is update my passport.. every single person who looked at my photo just stared at me...  thank god I had a drivers license which was half way through the loss so they could see a change.   Man it was funny...

I LOVED the food.. ohhh the flavours were brilliant.. and finally found a place where not eating everything isn't an issue... in fact it was a huge complement...   In Vietnam a host should provide more food that you can eat to be polite... and well.. with me its pretty easy these days.  

It was interesting that the heat and humidity didn't bother me at all...  previously I used to almost pass out... these days no worries at all.

What an incredible trip... 

Matt
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Heading away on holidays
on April 15, 2008 2:21 am
The kids are being dropped off with the in-laws and my wife and I are heading to Singapore and Vietnam...!

So you won't be seeing me online until the 6th of May....   just not sure if the internet is going to survive without me.. 

Really looking forward to the trip, brought along an extra bag for all the clothes I intend to buy... gotta love tailor made clothes... 

Cya all in a few weeks.

Matt
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My first self injection of B12
on April 8, 2008 12:41 am
Well,  I figured like most VSGer's I was low on B12 and decided to look into injections as apparently oral doesn't work well for us and nasal.. well... eeewwwww

So the shot is about $5... but the Dr wants to charge me $55 to do it....

I don't think so....!!!   So I ordered the needles, swaps, sharps container etc and did my first one the other day.   I followed a great instructional video and it was EASY...!!!

Didn't feel hugely better, but it does make a difference.

Matt
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Met with my surgeon the other day
on March 30, 2008 1:41 pm
Was discussing the endoscopy and stretch and that a number of people done recently seem to be in the same boat.. ie strictures.

At which point he said "Oh, we didn't end up doing the stretch, just the camera was enough to resolve the twist..."

Wow huh...

Anyway I explained my theory that the smaller bougie combined with over-sewing was causing the twist.. he was interested in the theory but didn't commit one way or the other.

Matt
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Malnutrition... really...???
on March 3, 2008 10:03 pm
Sorry to bring up yet another spooky topic, but thought it best to share...

My diet has never been good... but recently with a huge workload its gotten considerably worse.. and more recently I ran out of vitamins and not enough time to get to the shops.. then I got the flu..

Anyway you get the idea...

So this morning I noticed today that my hair had gone really.. hmm weird.. sort of thick and brittle and I was really starting to feel average. Me thinking its all just the flu..

Well after some research I'm pretty sure I've hit the early stages of malnutrition...!!!

Now no one should be worried about this.. really its dead easy to avoid.. I've just gotten carried away with life and its easy to resolve.. back to drinking 2-3 glasses of vegy juice a day and vitaims etc.

Right now there isn't any major impact and no long term damage... but I'm lucky I caught the early symptoms.

So just wanted to warn my sleve bothers and sisters to stay vigelent...!! With the small amount we eat we need to make sure we make the right choices.

Anyway, back to my corner..

Matt

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Weight has stabilised and lifes good
on February 16, 2008 4:43 am
I've gone down one more pant size.. arrgggghhhh, so sick of buying clothes now...   but pretty sure I'm not going to be shrinking anymore.

Still waiting on the gym to get back to me... mind you exercise was never something i enjoyed so i'm not pushing it.

One flight away from getting my paragliding license which is awesome...!!!

Just bought our first investment home.. since I've got a future its time to start planning for a long long life..

Between work and paragliding i really haven't had time to spare..  I drop in to the board daily, but have been lurking mostly due to time constraints....

Still alive and doing well...!!!

Matt
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My Story

Ahhh my personal weight loss surgery saga...

Dates are guess work based on previous posts etc, please forgive me if they aren't perfect... when your sick and drugged dates aren't real important :-)


30th of May – VSG

Woke up with hiccups that lasted 3 days.... not fun...  No good cure so they kept drugging me until i feel asleep, the concern was that the hiccups could hurt my new tummy as well as being really unpleasant.

4th June

Finally stopped with the hiccups and was released from hospital

5th June

Hiccups back... ended up back in hospital for 3 days because i couldn't get any fluids down.

They did a CT scan and a barium swallow and found that I had a restriction half way down my new stomach. They are hoping if they leave it alone it might resolve itself without intervention.

8th June

Home again

Having trouble taking the anti acid medication and the acid was really giving me grief.

10th June

Some improvements, starting to get fluids down.. up to about 800ml in a day. Can't do anything thicker than water, but that's a start.

12th June

Stopped taking the anti acid as I thought they were making me feel sick...

(Note this is where things really went down hill and in hind sight its because the acid got out of control and made my stricture worse)

16th June

Started vomiting (mostly foamies) but can't keep anything down....

Into emergency and had 3L of fluid by IV and managed to get myself back home.

Over the weekend and things didn't improve... finally ended up throwing up blood on Sunday and took myself back to hospital.


18th June

They have decided to do the endoscope and checkout the stricture... back on an IV and anti acid meds..

Couple days later started feeling much better, unfortunately the hospital got really busy and they let my cannula dry out.... after 8 attempts at getting a new one they decided to go a “Central line” like a cannula but in a major vein in your neck, because I was vomiting they couldn't sedate me so went through it all very very very awake... not fun at all...!!!!  

21st June

Endoscope and they decide during the procedure that it looked good enough for a “stretch”. Gotta say the endscope is great, no big deal at all..

Woke up feeling really well....

Dr commented that the acid damage to my oesophagus was very visible..!

22nd June

Wow feeling great, can drink, eat custard, yogurt, jelly...! This is the best since the surgery.

23rd June

Back home again and trying everything... can only eat tiny amounts, but no trouble with pasta or soups etc... going to try some toast in the morning.

Finally...!!!


My biggest lessons...

Don't checkout of hospital if your not feeling 100% sure your ok.

Take the anti acid...! I really went downhill when I stopped taking it.

4 weeks is a really long time without eating :-)


I'm asked if I would go through the whole thing again.... YES.. YES YES YES..


Don't get me wrong, this last month has sucked big time...! But I'm going to add years to my life and improve the quality massively... worth a month of yuck... hell yes..!


Here's the weight loss chart.. keeps me smiling...

My Weight Chart:
Weight Chart