John W.

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I just attended my second support group meeting last night on March 27th. I found that I've become pretty knowledgable about protein. After class, I was able to pose several questions to a guy I met at the first class. He had his RNY in December and some of those questions that have been floating around in my head for a bit, just seemed to flow. I've been a bit concerned that there may have been too much time between my approval and the actual surgery. Since I don't want to miss any of the year of school, I will wait until May 31st. 

Anyway, I found that the surgery group I'll be working with seems to be good managers of our postop pain. I also found that the week after the surgery is a bit rough since there are so few choices to eat. The good news and positive note is that everyone I talked to just raves about this and wishes they had done it years ago.

I had a bit of an issue the other night at dinner while out with Christine. I started to mourn the loss of my past life before I've even had the surgery. I was having Thai food with her when I suddenly realized that I won't be able to scarf loaded forks of food down my stomach anymore. In addition, I really love rice and realize that it will be one of the casualties of the surgery....at least in the volumes I currently enjoy. Since I recall what it was like to be thin, I'm ready to embrace the tradeoff. It was my first realization that I may have genuine issues with food. Yes, we all have issues with food, but these may be issues that I didn't think I would have to deal with. Now I understand that things will come up and I have to master these.

Anyway, after this discussion following  the meeting, I'm even more ready to jump in and make this work. Another observation was that either people at the meeting were being very shy, or many of them were not taking the issue of protein as seriously as I have been and plan to continue. Overall, I look forward to getting to know more people in the support group as the months roll along.

I've been getting pretty serious about starting to drop some of my weight since about the first part of 2007. So far the results are shown below....

January 2007 Loss 
12.5 lbs 

February 2007 Loss 
5.5 lbs 

March 2007 Loss 
10 lbs 

April 2007 Loss
4 lb

May 2007 Loss
15 lbs (so far)

It is the last day of February and time is running out as far as this month is concerned. I began this process in early January and was approved on St. Valentine's Day. I'm pretty excited about it and have stayed pretty focused on getting in better shape by doing some walking. I've also lost about 20 pounds during the last two months. I'm doing reading and learning all the time to capture as much information as possible. I want to go into this as well educated and motivated as possible. I remember what it was like to be thin at 169 and fresh out of college. The years have passed, but life has been so good. I have a lot to be thankful for. My wife goes to work every night so that we can have the wonderful insurance that gets approved on the first try. Not only that, but I will have a nurse on behalf of the insurance company who will monitor my progress. This is an exciting time and I look forward to the days and months ahead. I'm motivated by the friends and good people here at Obesity Help.

On January 2, 2007, I had my first consultation with my doctor. I've been doing a lot of research on my own, so I don't think that there was much he told me that I didn't already know about the process. The more I learn, the more ready I am for this to begin. I'm not sure how I can wait until school is out to have my surgery. The doctor just wants me to keep my weight steady until I have my surgery. I am planning to drop at least 30 lbs by May since my primary physician think that it would be a good idea to go in lighter. I just love using the Byetta, the new diabetes drug. I just don't feel so compelled toward food like I used to be. I can take it or leave it now which is a new perspective since all my life I've just craved food. So far, the Byetta is just amazing. The only problem is that people who go on it tend to lose weight temporarily. I have found several blogs where people  work with it and continue to drop the weight. I just love the feeling of not having food on my mind constantly. This experience with Byetta has really made me believe that heavy people are just really wired differently.