This is my first post after a long time lurking, so bear with me.
I've lost close to 125 pounds, from the start of my weight-loss journey, which began on my birthday, May 26th, in 2011. I work a physically demanding job, in which I'm a security officer for a major hospital. I was only a per diem when I was hired on. When my department manager bumped me up to a full time employee, he had commented on how physically demanding it can be to be a security officer at a hospital. I read between the lines: I was overweight, and extremely, at that.
I was so overweight that finding pants, or even looking in a mainstream clothing store, was not happening. I was ashamed to go to the mall for any other reason than going to the food court, and even then, I stopped going for that. I didn't want to show my face/body in public; I didn't want to smile in self-disgust.
Working at a major hospital has its benefits: excellent insurance. I asked my primary physician if I should look into any kind of gastric procedures. My mother (RIP) had the gastric bypass in its infancy, and I wanted to look into that. My physician referred me out to a local surgeon who does the gastric lapband surgery. I decided to go through the lapband route.
Through my hospital's insurance, the process for the lapband is pretty long-winded:
Primary refers out to surgeon
Surgeon refers out a weight loss clinic
3 months nutritional evaluation (monitored diet)
Receive letter of completion, referred back to surgeon
Wait for initial consultation with surgeon
Gastric Lapband seminar
Procedures ordered from surgeon (Chest Xray, US, EKG)
Psych eval
Authorization from insurance
2 weeks fasting (no solid foods)
Surgery
During my 3 months nutritional evaluation, I maintained a diet of ~2200 daily, with 100-150g of carbs depending on if I went for a walk or not. When I walked, I walked roughly 3 miles a day around my neighborhood with 16 ankle weights. Needless to say, initial weight loss was astronomical. I was losing a consistent 5 pounds a week, which of course was water weight. The weight loss quickly became a pipe dream, slowing up quickly to little or no weight loss. I even jumped up a few times during my weekly weigh-ins.
It was time to step it up; I joined a gym. The weight started to drop again, but with my gym regiment, I was starting to plateau with fat loss/muscle gain, which was bumming me out. I had no one to blame but myself for the plateau, but I felt hopeless, and fell out of the gym after being plateau'd for about 4-5 months.
Soon after quitting the gym, after all the waiting for initial consultation post-weight loss clinic (~4 months), had my procedures done, and psych eval done, which went swimmingly. After that, a short wait for authorization. My surgeon had experiences with patients who waited months for authorization, some even being denied, and them having to appeal to get authorization. Thankfully, mine took a short 2 weeks, and I was good to go. Then my surgeon told me about the 2 week fasting...
Number 10 was a bit of tough one. From a binge eater, to cold turkey...no easing into it...no "half of intake" day...nothing. I would take a protein replacement called OptiFast for 14 days, with day 14 being the day before surgery. The only "food" I could was just chicken broth, and Jello, which I hate. I could drink anything that didn't have calories, but I had already stopped drinking soda at that point, so I was pretty much stuck with water and the OptiFast. This was the point in my life when I fell in love with Propel water. This stuff is so good, but expensive unless you buy in bulk.
Hunger pangs for the first 5 days made me irritable and to the brink of wanting to rip everyone's head off. Thankfully, ketosis kicked in, and the hunger pangs stopped. After the 14th day, my surgeon said I could have something light: salad it is! That was best-tasting salad I ever had in my life.
Surgery happens. Yay, it's done. No, recovery is painful! The ability to stand up and sit down unassisted, the internal pressure and muscles we used to stand up and sit down: my body was having none of that. I couldn't stand up or sit down unassisted for 4 days after the surgery. On top of that, after the first week, I had a post-op complication called seroma, which is body fluid leaking for the incision site. I had 5 incision sites for my surgery, and it was the main incision site that was leaking. I ended up going to the ER twice and seeing my physician in panic, thinking I was going to die or something, lol.
Post-op, I was still plateauing into a stretch of time banders call Lapband Hell. In short, it's the span of time between the surgery and first post-op consultation for a saline fill. Initial weight-loss post-op was slow, but after more saline fills (and really, recently), the weight-loss is phenomenal. Out of a 14cc capacity, my band is filled to 8.6cc. My surgeon says the median is around 9cc.
Anyway, I have a couple before and after pics:
http://imgur.com/lBBmaBZ
On the left, myself in July, 2011 in Las Vegas. That pic was already around 15 pounds lost. Bottom right is December, 2011 at my initial consultation, at 367 pounds. Top right is April this year, at 310 pounds.
http://imgur.com/sRX06J7
I didn't believe people when they said my face looks so much different, but they're right!
I've started back up at the gym December last year. At first, I was going 6 days a week and hitting it hard, but I was starting to get burned out on the gym, and scaled back to 4 days a week, every other day. I still maintain a healthy diet, but the lapband hinders what I can eat and how fast I can eat it. Eating a salad takes no less than 20-25 minutes.
Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. Still dropping weight, and smiling now more than ever. =D
