Hop_Scotch

Wow, 4lbs that is wonderful! It is great that the suggestions are successful for you.

I started my pre-op diet today, procedure date is Tueday 16 October. I didn't really have any food funerals, yesterday I wasn't feeling well and today not so flash either, so I jumped right into the pre-op diet.

I can only imagine that this would be very frustrating. I live alone don't/won't have this problem.

That's great, sounds like you are off to an excellent start.

I start my two week pre-op diet on Sunday, good luck with yours!

This bariatricpal magazine article may be of some interest to you: https://www.bariatricpal.com/magazine/696-free-reduced-cost-and-affording-wls/

I assume you are low carb/moderate protein at the moment? If so, its possibly ketosis...being in ketosis can give off an odour something similiar to ammonia. I think it will go away soon

It's great that you are finally on your way, hopefully its smooth sailing for qualification for you.

Hopefully someone will chime in soon to offer their advice about dealing with nerves. Have you seen a surgeon yet, or have you just begun the process?

Wow, not far away for you at all, hope it all goes well for you

Great article, thanks for sharing, its good see a good news story about bariatric options. Well done on the weight loss you are looking wonderful!

That is frustrating! Sounds like an honest omission (doesn't happen very often) or just generally bad administration (happens to most patients).

You probably haven't given sufficient information for anyone to give you query proper consideration. Just to clarify you aren't eating anything other than protein? No carbs? No fats? What dietary instructions did your surgeon / dietician give you? Has your weight loss slowed down at all or has it remained steady? You lost 85lbs all up, was the other 55lb in the immediate lead up to your surgery? How much water are you drinking? How much protein are you eating? And if you are eating other types of food - how much carbs and fats? Dairy? Fruit and veg? What type of exercise are you doing?

It's a week before I start the official pre-op diet, but today I decided to get a bit of an extra start, figured it wouldn't hurt. I have adapted the pre-op diet for this week so its not so VLCD and I will have two meal shakes instead of three. The other meal will be a meat or fish dish with vegetables with yoghurt and fruit snacks. So far I am not inclined towards any food funerals, not to say it won't happen though after all there is a week between now and 1/10/2018. I've created a diet cheatsheet from the instructions provided by the dietician, hopefully it will help me focus. I am on a facebook ESG group (three actually), one of the members asked if I was nervous. Surprisingly I am not nervous yet, but I am sure as date gets closer I will be mighty nervous. Being under certainly doesn't worry me (I been under a number of times for colonoscopies, off course not to the degree of a GA), I haven't had endoscopy before so possibly that will be the thing that makes me nervous, even though I will be out to it. There has been mixed post procedure reactions to pain/nausea that I have read on the FB groups - some seem to have lots of pain and cramping as well as nausea, for others it seems quite minimal. What will be will be I guess, I will need to make sure I have the meds for the worse that I may experience. The most discomfort I imagine is being without fluids for a couple of days, I will have infusions, but it is the extra dry mouth that concerns me. I will be taking mouth spray/lip balm and will swill water and spit it out if needed. I have dry mouth to start with as a conseqence of sjogren's syndrome, I guess the good thing I will be better prepared than most for that. I am just about to go sort out my wardrobe and the many clothes I haven't worn in sometime. Anything I am sure I won't wear again even if it may fit me it will be going in the op shop bag, the others will be arranged in order of size and I hopeful that I will get through them as I work towards my goal! Thankfully I have plenty of clothes to get me through each size. I have also been shopping already for some smaller sizes and I can remember the last time I wore a dress or a skirt, so I bought a LBD, I have never had a LBD. Not sure I will ever wear the LBD out and about (luckily it wasn't that expensive) but I would be very happy to fit into it!

I agree you shouldn't change the way you eat based on one documentary. If next week's documentary is all about the health benefits of paleo with all the free range poultry meat, beef, pork etc are you going to change your diet again? Do your research, make decisions on well-founded unbiased research. The hype behind a lot of the fork over knives, the china study, etc is just biased hype. If you choose to go vegan for ethical reasons that's great, but still do your research and don't get caught up in the biased hype.

Bumping for you, hopefully someone may have some advice or suggestions.

It seems that surgeons have their own preferred pre-op methods, some do not require a pre-op diet, some do, some base the pre-op diet on a persons weight, and heavier they are the long their period for pre-op diet. My doctor requires a two week pre-op diet. If you want to give yourself an extra push, there is no reason you can't do a one or two week pre-op diet...here is one, but there are many others out there. http://www.drjalil.com/jalil-illan-bariatric-pre-op-diet.html

Shingles are not pleasant at all, especially on top of WLS. Have you considered the shingles vaccination? I had it earlier this year. Vaccines may be made differently in the USA but I needed to wait one year after a second bout of shingles before I could have the vaccination.

December 2017 must have been a quiet month for VSGs!

Doesn't look like it, but bumping for you just in case

Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for your date!

Thank you Frustr8 your support is very much appreciated!

Now its getting real and its getting real close. Procedure date is 16/10/2018. Had my skype appointment with the dietician today. Went over the phases: pre-op VLCD, clear fluid diet, free fluid diet, pureed foods, soft foods and then finally on the 25 November I will be able to commence a transition to reduced portions normal foods. Next monday is my appointment with the behavioural psychologist. Over the course of my program (18 months post op) I have four appointments each with a dietician, behavioural psychologist and exercise physiologist and unlimited face to face access to the doctor who will carry out the ESG.

Thanks for posting an update, its good to get ESG updates as it is still a fairly new procedure. You've had a busy few months, hopefully things settle down for you and hopefully thngs improve for your sister! Nine weeks? You can do it, you have it in you to do what you set out to achieve!

Wonderful that you have a surgery date, do you have to a pre-op diet?