Malyss

When I was discharged last Friday, I was given the impression that my doctor is against his patients returning to drinking coffee. I'll know more as I go along, but I'm in no hurry. I detoxed about 3 weeks before my operation and so far, my energy levels have been fantastic.

I'm using the nutritional tracker at www.sparkpeople.com . I've used Spark People in the past and have found the site useful. I can also use the site to track my fitness minutes, weight and more.

My only whine is about being stuck at home while recovering from my surgery. I had my sleeve surgery last Wednesday. As per my doctor, I'm not "allowed" to drive until after my appointment with him tomorrow. It's boring here at home. At least I've been able to catch up with Misfits on Hulu. I should probably get around to reading World War Z since my husband brought that home from the library for me. Oh, and it's rainy and cold out, so I cannot wander out for a walk at the moment.

I just had my surgery on 2/22/12 and had to go through 2 weeks of the preop diet. It gave me a chance to try out some of what I would experience on the other side. Mainly, I started focusing on making sure that I stopped drinking Water 15-30 minutes before one of my Protein shakes and that I didn't start drinking water again until 15-30 minutes after. I also think that the 2 weeks of pre op dieting and the one day of clear fluids helped out with some of the mental stuff. At least it was not an abrupt stoppage of solid/regular food a day before the surgery. So, I was somewhat accustomed to not eating big meals, etc. I'll echo the sentiments about not cheating. Cheating isn't worth it. One of the other reasons for the pre op diet is to assist in reducing the size of the patient's liver. This makes it easier for the surgeon to do their job and makes it less likely that the patient's liver will be roughed up in the process. Part of the liver has to be moved out of the way to free up the stomach for the surgery. Best of luck with your surgery! I wish you a healthy and wonderful outcome!

Just wanted to say congratulations. It sounds as though you went into those situations with a great plan and did a wonderful job executing your plan. It's very wonderful that your family supports you and I'm sure that their support helped you stay your course. I have Italians amongst my in-laws, so I'll definitely have to remember the bit about just having a meatball and such!

It can be good to vent, well...unless one is venting from an adjacent table about something that is none of their business! Man, there apparently are all sorts of eating competitions in this world. Screw'em. You're doing what you need to do in an appropriate way. Head up, forge on.

Best of luck with your surgery tomorrow! I have to report to my hospital at 8:15am tomorrow for mine. I'm trying not to be too nervous.

Thanks to all. If I'm too nervous to sleep tonight, I might get a stitch line on it. I enjoy doing little projects like this. Back for Christmas, I made a rag doll for one of my young nieces. I can be dangerous with craft materials.

During my pre-surgery class, one of the presenters stressed the importance of our breathing exercises, coughing up what is in our lungs, and how having a pillow to hold can assist. One of my friends had heart surgery last year and had a heart-shaped pillow for such things. I decided that I wanted a stomach-shaped pillow to have with me, so I made one. I am a bit offbeat and combined the stomach pillow idea with Frankenstein, as I lightheartedly joke about how my new stomach will be a "Frankenstomach." The pillow as a little bit of a rush job because I ended up putting the project off until a couple of nights ago. I'm still debating whether or not to add a stitch line on its forehead. I did make it two-sided, though. As you can see, one side is smiling. The other side now has a frowny face with black eyes for when I'm not feeling that great. (I haven't taken a picture of the frowny side yet.) Given the pillow's size, it's more of a pre-surgery look rather than a post-surgery look. This pillow is nice and big and firm.

"What was your dream job when you were younger and how did you end up at the one you are now?" When I was in 6th grade, I wanted to be a mortician. At the moment, I have a B.S. in psychology & a certificate in gerontology and I work as a shipping specialist in a warehouse. I ended up in shipping after taking the job as a temp job after graduating in December 2007. Since the economy has tanked, I feel as though I've been kind of stuck in my office job. The primary bright spot is that the office job pays $4-5 more than most of the office jobs in my area. Do you have any creative hobbies? Do you paint, craft, sculpt?

I've been "Malyss" since about 1996 or so when I first logged onto LambdaMoo (a MUD/MUSH-esque type of thing) and I needed a decent screen name. "Malyss" rhymes with malice. I prefer to use Malyss for most of my online activities. I like the name. It looks pretty but has darker undertones...sort of how I somewhat imagine myself or some alter ego form of myself.

In my small office, WLS has been an open topic of discussion. It was something that interested me and I started discussing it when another coworker mentioned that she was looking into it. My immediate office coworkers know where I'm disappearing to next week when I go out on short term disability for my surgery. The siblings that I've mentioned the surgery to are supportive, but I kind of wish that I hadn't told any of my family anything about the surgery because I would have enjoyed surprising them on my next visit. I live maybe 6 hours away from my family and I generally see them once a year. During my last visit, I discussed bariatric surgery with one of my nephews (he's older than I am). It was something that he's considering. I also have an ex-sister-in-law who had the gastric bypass or some form of that done and she's doing very well. My friends know about the surgery and are being supportive. I was a little reluctant to tell my in-laws, but they now know. To an extent, I have felt a tad embarrassed about deciding to have the surgery done. Despite my many dieting adventures since at least 7th or 8th grade, I feel slightly disappointed in myself for needing this tool, the sleeve, to assist me. And on the other hand, I sometimes have a devil may care attitude and am open to discussing my plans for surgery.

The month is definitely flying by. I just had my PAT this morning. I don't trust the hospital's scales and I'm looking forward to getting back on my doctor's scales at some point. The hospital's scale had me down from 350lbs to 321lbs. I've definitely lost some weight on the pre op diet, but I doubt that I've lost that much.

Sorry to hear about the rough start, but hopefully it will get easier from here on out. Best of luck to you!

I can't remember, but I think that I ended up sleeping on my back for my sleep study. I usually alternate sleeping on my side, but with all of the wires, I just couldn't see trying to turn one way or the other. For my sleep study, I had to show up around 9pm. The technician showed me to my hotel-like room. She left, then I got into my night clothes. When I was done, she came back and we went to another room to get me set up with all of the little electrodes. I think that the worst part were the electrodes in my hair. The next morning, it was difficult to remove the paste that is used to adhere the electrode. Even though I thought that I had washed my hair rather well in the hottest Water that I could stand, I still found paste in my hair later in the day. After getting wired up, we returned to my room. I had to lie down on the bed, the tech plugged a wire into the box that was connected to all of the electrodes on my body, and then she went back to her station to test everything out. There was an intercom in the room through which the tech instructed me on what to do for the various aspects of testing out the wiring. I had to do things like stimulate rapid eye movement, flex my feet, pretend to snore, etc. There were one or two wires that were bad that the tech had to replace out, and then repeat that aspect of the test until everything was working fine. I was given the option of reading or watching the TV before going to sleep. Then sleep eventually happened. I found it hard to sleep in a strange room with so many wires attached to me, but I guess that I eventually fell asleep. My study did find that I have sleep apnea, so I did have to go in a second time to run through a second test and this time, they hooked me up to a CPAP machine. That was a scary experience at first...until I finally learned to breath with the mask on. I felt as though I wanted to freak out and tear the mask off of my face because I felt as though I couldn't breath. The tech told me to trust her and to relax and that it would be okay and somehow it was. Also, I got wired up for this test as well. This site has a pretty good description of what to expect.

Oh, boy. I just got the call from my surgeon's insurance coordinator. My health insurance has approved the surgery! It looks like I'm definitely on for 2/22. I have my PAT on Friday. My after surgery prescriptions have already been called in and are ready for pickup...as soon as I get paid on Friday. Oy. The big day seems so much realer now!

It gets better. I'm on a 14-day pre-op protein shake diet and I'm about a week into it. I've been trying to practice some things that I'll need to start doing after the surgery such as not drinking about 15-30 minutes prior to "eating" and not drinking again until at least 30 minutes later or so. I'm allowed 5-6 protein shakes per day and if I choose to, I can make them with skim milk or water. If I'm still hungry later on, I can have a lean protein and low carb vegetable. I've been trying to space out my meals as best as possible. I'm probably averaging between 2-2.5 hours between my allotted meals. Try not to let yourself go too long in between. My husband and I were out for a bit on Sunday and I went a bit too long between shakes. It was probably low blood sugar that had me so horribly cranky. It had been maybe 3-4 hours or so since my only shake of the day.

Wow, congratulations! I am also looking forward to someday kissing the plus size stores goodbye. Heck, I'm not a fancy person...so I'm kind of looking forward to having more choices at the thrift shops, but I am also looking forward to having more affordable clothing options at "regular" stores.

It's probably best to discuss the appropriate strategy with your surgeon. One of my prequisite tests showed that I have a rather large gallstone. I spoke with my surgeon about it and since it is not currently giving me any problems, we're going to wait until 2-3 months after my sleeve to take out my gallbladder. I was worried that I was going to have to my gallbladder out before the sleeve. I asked about having it out during the same surgery as my sleeve, but my surgeon prefers to do them separately.

Yay, I'm back on track. I met with my doctor yesterday and we're going to put off the gallbladder surgery until 2-3 months after my sleeve. I'm a little relieved. Now, I have two weeks of my pre-bariatric diet to get through.

My nutritionist and doctor have not banned caffeine for me, but I've decided to kick the habit prior to surgery. My primary motivation was just to avoid the withdrawal symptoms during my recovery should I not be able to fit in any caffeinated beverages. I've been a hardcore user and have been known to drink a 24oz cup of coffee, and 2-3 Coke Zeros throughout the day. So far, so good. I haven't had any caffeinated beverages since Tuesday.

Bah, I think that I'm going to be delayed a bit in getting my surgery. It sounds as though my doctor wants me to have my gallbladder removed before I have my sleeve surgery. I'll know more after I meet with him on Tuesday. Just when I was starting to get my nerve up for the sleeve surgery, I find out that I'm going to be having another surgery. I guess that after finding out that I have a somewhat large gallstone, I was hopeful that they'd be able to remove my gallbladder during my bariatric surgery. According to the office staff, it sounds as though the doctor prefers to do the surgeries separately. *sigh*

I'm fortunate. He's very good about complying with the wearing of the "sock." Heh. My mother had me when she was 46 & my father was 58. I still think that it was a menopausal oops for them. I also question the wisdom of pairing a menopausal woman and a small child together. Bless her heart and may she rest in peace, but there were times...

Scary. And to think that my husband thinks that I'm crazy for wanting to use condoms even if I'm on the pill. I've long believed in the belt and suspenders method.

Man, time is flying by. I just completed my last hurdle, which was my upper GI. I'll soon have my big pre-surgery class and then I'll have to go on the Optifast diet for 2 weeks prior to my surgery. Best of luck to all of the February Sleevers (and all the others as well).