JennieDK

You're taking a great step! It's not an easy fix, but it will put the odds in your favor. I'm three weeks out from surgery, and I've had a really good experience so far! One of the coolest experiences I had was the morning I started my pre-op liquid diet. I texted my friend and said, "Think about it-- I'll never weight this much again." That was a cool thought.

Hey guys! I am really lucky because I feel awesome. I've pretty much been back to normal (other than a little weakness) since yesterday. If there wasn't a huge snow storm coming in tonight, I'd be going back to work tomorrow. I don't have a lot of time right now, but I did sit down a bit ago and update my video blog on youtube. It goes into more detail about what the past week has been like, if you're interested. Here's the link: Have a great day, and I hope all of the sleevers from last week feel as good as I do! Jennie

I have to echo the last note. I had mine on Tuesday, and the first couple of hours were REALLY, REALLY rough. The next two days in the hospital were not bad. I think yesterday was my hardest day. My doc has me on sugarfree jello, broth, and water only. With my vitamins, I'm taking in fewer than 100 calories a day. Yesterday I was really getting low, especially as I was watching everyone else eat. (But I also think I watched too much news-- such awful things going on.) Today, I felt almost normal. I'm really struggling to get my water in, though. The new tummy is making it really hard. I think I got 40 oz today. But I'm working on it. Good luck tomorrow! It will be so worth it!

I just popped on, and your post was completely echoing what I've been feeling. I was sleeved 12/11, and I'm so incredibly burnt out on water, jello, and broth (and I've been told that's ALL I can have). In addition, last night, my husband's family brought over a 6 course meal, including a ham, sides, and two desserts, as if the rest of my family doesn't have any food. (I have had two weeks of meals planned out for them since before I went to the hospital.) And of course they left all of the left overs. Add that to the platter of Christmas cookies my mom brought over just before I went in the hospital. Then, today, I felt good enough to get out of the house, so we went to my moms, where immediately the children were given chocolate and my mom started cooking grilled cheese and chili. Sorry about all of these details, but I feel like other than my husband, I have very little to no support in all of this. And let's be honest. Most of us who are to the point of getting this surgery have some degree of an addiction to food. If I were trying to quit drinking, I doubt everyone would be coming over with drinks!

I'm two days post-op and still very, very sore. It's great to read your post. I don't regret it at all, things have gone pretty smoothly, but I'm ready to feel better.

Well, here I am just 24 hours out from surgery, and I'm feeling pretty good. Everything has gone very smoothly. I'm now drinking water and had a tiny bit of broth and Jello after lunch. I had a lot of nausea yesterday evening, and had dry heaves. That was extremely painful. But the nurses tweaked my pain meds and gave me something for the nausea, and while I've had very mild feelings of nausea, I haven't gotten sick again. I'm sore around my incisions, but not as much as I expected. I know this is super-short, but I need to get another walk in before they bring me more broth for dinner. I hope all the rest of you are having a possitive experience as well.

Getting ready to leave for the hospital! Thanks for all of the well wishes, everyone! You guys are awesome!

I can't believe it's my turn to post that I'm going under the knife in 1 day! What a road it's been so far! I'm working today, but getting off a little early so I can go home and start preparing for tomorrow's big events. I chatted with my 3 and 5 year olds yesterday, explaining that Mommy would be gone for a couple of days, but that it would be a fun time because they'd get extra time with Grandma and Grandpa, which is always an easy sell! I survived the liquid diet-- and actually it was a pretty good experience. I feel like I got to "break up" with food a little before the surgery. Plus, it's a good preparation for what things will be like in the weeks after surgery. I know some surgeons have patients go liquid for as little as 3 days, but I think the two weeks really helped me get in the right place mentally before the surgery. Oh, and I dropped about 7 pounds during the pre-op liquid diet. That was a nice jump start. I really surprised that I'm not more nervous. Honestly, I keep having this horrible feeling that something is going to happen at the last minute that will prevent me from having surgery! That's my fear after all this time, and all this work. Other than that, I know I'm doing the right thing. Maybe that's the upside of this process taking almost 2 years for me. I'm so incredibly mentally and emotionally ready for this. Bring it on! So, I plan on posting as soon as I feel up to it after surgery. Mine is the last one of the day (3pm) so I'm not sure if I'll be up to it Tuesday evening, but I'm going to try for Wednesday! So here goes! I wish all of you who have procedures this week, good luck!

Hello! Good luck tomorrow! I completely understand how you feel-- I go in Tuesday! I, too, am working tonight to get things tied up (wrapping presents, etc., so I have as little to do AFTER as possible.) And I understand the apprehension. I've got two little ones and another getting ready to go off to college, as well as a hubby I adore, so the pressure is on for everything to go well. But they're a big part of the reason we're doing this. I'm a little scared of the surgery, but I'm more scared that something will happen to cancel the surgery! That's my biggest fear. I guess I've wanted this so long that I can't believe it's actually happening! You're going to do great, and you're going to come out better than you've ever been. Think about that, and GOOD LUCK TOMORROW!!!

It’s day seven of my liquid diet, and today was the first time I really struggled. First, let me say that today was a great day in many respects. My husband and I took our oldest on a college visit today where he and other students auditioned and interviewed for theater scholarships. I’m not just saying this because I’m his mom—my son did great! Some of the professors even told me so afterwards. He had such a great experience today (this was our second visit), that he decided to commit to the school, which is a huge load off of all of our minds. My son really shined today, and I’m excited about this new chapter in his life. He's going to do amazing things! Okay, now here’s the crabby part. This, as many of you already know, is just a really hard time of year to be on a liquid diet. (Though I'm sure every time of the year has its own unique challenges.) While on campus today, we were treated to lunch in a recently updated dining hall that truly is more like a collection of restaurants. It puts my old college’s microwave eggs and frozen pizzas to shame! And it was a social lunch, one that was stretched out for an hour so that we could talk to the faculty and visit with other prospective students. I felt a little self-conscious about my tiny bowl of soup (which probably wasn’t even technically on my list) as people went back for seconds. Then, we were enthusiastically encouraged to hit the icecream bar. I got another diet soda—a no-no, I know, but at least it wasn’t the icecream bar, and it made me feel like I was having a treat. After a very long two hour drive, we got back into town right around supper time and stopped to pick up my two younger kids from my mom’s house. When we got there, my kids showed off the frosted Christmas sugar cookies they made and everyone endulged—except me. Now, I can see this as a small victory, and I do, but I felt bad because my 3 year old daughter didn’t entirely understand why I wasn’t eating her special cookies. And I felt like my mom was disappointed in me too. Maybe it was in my head, but she kept looking at me like, “Come on, Jennie, just eat one, for your kids.” Then Mom continued to talk about how excited that she was that her favorite pizza place was moving back into our neighborhood. I got out of there as quickly as I could. As soon as I got home, my phone was ringing. My little sis, who lives 3 hours away, is hosting a girls weekend at her place this weekend. It’s the first time she’s had many of the girls of the family down to visit since she moved there, and she’s especially excited because she has a beautiful new home and it’s all decked out for the holidays. Plus, she’s newly pregnant. If you haven’t noticed already—backing out of the trip is simply not a possibility. She is really supportive of what I’m doing, but in her defense, she’s been planning this weekend for a while, and certainly not just for me. So on the agenda for the weekend: a winery (and I LOVE wine—it’s kinda my thing), a local festival of fresh baked goods and Christmas crafts (the crafts should be cool), and then out on the town for dinner in Kansas City. Sigh. This is going to be a tough week, I can tell. But, here it is: I have 7 days left, and A LOT to do. I have to get sub plans ready for the 9 days I’ll miss work, and I pretty much need to have Christmas shopping and wrapping done before I leave town Friday. I teach a college night class, and the grades for that are due next week, and I have to take my student group out to buy gifts for ten area needy kids that we “adopted” for Christmas. I’m hoping that I’m so busy, I won’t have time to lament the loss of real food. Though this weekend will be tough. I’ll just have to keep focused on my surgery. It will be here before I know it. Writing this all down has really helped me get my head around where I am emotionally today. Maybe I wanted to eat more today because, even though it’s a really wonderful milestone, there’s something very bittersweet in my son’s final selection of a college. This is exactly the kind of thing that I would have celebrated by going out for a nice, high calorie dinner! And maybe it’s bothering me that I don’t feel as supported by my extended family as I wish I was. But on the other hand, I’m never going to change them, and I love them how they are. I’m sure I drive them nuts from time to time. And my husband has been amazing. He’s passing on food all the time just so that he’s not eating in front of me. He is even making all of the dinners for the kids right now, which allows me to make my shake/soup/yogurt/whatever and go sit and unwind a minute alone at the end of the day. So I have a lot to stay positive about—I’ve having the surgery, afterall. I’m only days away from something I’ve wanted for almost two years. So I just need to stay positive. Stay positive.

Congratulations! I'm 5 days into the liquid diet, and it honestly has not been that bad. I'm going under the knife on 12/11! Good luck to you, and be well!

Great entry, and really interesting to read as my surgery approaches (12/11). I wonder how much I'll need to fight the mental aspect of food-- the habit of eating-- after the surgery. I'll just have to retrain myself, I guess. At least the sleeve allows us to kind of start over. Good luck!

Yay! So exciting! I'll be doing it the day before you. Be Well!

Today I went in for my presurg scope, so they can look down into my stomach and make sure all is okay. I'm day 3 into my liquid diet, and because of my scope, I was not able to eat after 10pm yesterday until about 2pm today (after the procedure.) My mom, who is pretty awesome most of the time, went with me today because I needed someone to drive me home after the procedure. (They put you all the way out.) Anyway, we had to sit back in the waiting area for about an hour before the doctor got there, and what did my mom spend that time talking about? Food! She read me a recipe she copied down from out in the waiting room. She listed what he will probably make for Christmas, and she pointed out that they were having my favorite one of her dishes (homemade beef stew) that night for dinner. I finally had to tell her that she was allowed to talk about food for the rest of the day! It was funny, but a little sad at the same time. It kind of encapsulated my experience with my family during times I've tried to lose weight: they say they support me, but then their actions say something else. My grandmother is the same way. She's famous for handing you a cookie, letting you start to enjoy it, and then looking at you and shaking her head, saying, "Boy, we really need to start watching our weight." You gotta love family! But it was a good day. I was nervous about the scope, and it went really well. I had my last official appointment with the surgeon's office until the surgery, and honestly, the liquid diet is not too bad. I've actually lost about 4 pounds in the last 3 days. So onward we go-- 12 days left!

Thanks for all of the encouragement, everyone! I just went spent the evening out with some friends at the coffee shop, chatting it up! Normally, I would have ordered something to much on, or we would have met for a "grown up" drink, but we had a great time, and I stuck to my decaf tea. A good time was had by all!

My surgery is now set for 12/11, and I'm so very excited. On Tuesday of next week I will start the liquid diet, and then I'll be counting the days until surgery. Last night I decided to start organizing my closet. I'm a bargain shopper, so few of my clothes are terribly expensive, but I have a lot of clothes. As many of you can probably imagine, I also have many different sizes of clothes. Right now, I'm comfortable in a 20 and sometimes an 18. It's been many years since I've been less than a 16, though. Still, I'm not good at getting rid of my favorite clothes. I still have the size XL dress I wore to my college graduation in 1999. I found that last night as I sorted through my "I Have a Dream" section of my closet. My son graduates from high school this spring; wouldn't it be wonderful if I wore that dress to his graduation? To save space, I always put my out of season clothes in a couple of rubbermaid tubs in the corner of my closet. Last night, my ritual had a strange element to it. Will I need those clothes in 6 months? I hope not! But I still couldn't find the nerve to give them away. So I compromised: I put some of the clothes that are big (or roomy) on me now in a pile for Goodwill, and then neatly folded the rest and put them in the tub. But before I closed it up, I took a moment to write myself a note. Exactly what I wrote is kind of personal, but I was very aware of the fact that I will probably be very different-- at least in size, but I imagine in other ways as well-- when I open that tub this spring. I'm glad I'm doing all of this, and documenting it. I've actually started loading video blogs into Youtube, but they are pretty amateur, so don't expect to be dazzled. Still, if you're interested, go to youtube and check out: NewAndImprovedJennie.

Good luck, and I hope you get feeling better soon! I just completed day 3 of my pre-op liquid diet, so I understand how you'd love to just have some regular food. But it will be SO worth it! Hang in there!

It seems hard to believe, but after all of this time, we are underway. I started my liquid diet yesterday and so far, it's not bad. Tomorrow, I have a pre-op class, and then they'll be doing my scope, so they can take a peak down my esophagus and into my stomach to make sure there aren't any surprises. Then next week I have my pre-op physical, and then just days after that, it's go time! While all of this is extremely exciting, it's happening at a crazy time of year. With my surgery on the 11th, I feel strongly that I should have my shopping done before I go in, so that Christmas is taken care of. I'm trying to get all of the wrapping and everything done. As a teacher, this is a crazy time, too. This point in the semester is very busy at the high school where I teach, and the night class I teach at the local community college is coming to an end as well. I also sponsor a student community service group, and they have all of their usual December activities. (This is their busiest time of the year.) Anyway, we're all busy, and I just feel like I'm on a roller coaster right now, barreling toward the surgery and everything else coming up. There's not much point to this post other than me expressing the need to pull my hair out right now. But I'm trying to stay focused on my health and getting myself prepared for what's coming. I need to start exercising again, but finding the time is getting trickier and trickier. But if I'm doing this, I know I need to exercise. Anyway, that's where I am today.

Congrats! I was approved this week, too! I'm having surgery on 12/11. Good luck, and be well!

I completely understand, though, about worrying about the habits that are being set for the kids. I love my husband, and I will love him if he never changes, but I would like him to exhibit better eating habits for the kids. And I'm doing this to extend my time with my family-- including him! So he needs to take care of himself, too!

I completely understand. I have a very sweet and loving husband who rewards everything with Icecream and always wants to give me a treat. Tell him next time to get you flowers!

Thanks! I have another one that's going to college next year! He's still pretty cute, too!