Surgery Time

 At the end of the first week of July, 2021, I got a phone call from the doctor’s office to ask if I was available for surgery the following Friday. Leading up to the surgery, I had several pre-surgery appointments with the surgeons and the anesthesiologist. There was a recurring theme in these conversations. Although my heart was in good condition and blood work seemed fine, they all had concerns about my weight and how that might affect me during surgery and in the recovery process. On July 16, 2021, I reported early in the morning for surgery. The surgery went great and they were able to remove all of the tumor. My normal eyesight returned immediately when I woke up that evening. The only remnant from the surgery was that I was still intubated. This was out of concern for me being able to breath on my own due to my weight. I was finally extubated the following day, but with several precautions taken. The next several days recovering in the hospital went well and I was released the following Tuesday.

Home recovery went well and I was able to resume some of my normal daily activities, especially walking. Walking was somewhat difficult at first with labored breathing remaining from the surgery. Over the next couple weeks, this subsided. Soon, I would be able to resume light cardio as well.

For the remainder of the summer, I continued to exercise, eat well, and recover. Quite unintentionally, I fell into the habit of intermittent fasting. Both of my children were working summer jobs from 4pm-midnight most days of the week. I would get up in the morning, exercise, and then eat breakfast around 9am. Because we wanted to continue to eat dinner as a family every day, we would have that meal at about 2pm. For me, that would be my last meal of the day. This meant I was fasting for about 18 hours and eating during just a 6-hour period. I really liked this style of eating and it helped me to control what I was consuming. During this same time frame, I made a conscious effort to eliminate as much added sugar and refined carbohydrates as possible, eating primarily whole foods. By the end of the summer, I had lost 10% of my starting body weight.