Jeff Weight Loss and Weight Loss Surgery Blog

Just had to share these pictures

First I am at my heaviest. This is me at 382 pounds possibly heavier.

Here I am in the hospital before Jeff before vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery.  I am 325.5 at this point getting ready to have vertical gastrectomy.

Last but not lease here I am at 11 months after my vertical sleeve gastrectomy surgery.  I weighed in at 201for this one year weight loss picture.

It is strange to see these pictures. I always knew I was big but to see me at my heaviest is just amazing. I never saw myself that large. In the first picture you can see my necklace is tight, I mean tight. In my 1 yr picture you don’t see my necklace because it is hanging below my shirt. I never take off my scuba diver necklace and can remember at one point at my heaviest I thought I was going to have to take it off due to circulation. This is what I have been going through during my life. Just a few days ago I did not see 200 on the scale. I am below that now and it is amazing. I never thought I was going to see under 300 again let alone under 200. This is why I believe highly in weight loss surgery and would recommend it to anyone that is obese.  Sure there are risk and you need to do some weight loss research before selecting a laparoscopic bariatric surgery but at this point my life has been extended due to my weight loss. Just had to share these with everyone.

Good Monday every

I had my 1 year weight loss surgery appointment about a month early. My biggest grip is the fact that I have to drive 4 hours one way to get to my appointment. Then I wait in the office for an hour and thirty minutes for a 10 minute appointment. Dr. Robert Rabkin says your looking good and the blood work is good have a good weekend, well gee whiz thanks for that. Why couldn’t they have told me the blood work was good on the phone.  Oh well that is the way goes

Here are my statistics from the appointment.
Weight: 201 pounds
BMI: 26.5
Fat Mass: 35.5 pounds
FFM: 165.5 pounds
TBW: 121 pounds

For those following I started at a weight of 325.5 pounds the day before my vertical sleeve gastrectomy.  I was 359 just a few months before that when I was in California Pacific Medical Center awaiting a potential heart transplant. I am happy to say I do not need a heart transplant and very pleased for that

Pacific Laparoscopy did a profile on me for there Winter 2006 newsletter.  Have a good week and I will try to update later.

WOW, can you believe today is the one year anniversary of me going to California Pacific Medical Center and starting my scare ordeal of potentially getting a heart transplant.  Just can’t believe it has been one year already.  Don’t get me wrong I am happy to put distance between me and that situation.  I saw my cardiologist heart doctor today ironically one year from when I first met him.

I lost over 140 pounds due to weight loss surgery and now have an ejection fraction of 44%. That is amazing considering a year ago I weighed in at 359 pounds and had an ejection fraction of 10% looking at a heart transplant.  Needless to say today is a good day because I don’t have a scar from my chin to my belly from a heart transplant.

I had an echogram done recently and it appears my ejection fraction is up to 40 percent. I had an ejection fraction of 10% May 2005 and 20% November 2005. This is good news and I am hoping to get off some medication in May.

My weight loss is over 140 pounds down since being sick in May.  I am now 214 and hanging in there. I have had good success with my Vertical Gastrectomy. I am very pleased and blessed I was able to get weight loss surgery.

Forgot to give my daily weight update.  As of January 23, 2006 I am 239.6 that is 85.9 pounds since weight loss surgery (8-30-2005) and that is 119.9 since being worked up for a heart transplant May/June 2005. Overall doing good I am walking either 30 min a day or 1 mile.  I sometimes change it out a little. I was able to run for 5 minutes the other day which is amazing for me.  I try not to get my heart rate above 140 for any length of time.  I lift some weights not a lot and not heavy.  Just building up after all the fun I have been through (NOT).  Work is good been real busy.  So the workout really helps me unwind and makes me forget about the job.  I still need to get more motivated to be consistent with working out.

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Good afternoon;

Well here we are at the end of another year. Can’t hardly believe 2005 has come and gone that quickly.  If you have read some of my past post 2005 was not the greatest year for me and my family.  Of course some would say it was a great year.  Meaning that I did not die back in May.

Christmas turned out nice. The kids are happy and had a good Christmas considering.  I sit here at work reminiscing about 2005 and other years.  I catching myself thinking how lucky I really am, I have a beautiful wife and wonderful kids.  Everyone is healthy and we all love each other.  I have seen my oldest daughter Kelsey and hope to stay in touch with her after all these years.

I hope 2006 is a good year and I hope the family and myself stay healthy and out of the hospital.  I am currently down to 248 pounds from 359 in May before my weight loss surgery.  I really need to get to the gym and start working out and stay at the gym.  Need to be consistent and try to not wavering one week to another.

I find myself thinking about Mom a lot lately (passed away a few years ago). I sure miss her and wish she was with us today to be with the kids.  She sure loved Brandon and I bet would have just fallen all over Adriana.  If your out there Mom, I love you and miss you.

I guess I better go and look at the rain. It is pouring lakes out there it is amazing.

Happy New Year everyone be safe.

Tonight is the Christmas Party for C2m Hill, oh excuse me Holiday Party.  Kind of taken back when I went in to get a nice button up shirt to wear to the party.  I was looking forward to being able to get any color I wanted since I lost so much weight.  Well I was informed I still needed a size 20″ neck shirt.  Okay fine show me the way, well there were 4 basic color shirts I had to chose from I was not happy about this.  I have lost over 100 pounds and a ton of it in my neck and upper body but I still have a size 20 neck.  Ouch, I guess my neck was pretty large before cause I have lost a lot of it so far. I was able to get a nice leather jacket to accompany my outfit that was 2x which is a far cry from a 5x. Well anyways wanted to write down some of what I was thinking today I will leave you of the picture of us at the Christmas Party.

Today is a milestone for my weight loss.  I am officially down 100 pounds since becoming sick May 2005. This is the magic number my cardiologist wanted me at to be a better heart transplant candidate.  I am very pleased to say that thanks to losing 66 pounds since my bariatric surgery I will not need a heart transplant.

This is my first Thanksgiving since having laparoscopic bariatric surgery (a.ka. vertical sleeve gastrectomy).  I would rather stay home and not deal with this holiday that is centered around food.  I just have to remember to eat a little bit and get up and not subject myself to over eating.

Due to my weight loss surgery I was not able to eat a lot. Instead I fed the baby and keep tabs of her so that I would not think about all the delicous food.  Keeping your mind occupied will help you not think about food with in turns causes over eating.