graylola

You may be talking about something else newme-in13. Because the all day class does not include an exercise regiment. The first half of the day is spent with the nutritionist, going over vitamins, supplements, diet plans, what to expect in the hospital. Plus there are a couple of guest speakers. The second half is done by a nurse and is primarily about prevention of blood clots and giving yourself lovenox shots after surgery.

You are amazing! It is so inspiring to hear how well you're doing. I'm starting from a similar weight, although shorter. I had a sad chuckle the other day at the doctor's office when I realized I still had another 160 to lose before I went from "super obese" to "morbidly obese". So I really applaud what you've already accomplished to hit that milestone. What kind of exercise program are you doing?

I really found it helpful to practice this before surgery, but that being said it was still difficult to get used to. The best thing you can do post-op is just have no liquids anywhere near you while you're eating. And don't try anything to spicy or you'll be regretting it. A lot of people in my support group and at my nutrition class were more concerned with the not drinking after. The before isn't as important. The liquid will pass through fairly quickly as long as you don't do anything like chug a thick Protein drink right before a meal. If you're just sipping, I think it's ok to continue sipping up until eating. But definitely give it the half hour afterwards so that you don't push the food through before you've had a chance to digest all of the nutrients.

No, there's no pre-op diet required by St Vincent. I just read about liquid diets on here and thought, well, it might be a good idea anyway. Some of it was just the natural result of giving up things I knew I'd have to for surgery. Starting in January I gave up coffee, pop, tried my best to cut back on fast food in general. I had my pre-op testing/history on February 14th, and that's when it really became real for me that I was doing this, and it gave me the motivation to do the two protein shakes a day plus soup for dinner for much of that 6 week period. But with a bit of cheating thrown in there for having various "last meals"

Had it 4/3. Lost 24 pounds pre-op, lost another 18 so far since surgery. I have read the stories too, and have personally had nothing but great luck. I have no problems drinking fluids at all, except a slight discomfort if I try to drink plain water without something mixed into it or if I try to eat thicker meals (refried beans, mashed potatoes) too fast. I have had maybe a few fleeting moments of what I would have previously classified as hunger, but if I focus on getting some fluids in me I forget the feeling within minutes or recognize it as just some digestion or head hunger. As drea said, there are some general surgery pains those couple of days in the hospital, but otherwise ok. I don't know what to attribute the difference to. Could be that St Vincent is just that good or I was just lucky enough to have a body that reacted well to it all. I think it's wonderful not being hungry. There are moments of remorse, when I think about the foods I can't have, especially in this early phase that's so limited. But I feel great, and that just has to be enough.

Indiana Sleever checking in (I've lived in Lafayette, Mooresville, Terre Haute). Had Dr. Diaz at St Vincent, very very pleased with the experience. FYI, from my experience, the pre-op testing I had to do was essentially a bunch of stations that you circled around to within the hospital. X-rays, ultrasound of the stomach, bunch of vials of blood, medical history. Then the Upper GI, which is somewhat of a pain, but don't let people scare you, it's not that bad. You have to swallow some barium that is really thick but doesn't taste that bad, and then they make you flop around on a machine that tracks the fluid's progress through your tract. Oh, and then the lung/heart station. They hook up a bunch of electrodes and just get a reading to make sure there's nothing funky. And then you breathe into a few machines to test your lung function. It's a long morning, but I found it to be fine. At some point before or after that, they have you do a day long dietician/nurse class where you'll be given a ton of information and a big booklet with it all written down. You might want to take someone with you to help you take notes and think of questions. It's a lot of information. I can't recommend the support groups enough. It's nice to have people who understand what you're going through and have already dealt with the problems you experience along the way, whether it's insurance, food intolerance, struggles with fluids or proteins.

My pain is much improved over the last day or so. I woke up feeling rough, so I took a pain pill, but since then I've just been doing extra strength tylenol. Will probably do the same tomorrow and see if I can make it without by Friday. If I have to spend another day in my apartment after that, ugh. Do you just have one incision? Mine was laproscopic, so I just have 6 small holes. I've heard being cut open feels waaaaay worse, so stay strong on that front. I'm a weirdo apparently. I've met my liquid and Protein goals the last 4 days. Just had to find the types and flavors that worked for me. How is everyone else doing on their activity? I did 10k steps on Saturday and 11k on Sunday, but I'm struggling to make it today. Just too humid out for my tastes and the pain pills made it so much easier those days.

I'm having a hard time distinguishing between general surgery soreness and gas. It hurts to take deep breaths, which makes walking a bit painful. But other than that, liquids and foods are going down without complications *knock on wood*. I tried plain Water the day I checked out of the hospital and that gave me an awful cramping feeling. Sometimes when I'm getting to the end of a meal, I get that feeling too, so I assume that's a sign I should stop. It's worked well so far. I'm living on gatorade between meals but I've also had a couple of Protein shakes. All in all, I have been very lucky. Have you tried different fluids and different temps of fluids? And are you using a sippy cup? The hospital gave me an 8 ounce one and said to just drink one of those per hour.

Is anyone else taking gemfibrozil or lopic (for high triglycerides)? Have you been splitting or crushing them to get them down? So far I've been able to do them in halves, but it always feels like there's a chance it will get stuck on the way down. I really don't want to crush it, though, because it's already hard to handle the bitterness as is. Hopefully I can get into my regular doctor and have him do more blood tests and get me off of it soon. One less pill to take would be nice.

Everyone in this thread is amazing, those that have been so successful and those who are brave enough to take this step towards similar success. It gives me so much hope for how happy I'm going to be by this time next year. I still may not be a "normal" size, but I will be on my way. I'll be closer to normal than be been in a long time, and that's awesome.

April 3rd here, checking in. Finally starting to get nervous about the actual surgery part of it all. I've been taking control of my eating and drinking habits, but haven't given much thought to the operation itself. Now that worry is finally arrived! Ha.

I WISH someone would force me into pre-op diet. Motivation has always been my roughest thing, and since mine is a program that doesn't seem to require anything, I am struggling to keep myself on track for the surgery date. I'm jealous of everyone's pre-surgery successes and admire how strong they had to be. I'm just hoping to get a little under 400 by my surgery date.

I have Indiana Anthem BCBS. I had to do 6 months of check ups with my regular doctor and the psych evaluation. Supposedly they wanted a 5 year weight history too, but the benefits specialist at my surgeon's office said not to worry about not having that. And apparently they have the ability to submit by email, so she submitted it Tuesday morning and got an approval back the same afternoon. Very strange after all the horror stories I had heard.