Véronique

I'm burping and farting quite a bit. What they say is the gas used in a laproscopic surgery exits through the body by burping and farting.

Sometimes, it hurts and sometimes it doesn't. I hear I might get discharged tomorrow.

I've already taken two walks around the surgical unit.

Compared to this morning after I woke up from surgery, I'm feeling much better. The pain has subsided for the most part and I have thrown up thrice. But never let it be said that I don't have character. I sung the first verse of the Marseillaise while being wheeled in to the OR.

Just arrived at the hospital. I'm tired, hungry, thirsty and two hours away from surgery.

So, at church, we have this part of the Sunday Service called "Candles of Community" where people share their joys and concerns in life. I announced that on Tuesday, I'm going to be going under the (laprascopic) knife but I didn't specify why, which is why everyone was swarming me to ask why I'm having surgery. But at least something good happened with that: the members of the church in my town are going to organize to help me with the chores I can't do immediately after surgery.

Here's the e-mail they just sent out:

They know. They asked and I said. I have nothing to be ashamed of, I've tried so many diets and exercises and I am satisfied with the necessity of this surgery.

I'm going to have my last (liquid) meal pre-op right before I head to the support group in Fort Collins.

Yeah, my nutritionist clued me in on this. In fact, I'm thinking about getting a bottled water subscription just so I can have enough chilled water for the liquid diet period.

I guess that could be the case. After all, when the circumference of your waist stops being equal to the height of the Girl Scout who rang your doorbell to sell you cookies, I guess some things might look bigger in proportion.

Well, considering each surgeon has different requirements, your mileage may vary but I know that my surgeon's office says they do a urine test to determine the presence of nicotine or marijuana... which I'm not sure how they can do that seeing as I can't eat or drink anything starting at 11pm the night before the surgery. I'm hoping they do it instead with the two vials of blood they drew from me on Wednesday. Then again, my surgeon's office does tend to refer people to quit programmes across the state, so if you're involved in one of those, obviously they would advise you on how to handle that. Ask your surgeon. I know the feeling. The liquid diet sucks. Well, take comfort in knowing that the hormone that generates the hunger craving is likely to be reduced as a function of the surgery. In fact, I've heard some people say that they've forgotten to eat.

The first time I heard of the concept was at the classes/support groups at Denver Health. I know that when I was attending the medical weight loss classes at Poudre Valley Hospital, I didn't hear anyone talk about the food funeral, which is probably in part due to the fact that at PVH, the medical weight loss classes and support groups are separate events held on separate days at separate times whereas at Denver Health, the classes are also support groups.

Well, it's already worth it to me to have free 2-day shipping. The fact that I get to watch certain shows on Amazon Video for free with it (like Doctor Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and The Newsroom are currently on my "Recently Played" list). What I'd love to see, though, is if they can integrate that Prime Air service they've been talking about for a couple years now with Whole Foods. I know it probably doesn't make much of a difference for people with cars but as someone who takes public transit, this could be a real time saver for me. Me too, but I've had a better time purchasing groceries from Whole Foods than I have with the Vitamin Cottage store, which is actually a ten-minute walk from my home. I would imagine not. From what I understand from the press release, Amazon Prime would be used as a rewards programme for Whole Foods, as well as a means to deliver discounts on certain items. And yet, Whole Foods has made a business based on price gouging.

Yeah, I figure it's important to use all the resources at your disposal to make this a success.

Hey, So, I am about to have surgery with my bariatric surgeon and they offer monthly support groups at Poudre Valley Hospital called "Light for Life". However, since I live in Longmont, my ability to attend these groups is limited. In fact, unless I move up to Fort Collins (which I don't see happening unless I get a job up there), I will only be able to attend one: the one next Monday, as I plan to be staying with a friend up in Fort Collins as I have surgery scheduled for the following morning. One thing I keep hearing is that one key to success is engaging in these support groups. I'm not sure how accurate that is but I'm not willing to neglect any tool that could help me not only get to my goal weight but to keep the weight off. My question is this: is it typically possible to attend support groups set up by other practices when you can't attend the ones with your practice? For example, if you lived in say, Tampa, Florida and had surgery there and you decided to move to Seattle (just as an example), would you have a reasonable expectation to be able to attend the groups there? Or if you worked closer to one set of support groups than another, would you be able to attend those if they worked better for your commute?

I hear you can have Tylenol instead because unlike Advil and most OTC pain relief medications, it's not a NSAID. The reason why NSAIDs are bad for people having bariatric surgery is that NSAIDs can cause ulcers and with bariatric surgery, we have to be extra mindful of this. Though, you should always double check with your surgeon's practice. Better safe than sorry!

Precisely. We have to be mindful of the fact that this surgery is a tool, not a cure.

Dr. Zukowski in Wilmette, Illinois.

... When did you go under, this afternoon? If so, you're lucky! My surgeon wants me at the hospital at the crack of dawn on Tuesday!

I know when I had surgery in Bangkok, Thailand, they wanted me to remain in Thailand for roughly 22 days. I've been talking with a cosmetic surgeon in Chicago and he wants me to remain in the Chicago area for 10 days or so after that series of surgeries. So, it depends on the surgery. One thing I do know, though, is that my surgeon really wants to see anyone who has surgery with him for follow up appointments at two weeks out (my follow-up appointment will be on September 11th and will be the day I know whether or not I can move off the liquid diet to a soft food diet), six weeks out, three months out, six months out, (maybe) nine months out, one year out, and annually after that. Knowing this, I turned down an invitation for a hiring event with Amazon, where they would pay for hotel and airfare to truck me out to Seattle to interview for programming jobs. But do be very mindful of this.

I've had surgery in another country (Thailand, and no, I haven't had bariatric surgery yet - it's scheduled for Tuesday) and I've never had a problem with it. ... It does give you some opportunities for some really neat photo ops. Here's me roughly 55 kg lighter, 8 years ago: If I go back to Thailand (and I do intend to), I'm so going to try to mimic that statue's pose.

Since I'm pre-op, I'm certainly not an authority but weight does fluctuate normally. If it's a pound, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If it's 10 or 20, I would recommend contacting your surgeon's office ASAP. One tool that I have is a Withings Smart Body Analyzer scale, which syncs my weight, heart rate and the CO2 levels in my... bathroom (yeah, I know, you're not supposed to keep the scale in your bathroom, but it doesn't do too well with carpet). The benefit of this is that I can look at a graph of my weight. Here is a six-month graph from my dashboard: Yeah, it's in French... and metric, but one thing you can see is that my numbers are going DOWN for total weight (or poids (kg)) from avril (or April) to août (or August). This kind of thing helps me to see the bigger picture, because while you can see the spikes up and down, what you see overall is the trend.

... Out of curiosity, how did you not read the package? I've been reading my surgeon's guidelines since I learned they were available on the UCHealth website in PDF format. I even attended a patient education seminar where I got a detailed power point presentation about what their practice expects of me and I KNEW that if I gained in the time between my surgical consult and my surgery (or rather, my pre-op appointment), I could be disqualified for surgery. I know there are multiple means by which my surgery could still be spiked, even this far into the process. My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, my psych and medical clearances are done, my dietary clearance is done, I took six months' worth of medical weight loss classes. And I know that there are still things that could go wrong even at this junction... which is why I'm holding any optimism until after I wake up post-op.

Yeah, and it's possible that things might not go as planned. However, I think that they're going to try to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods experience in some way. They may also implement Amazon lockers at other locations, as those are things that already exist (I've seen them in places like a 7-Eleven in North Denver and an auto shop in Longmont). But as for the lower prices on some items, I think that's something that is fairly deliverable, given the fact that they announced it in the press release that is dated just a couple days before this is scheduled to occur. Now, the amount of discounted items in store might be minimal and might be limited to their store brands, but it is a start. Of course, I could be completely wrong but hey, time may tell. I've tried Lucky's Market and I have to say, I'm not exactly thrilled with the selection they have. Same with Trader Joes (the food there kinda tastes funny and plus, since the closest one is an hour bus trip away, I'm not exactly enthused to travel there).