Bryn Dawson

Hi Randi, I had to go through a process very similar to yours where it included 6 months of nutritionist visits and 6 months of dieting done concurrently. I am just finishing up those 6 months now while I wait for my surgery date to roll around. You are probably going to have to have a lot of testing done between now and your surgery, in addition to the psych eval you have already had. I had to have an EKG, chest x-ray, bloodwork twice, walking pulmonary function test, and sleep study. Other people have had different testing including cardiologist and pulmonologist, etc. It all depends on your current health and the requirements of your surgeon and/or insurance. For me the diet was and continues to be the hardest. I'm bad about going to the doctor on my own but when someone tells me to I'm pretty good about it, so it's just been a minor hassle running all over town to different labs and docs. However, the diet requires willpower, which I sometimes lack. I have fallen off the wagon lots of times, but I try not to beat myself up about it - I've had a lifetime to develop the bad eating habits and it's going to take time to change them. I just pick myself up and climb right back on that wagon (no matter how much I want to kick it sometimes) and continue on. As you get closer to your surgery (like within the last couple of weeks) you might have to modify your diet. Some doctors require a liquid diet, some don't. You have probably already heard that getting your 70-90 grams of Protein in every day is very important - this will continue to be important after the surgery. Lots of people start trying their Protein shakes out early to see if they can find something they like. (I like powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury, myself.) There are many more people here than just me - this is just my experience so far and everyone's experience is different. I thought I'd share mine since we both have the 6 month lead time.

Wow, there's lots of us July 12th-ers! Utterly cool! I need sleeve sisters so that is awesome. @iegal - I think I'm ready for the major changes... I have reconciled myself to being on a partial liquid diet 2 weeks before the surgery (to keep the carbs down per my surgeon's orders and the NUT) and am basically waiting for that period to begin. I'm trying to take a very 'cross that bridge when we come to it' approach, because if it were up to me I'd be having the surgery even sooner! I'm very jazzed up about this change in my life. I have been working towards it since December of 2010 (when I went to the introductory seminar). This step has been a long time coming and I know it's only one step (albeit a big one!) in my weight loss journey.

You're welcome! It's easy to get lost on the boards in all the hubbub and I didn't want that to happen to you.

Thanks Debbie! Rock on us, Aminah! We can be sleeve sisters!

Yay! I'm glad everything worked out!

Any luck? Got my fingers crossed for ya!

I did get my surgery date today, woohoo! It's July 12th! I was afraid I was going to have to wait till the end of August but Nick, the scheduler with my surgeon, pulled a miracle out of his calendar book! Now to jump through more preop testing hoops... ha ha. I have been to more doctors appointments in the last 6 months than in the entire decade previous. Whoof. Sorry for being hyper but I am EXCITED! YAY!

It has been a long, long haul getting to where I am now - I have effectively been dieting since Jan 6th when I had my first appointment with the NUT. My ticker's accurate for what I've lost so far because of that dieting. I've been up and down and slipped up and fallen off the wagon a lot of times, but I've also stopped drinking fizzy things altogether, soda included, and I've quit smoking, so yay for those goals! It has been hard and is still hard - tonight I am craving red meat really badly (I always do around that time of the month) but... Tomorrow I see the surgeon and hopefully get a surgery date! *bounces* I am sooooooo excited. I hope I can sleep tonight! Worst case scenario: they decide they want me to have even more testing and I don't get a surgery date. But I've jumped through every hoop for them so I hope things will be good. Wish me luck!

I didn't get my 2 year weight history from my PCP for the same reason - I got it from my obgyn instead. Maybe try that?

I have had to quit smoking before my surgery as well - I don't even have a surgery date yet but I am already quit. I figured it would just be easier that way. I have had success in the past with quitting - my problem is not letting stress get to me and starting back up again a year or more later, which I have done twice now. This time I used the Patches to help me quit. So far I have been smoke free since the last week of March. It is really hard, I had cravings for the first week or so but then it got better. Good luck!

I went through this exact same thing last week and am still fighting it off somewhat this week. I totally understand the 'oh screw it' mentality. It is hard, but what I had to do was force myself to make the right choice. The first few times I was white-knuckling it, I tell you. If there is an easier way, I don't know it. But it DOES get easier after the first few times. And remember - one bite or one meal is not the same as falling off the wagon - one bite at a time, one meal at a time when you can't take it one day at a time. Progress, not perfection. You have to push yourself and keep the future goal in mind. Giving in to temptation is part of what got some of us (me!) here so breaking that habit is where the real change arises. The surgery is a tool - this is the work we have to do to use that tool to its maximum. None of that makes it any easier, I know. But sometimes it helps just to know that somebody out there listens and understands - and boy do I ever understand your situation.

This post had me laughing to tears. OHmygod. If you're not a pro-writer, you should be.

I have to put in a vote for the unjury products! I just ordered a starter kit and it had the following contents: 2 packets each vanilla, chocolate splendor, strawberry sorbet, unflavored, and chicken soup 1 16oz Rubbermaid shaker container 1 trutemp food thermometer (because you can't mix Unjury into temps over 130 degrees F or they get clumpy and gross) all for $17.95 plus shipping of $6. The chocolate splendor in the shaker bottle to me tastes like a cross between Ovaltine and Nestle Quik. The vanilla, which I had this morning, tastes kind of like cake batter, or belgian waffle batter, yum! The packs say to mix with 8oz milk, but I had to go up to 16oz because at 8oz the mix was too sweet for me. Each pack has the following nutritional info: 100 cal (mix only, add cals for milk) 0 g fat 140 mg potassium 35 mg sodium 4 g carb 20 g Protein I think you can only get it mail order, but it's better than palatable, so it's worth it for me. Good luck!

That has got to be hard to deal with... almost worse than not having a date at all. I am really sorry that happened to you, but at least you DO have a set date now and you know you will be ready when that date comes. Congratulations on getting a date set!

Crossing my fingers too.... sending good energy your way!

Thank you all for your support and great suggestions. I DO have a motivational outfit - it's a dress I had when I was younger that actually fit me and looked good on me and I think I will be able to get back into it when I get closer to my goal... I really want to be able to wear that dress again, even if it's only for one day (because it's so old) and then say goodbye to it for good and on to SMALLER and better things LOL. You all are really helping me with your hugs and positive words. I really, really appreciate it. Yes it is hard not to have a fixed goal - the 6 month pre-op diet basically says 'have this many calories, less than this many grams of fat, try to keep your carbs low but no magic number, and keep losing'. I don't have my own scale (am going to buy one this weekend) so I only weigh in at the doc's - last month I only lost 2 lbs since the month before. It is hard to keep eating the way they want me to when it feels like it goes on forever with no end in sight and very little reward or positive acknowledgement coming in. I guess I'm like a dog that way - sometimes I want someone to pat me on the head and tell me I did good! I'm feeling better this morning... struggling with a carb craving. I keep telling myself - salad for lunch, salad for lunch! Also having recently quit smoking is something of a motivator for me but it makes me want to eat everything in sight. I am keeping only 'safe' things in sight! Thanks again everyone... have yourselves some lovely weekends!

Good for you that you have made it through the 3 day cycle. I find myself continually having to re-break the carb addiction as I go through a long pre-op period and I know how truly hard it is. Congratulations! Tell those carbs where they can go!

I'm still waiting for my surgery date to be scheduled but it probably won't be till July or maybe even August according to my surgeon. So I'm just plugging away at the preop diet and am really starting to have a hard time. The temptation to just say 'oh screw it' and have something 'bad' (too much carbs or too generally bad like a cheesesteak) is really getting to me. I fell off the wagon for a whole week last week - this week I have been fighting with myself to have the salad instead of the pasta, or the wrap instead of the sub, but I just feel deprived and yucky. Also, I am a big-portion eater, and I CANNOT get my portions down smaller or I turn into a raving psycho from hunger. It is literally ALL I can think about. I am beginning to realize that a lot of my eating must have been emotional to try and stave off that 'oh screw it' feeling. I guess I'm just looking for a little support. I'm tired of obsessing about every little thing that I eat and I know that it isn't going to change when I have the surgery. I don't so much want comfort food as I do just to eat. Normally. Like a regular person. Sorry to be so negative. Any pointers are welcome. I've tried to pull myself up by my bootstraps this week and really get back on the wagon, but it is very hard. -Bryn

today I'm having one of those days where I question everything - I don't even have a surgery date set yet, it's that far in the future. I'm just questioning my decisions because this diet is getting really hard to stick to - I'm consistently either OVER or under my calories, and while I'm under the carbs, my Protein is too high (is that even POSSIBLE?!) and my fats and sodium are too high also (sodium especially). It just makes me wonder, if I can't make it through THIS part how am I ever going to actually make it through having the sleeve done or into life beyond it? I want salt. I am DYING for something crunchy and salty and there isn't anything I can have that fits that category... definitely not today anyway, where I'm over my calories for the day by 70. Stupid whatifs. Stupid arghs. Does anybody have any similar experience fighting this? What helped you get through it?

Well, I went and got my sleep study done, as well as my preliminary bloodwork and EKG. Turns out I do, in fact, have sleep apnea. Oh joy, yet another expense on the insurance. I don't know how well I'll do with the cpap, but I can tell you that I feel pretty good after the 3 hours sleep with it on in the study center. It's a weird feeling to have it on, the way it sort of... inflates your throat kinda. Hard to describe. I feel even better after washing all the goop out of my hair from the electrodes. Bleh! Now off to catch a few more Zs before the day begins!

Congratulations, Christa! What a wonderful feeling that must be! I look forward to getting there myself!

I'm a long way out from even getting a surgery date, but I know that VSG is going to affect the medicine I take for my bipolar as well as the Vitamins and such. Does anybody have any experience with HOW this will actually change? Like, will I be taking a higher dose to compensate for less time in the stomach, or a lower dose because body weight for absorption will be going down? Currently I take 120mg Cymbalta (AM), 5mg Abilify (AM), Multivitamin (AM), 500mg Depakote ER (PM), 20mg Omeprazole (PM) and either 3 or 6mg melatonin to help me sleep. I suppose I can ask my psych this when I have my psych eval but I was wondering if any of you folks have experience with it too? I'm worried about the rollercoaster ride of depression and hypomania and would like to have an idea of what might be in store.

My surgeon is kind of the same way. He put a negative-ish (not totally negative, but not really positive) spin on his opinion of VSG vs RNY. He likes to point out that RNY has been around for years, has over 40 years worth of post-op data, will make you lose more weight, etc. But I am very afraid of dumping syndrome and having the intestinal reroute done - it just seems like too much to me. I want the VSG because I know it's right for me - it will help me to get close to where I want to be (which is bigger than the stupid BMI says I should be anyway - BMI says I should weigh 144, I want to be around 175.) When I told him that he really pushed me to do RNY - he says I'll only get down to around 200 with VSG. I just can't see that as being true when so many people here have said they got down to their goal weight. Surely an extra 25 lbs isn't an impossibility. I think if you are set on VSG then either you need to find another surgeon who is more of a proponent of it, or decide that your surgeon's personal opinion (not professional opinion) doesn't make a difference in your decision. It hasn't in mine - his professional opinion is that it's a good surgery, just kind of an unknown in the long term.

Ugh, I didn't even think about that - sodium being too high = Fluid retention. It's amazing - I went through all this nutrition stuff in health class in high school and sure, I learned it superficially, but now it's sinking in how everything is linked to everything else! Oy! The nutritionist and surgeon's office gave me a binder - this GBMC-COMP program really is comprehensive as all get-out - with all kinds of resources, sample diets, etc. It also has all the rx forms for my preop testing and explanations of what each test is, plus information on the postop diet that doesn't even apply to me (yet!) and stuff like that. The numbers I should be meeting are: <200g carbs, 70-90g Protein, <60g fats, 1800 cals. Right now I'm meeting the carbs and cals and working hard on the protein. The fats is still high so that will be my next big focus, and, of course, the sodium. (Goodbye my best friend salt, how I will miss you...) Haha. I haven't had soda in a whole week. Nothing carbonated at all. It's been surprisingly easy after the first couple days, but I am drinking a lot of mix-ins - Crystal Light and stuff. Maybe that is not helping the sodium - I'll check into it. I'm starting from 'scratch' - no lap-band before sleeving, so I don't know how my weight loss will go. I expect it'll be quick for a month or so and then will start to slow down - hoping that I'm wrong. Thanks for your support here. It means a lot, even though I'm so far out from a surgery date still. Just gotta walk the path and make it there - the gateway to the rest of my life!

Thanks for the responses! It is definitely exciting, though sometimes I do get discouraged. The 'what-if's' sneak in and start asking me questions - what if I can't keep up with the eating requirements, what if I can't do the exercise as much as I should, what if what if whatifwhatifwhatif. I hate the whatifs. I just keep reminding myself to take it one day at a time - to really be present through the process, learn all I can from the nutritionist and the groups, and from resources like this forum. Nice to know there are others in Baltimore too, thanks for the info! Today I had a small serving of Pasta - the nutritionist said to go as low carb as possible but I figured this small serving couldn't hurt and am still under 200 for the day (not that I'm counting.) I have a calorie counter I signed up for free on caloriecount.about.com and it also counts all sorts of other stuff. The only thing that alarms mea little is how high the sodium is. I am going to have to start making a point to get low sodium items.