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Great news !!!!

Good luck to you both !!!!!!!!!

Tea sounds doable. Thanks for the tip.

The future use of these two will be what for me as I progress into pre-op bypass and onto post-op life after bypass ? I have over six months before the surgery which is enough time to make huge changes......but ouch ! . I really enjoy these products n daily life. What are the dangers and reasons for eliminating them? Open to advice how you did? I have committed to making all the changes needed......not just the "easy" ones, but I could use some help with better understanding the rationale for this one and getting my arms wrapped around it. Love my Diet Dews and home brew Java made from fresh ground Beans. Love them more than the Snicker bars and pizza that made me the man I am today .

I can't believe how timely this thread is. I'm just two minutes done with a conversation about my HUGE umbilical hernia and trying to figure out how to live with it for the next six months. I don't see my surgeon for the first time until early next month. I have already had two operations on the same. Holding a pillow against the post op site really helped me for the first weeks when I'd be moving around or sitting up. I'm wondering now if a compression wrap of some type around my abdomen would help me get through until surgery. I believe that tonight I am going to be emailing the bariatric program nurse and ask to see if my surgeon will call in a prescription for such a wrap. I just hope to hang on until the end of the year and have it repaired during the bypass. The first time I had it done was above my current weight and the recovery was painful as heck. Outpatient and rushed. Open surgery. The second time was done after a year long exercise & Adkins push where I was 120 lbs lighter and much stronger from weight lifting and long daily cardio sessions. Outpatient and open wound. Two hernias repaired but the recovery was much easier due to greater health. Never made it back to lifting. Stayed away from gym and let cardio sessions fall off. Dropped Adkins. Three years later I'm now carrying 100 lbs of what I'd lost. Huge hernia is back. Dealing with spine issues.....taking yet another round of steroids right now for retuned back spasms........but......MOTIVATED LIKE A BEAST and supper happy now that I'm on the path to bypass. It'll be the tool I need to help me continue losing weight even when I struggle with developing physical injury from time to time that halt gym-cardiovascular efforts. Weight loss will keep going and I'm sure help my spine issues......prolong knee replacements.....hip replacements.....and hernia reoccurrence. I'm thinking that yoga will be a good thing down the road for me.....hopefully this time next year I'll be looking into the classes offered through my gym. I'm seriously hoping they build a pool by then, too. Going to email the nurse tonight and ask for that compression wrap prescription. Surgeon may not since he's not seen me for the first visit. I'll poke around online tonight and see if I see anything that may work anyway. There has to be a product out there....... Good luck with yours. I know how aggravating they can be. Mine has improved since I've lost some weight on my own. The big meals I used to be be eating weren't helping the hernia. I'm virtually off fried stuff and things like pizza and Pasta. Tuna, chicken, salads, oatmeal, Soups, yogurt and such have been easier on the hernia.....and the Fluid loss is noticeable in my knees and legs. Good luck.

Thank you !!! That gives me some serious leads. Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt and Quest bars are big favorites already. Glad to know they'll be staples.

Good call on the Propel. I really like it as well.

Cool. Thanks. We have a Vitaminshoppe and a Sam's. I dropped Sam's membership after costco came to town. May be time to ease back in there and look around.

I'm working a twelve hour shift tonight and I've not have coffee........but......two 20 oz Diet Dews and a 20 oz Diet Dr Pepper. Whew.....I'd normally have another in an hour or so......before I took a break and read your advice. Now....I'm going to go for Water instead and see how that goes....????

Thanks to each of you. I'm hearing you loud and clear. My six months doesn't begin until mid July. I'm going to push myself to have my diet soda intake cut off by then. Days off will be easier than work days. coffee is something that I'm going to have to hang onto for the time being.......at least until I meet with my surgeon and NUT and broach the subject with them to find out the timing of future coffee stoppages.....temp or long term. I understand the diuretic aspects of it and the need to offset with lots of Water. My normal coffee consumption rate is a large cup followed by a large cup and a half of water. I drink a lot of water during the day. The artificial sweeteners are interesting. I agree with the point that they must be okay.....due to the stated comment above about them already being an inclusion to many allowed products. Splenda, Equal or Stevia may be causing global warming or pushing us to a Zombie war.......but it's staying in my coffee......which I'm going to leave as caffeinated for now......... The diet sodas will be tough......but I'll do that NOW vs waiting. I will also begin working on stopping drinking 30 mins prior to eating........and on eating my Protein first. I'm sure there will be many other things to cut out that I need to address. Sooner the better. Ideally I'll be able to live and eat now more and more closely to the post-op way. I appreciate your help with the suggestions, insight and rationale.

I've been wondering the same thing. I knew of a couple excellent Protein powders from when I was lifting weights five years ago...Gaspari Myofusion and one called Trutein. Great flavor and low carbs. I don't know how they'd work for us now, though.

I hank you both so very much for your responses. My reply is short now....in bed and sleeping.....getting ready for night shift tonight. My iPad keeps crashing due to being overly full....memory maxed out. This sight runs very slow on it. Better response will come later when I can get to laptop or PC. Thank you. It's going to go well, I believe. I'll use my time ahead wisely and educate myself as well as continue to adopt new methods now. No more diet soda? No more coffee? Wow. That is going to take some mental adjustment. More than the sugary Snacks I've been dropping from the menu. Diet Dew & coffee is like a food group for me. :rofl:

I've worn 5xlt and 6xlt shirts for most of the last 15 years. Five years ago I became highly motivated to adhere to strict diet and exercise like crazy. 120 lbs of weight dropped and I was down to wearing 3XLT and some 2XLT shirts. Gained it all back and am feeling every ounce of it right now. Hoping everything lines up and this bypass surgery takes place as hoped in December 2015. Ideal size was the question.......I saved most of my smaller sized clothes in belief that someday....somehow....I'd get back to wearing them again. Tossing them just seemed like I was giving up the hope. If I was wearing 2XLT & 3XLT shirts with 120 lbs off........and I truly need to lose 200+ pounds.......then I'm anticipating wearing an XL or XLT sized shirt by the end. 6'4" at 250lbs sure will beat the current 6'4" 450lbs. Lord knows I can't wait to get there.

YES ! Yes, I do. I've had two prior umbilical hernia repairs over the past 7 years or so.....and now I have a monster sized one. I'm hoping that I can hang on over the next 6+ months before my anticipated surgery date. I want to be exercising now and adapting to whatever suggested way of eating the dietician suggests on our first appointment on July 7th. I'll see the doctor on July 1st for first visit and hopefully get hernia recommendations and evaluation. I'm hoping there is some type of abdominal wrap I can use to ease things up so I can burn calories on the treadmill walking inclines. It's a safe way for me to walk as doing open road stuff on uneven pavement is no good on my worn out knees. I want to loose as much as I can prior to this surgery some 6 months from now because every pound off is a step towards less arthritic pain.....lower blood pressure......better blood flow.....etc.....etc. I want to learn what is acceptable hernia pain......and what is scary-dangerous pain that may require immediate repair. I feel for you. Hope you can get it evaluated and hopefully there is something that you can do to ease up the pain.

Yup.....I learned on the second hernia surgery to keep a pillow tucked against my abdomen.....slight pressure. That pillow helped ease the pain of movement and deep breathing, clearing through.....and God forbid a sneeze. I'm hoping that I can employ this same tactic while healing hernia and doing the stuff they'll want me to do for bypass.....leak checks and such. Much respect for 4 weeks out on knee replacement. That is some serious effort on your part. Well done !!!!

Amazing results!!!!!

Outstanding and inspiration!!!!

I'm just now beginning the appointments. I'll be on a 6 month wait that begins on July 7th after the first visit with dietician. I have a massive umbilical hernia (previous surgery on twice for similar repair) that I'm hoping to have repaired at the same time that I have the bypass. The surgeon has a firm 2-3 day hospitalization window with bypass. This is good for the hernia repair, too, I think. The last two were outpatient basis and recovery was NOT fun. I'm concerned about having gastric issues at same time of hernia recovery. I know it'll hurt but at least taking a month-to-six weeks off work to recover from hernia will allow good timeline for bypass adaptation. Thoughts? Insight? I'm lost but feel better about the direction my weight battle is now heading.