rubyspring

Congrats on making this life changing decision. You are among friends here:) Good luck on your journney.

I've been reading the posts for a few weeks now and even adding my 2 cents now and then but haven't said much about how I got here. At almost 60 years of age I have tried a lot of different strategies to lose weight. I was a chubby child and was closest to a normal weight for the first time when I was in college. After that it's been a yo-yo. My most recent "success" was about 14 years ago when I lost 100 lbs and have gained all that back plus 25 more. The turning point came when the youngest of my 4 grandkids asked if I was pregnant because my belly stuck out so far over my lap; now that knocked the wind out of my sails. So as I struggled with diabetes, high blood pressure, bad knees and other medical problems I realized that I could have a whole lot of good life ahead of me. Today was my pre-op educational seminar at the hospital. Friday is the last of the hospital paperwork and surgery is set for Monday morning. Now that I'm so close I'm getting a bit nervous about all the upcoming changes. I am lucky to have great support from family. I'm even managing the 2 week, all liquid diet without too much trouble though I haven't pee'd this much since I was pregnant. One of my greatest challenges is the exercise. I've started walking but the heat wave in the East put a real crimp in that for several days. But, for the first time in my life, I missed getting out for my evening walks. Maybe there is hope for my succeeding. Well, good luck to everyone else who has undertaken this journey and it is great to know that you are out there ready to answer my questions, listen to my gripes, and share my small steps forward.

I'm not a big eater either but I'm going ahead with my sleeve next Monday. One thing I know about myself was that I was eating all the wrong things: white pasta, bread, cheese, ice cream. I rarely ate a vegetable other than tomato sauce on the pasta and pizza. I'm hoping that the sleeve, eating smart and exercising will get me back to a more normal weight. The only thing I am trying to prepare for is that it may take me longer than most to get to my goal. But living at 100 lbs over is no fun.

I really like my blender because I use a lot of crushed ice in my shakes. It also works well for adding hot broth to the Protein powder i've dissolved in some cool Water - no lumps. Easy to clean; when i empty the shake I rinse the blender and then add water and a few drops of dish soap and blend, rinse and dry.

I like to add Torani or DaVinci sf syrups to my Protein shakes. Both brands have quite a few flavors for variety. I've used both

I'll have to look for some of these. Broth is kinda boring for a vegetarian. Thanks for the tips.

Me too. I remember having my last solid food and trying to decide what vegetable to have - opted for tomatoes. I'm on shakes too, 3 or 4, just so I get at least 70 grams of Protein. Skim milk, broth, sf popcicles, sf Jello, water(thank goodness for crystal lite), and decaf coffee/tea round out the menu. Nothing that needs to be chewed unless you count the ice cubes, lol. So, just over 1 more week pre-op and then more of the same for the 3 weeks after surgery. Good luck to everyone with August dates!

I'm scheduled for Aug 1, can't wait

My pre-op diet is very similar to MissBliss. I'm just finishing day 6 and have surgery on Aug.1. I have 3 shakes and can make them with water, soy milk, almond milk or fat free milk. I can also have low sodium broth and could mix my powder with that though I haven't tried. sf jello and sf Popsicles, too, And including everything mentioned so far, 64 ounces of fluids. I like the crystal lite. I can also have decaf coffee/tea. I've been doing well on this, no hunger. Good luck on your journey. marj

My doc is prescribing Arixtra for 12 days to prevent blood clots; the same thing that Heparin does.

Hope everything went well.

Have you talked with your doctor? Sounds like you may be dehydrated or not getting enough Protein, but the doctor is the best one to judge this. Hope this clears up quickly.

My nutritionist had me start on 1000mcg of Biotin everyday to help prevent this problem. I'm still 2 weeks away from surgery so can't say if it will really work.