Countdown...
I had my pre-op appointment with the surgeon on Monday. It was a ten-minute visit that could have easily been handled over the phone, or by giving me paperwork. Dangit, I paid a $30 co-pay just to hear that everything's fine, and we're set to go for surgery. He did talk about the hospital stay a bit. I go in at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday the 11th of April, and if everything goes well, I will be able to go home on Thursday the 13th. I won't be able to eat anything for 24 hours after the surgery, and then I'll be on liquids until I go home. After that, I can't eat anything thicker than applesauce for three weeks. At three weeks post-op, I will see the surgeon again, and he will decide then if I can move to thicker foods.
So, sometime this week or next, I need to go shopping and stock up on jello, applesauce, pudding, soup, and anything else of the right consistency that appeals to me. I'm thinking I might buy some baby food. It's the right consistency, and it's in exactly the right serving size. If I can find a good sale, I'll buy some different varieties and see how that works out. It sure would be convenient, that's for sure. I also bought some protein powder called Unjury, which my dietician recommended. It has 40 grams of protein per scoop, and they have different flavors. I got chocolate and unflavored. I was thinking that I could mix the chocolate with fruity stuff, jello, and pudding, and the unflavored in soups and whatnot. It's very important to eat a LOT of protein after this surgery, or else your body will start digesting muscles instead of fat. We DON'T want that!
I did find out that my primary care doctor had screwed up (AGAIN, but that's for another post), and hadn't included all of the labs that I needed in the initial testing. So I had to go get poked again. The bonus is that I went to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue for it, which is where my surgery will be done, so I was able to scope it out and figure out exactly where I need to go for check-in on the day of surgery. I HATE not knowing where I'm supposed to go, so that was very helpful.
The surgeon doesn't believe in making his patients go on a diet before the surgery, which is nice. He asks that I don't go on a binge, and that I eat reasonably for the week before surgery, but I don't have to do anything special, which is a huge bonus! Some doctors require their patients to lose a certain amount of weight before surgery, or crash diet for the week before, according the research I've been doing. I've researched my surgeon, as well, and he has a really good reputation, so that settles my mind a bit. He's done thousands of these surgeries, and I've spoken to past patients of his, and they all had good outcomes.
So, I've been reading Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies, and it's been very helpful in my preparation for the surgery. There is a lot of very useful information covering all aspects of pre- and post-surgery. There are even recipes for the months following surgery.
I'm actually looking forward to the surgery now. I'm going to enjoy the time off of work, which has been very stressful the last few weeks. I think I might buy a new computer game to entertain myself with. My husband and I also just adopted some ferrets, and I'll get to spend a lot of time bonding with them during that time. My final quarter of college just kicked off this week, too, so I'm hoping that I can get ahead on schoolwork in order to reduce the stress level a bit. Here's hoping!
I'm trying to decide where I want to go for my final meal eating out before the surgery. I'll have to do that this coming weekend, because the surgeon doesn't want me going out for the seven days beforehand. It's coming up so fast! After all the preparation, all the waiting, it seems that things are moving along really quickly now.
13 days and counting...
So, sometime this week or next, I need to go shopping and stock up on jello, applesauce, pudding, soup, and anything else of the right consistency that appeals to me. I'm thinking I might buy some baby food. It's the right consistency, and it's in exactly the right serving size. If I can find a good sale, I'll buy some different varieties and see how that works out. It sure would be convenient, that's for sure. I also bought some protein powder called Unjury, which my dietician recommended. It has 40 grams of protein per scoop, and they have different flavors. I got chocolate and unflavored. I was thinking that I could mix the chocolate with fruity stuff, jello, and pudding, and the unflavored in soups and whatnot. It's very important to eat a LOT of protein after this surgery, or else your body will start digesting muscles instead of fat. We DON'T want that!
I did find out that my primary care doctor had screwed up (AGAIN, but that's for another post), and hadn't included all of the labs that I needed in the initial testing. So I had to go get poked again. The bonus is that I went to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue for it, which is where my surgery will be done, so I was able to scope it out and figure out exactly where I need to go for check-in on the day of surgery. I HATE not knowing where I'm supposed to go, so that was very helpful.
The surgeon doesn't believe in making his patients go on a diet before the surgery, which is nice. He asks that I don't go on a binge, and that I eat reasonably for the week before surgery, but I don't have to do anything special, which is a huge bonus! Some doctors require their patients to lose a certain amount of weight before surgery, or crash diet for the week before, according the research I've been doing. I've researched my surgeon, as well, and he has a really good reputation, so that settles my mind a bit. He's done thousands of these surgeries, and I've spoken to past patients of his, and they all had good outcomes.
So, I've been reading Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies, and it's been very helpful in my preparation for the surgery. There is a lot of very useful information covering all aspects of pre- and post-surgery. There are even recipes for the months following surgery.
I'm actually looking forward to the surgery now. I'm going to enjoy the time off of work, which has been very stressful the last few weeks. I think I might buy a new computer game to entertain myself with. My husband and I also just adopted some ferrets, and I'll get to spend a lot of time bonding with them during that time. My final quarter of college just kicked off this week, too, so I'm hoping that I can get ahead on schoolwork in order to reduce the stress level a bit. Here's hoping!
I'm trying to decide where I want to go for my final meal eating out before the surgery. I'll have to do that this coming weekend, because the surgeon doesn't want me going out for the seven days beforehand. It's coming up so fast! After all the preparation, all the waiting, it seems that things are moving along really quickly now.
13 days and counting...
posted by DameKitten at 7:27 AM
2 Comments:
You should make slightly watered down smoothies and you could put the protein powder in that. I loves me some fruit smoothies. Milke, ice, banana (to make is smooth) strawberries, peaches, blue berries, whatever. Since you're going to have a tiny tummy (I think?) you could just use half a banana and less fruit to as not to waste.
I'm so excited for you. Strangely I dreamed about you a few months post surgery the other night; it was weird.
LOL...
Yes, I will have an extremely tiny stomach. The surgery will shrink my stomach to just one ounce, which is about the same size as your thumb. So I will be able to eat one or two swallows at a time, and that's it.
The dietician recommended making a batch of something, and freezing it an ice cube tray, because each ice cube is about an ounce.
I need to buy a scale so that I can keep everyone updated!
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