Taoz

We are here in the waiting area at hospital. Hubby is feeling a little nervous for me, I think I'm still feeling ok, confident that my surgeon knows his stuff.

Twas the night before surgery, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... except the mummy who still has ten million things to do before she goes to hospital in the morning! I've finished all the food prep and instructions for the hubby to keep both the children and Guinea pigs alive in my absence. Still need to clean and put new bedding in Guinea pig cage, need to water my recently planted seedlings/seeds (rain expected Thursday so this watering tonight then rain should carry them through), pack my hospital bag, shower, and try to sleep

@ Frustr8 : most of us Aussies do love our vegemite, but we would never eat a spoonful of it like we would peanut butter. A jar of vegemite lasts a long time because you only use a really small amount of it, like 1/2 a teaspoon spread/scraped across a piece of buttered toast. Then it is slightly salty deliciousness (but being a yeast extract, I had to mostly avoid it anyway because glutemates like MSG and yeast extract trigger headaches for me).

I made my cauliflower and aged chedder soup tonight... omg yum. I have 36 small servings currently freezing in kmart giant ice cube trays, and will freeze another dozen or more tomorrow with the remainder of the soup. I look forward to being able to have some when I am onto full liquids post op! I've updated the original recipe to list how I made it (omitting the celery and Worcestershire sauce, increasing the chicken stock from 6 cups to 8 for a thinner soup, and I used about 180g of a 200g block of ALDI 36 month aged chedder (hubby ate the last bit)). I am limited to full liquids with no veggies tomorrow ahead of surgery Wednesday. Cauliflower Cheddar Soup.docx

It's fun here in the upside down (Australia). Not the stranger things one though. I'm getting sleeve in a few days and glad dumping is mostly a bypass problem, though I don't plan to be eating sugary or fatty foods anyway.

almost here.... May 2nd here come on little swan! keep swimming!

Old dinner plate and soup mug versus new dinner tea saucer and tea cup (and tiny bowl for early purees/soup)

no special bathing instructions for me here in Adelaide, Australia.

As far as other pain medication options, I take paracetemol 500mg and codeine 30mg when I get severe headaches and menstrual cramping, which I now need my doctors prescription for (used to be over-the-counter for lower dose codeine tablets in Australia). Given that we can't take ibuprofen post surgery I'm glad that paracetemol/codeine is still ok (according to my surgeons instructions). I hope the incision pain goes away soon for you!

*hugz* Hang in there ladies and gentleman, we have almost made it to our MAY DAY surgical rescue. My surgery is this Wednesday, 2nd May! (half a day ahead of the US here in Aussie land) and I hope to post as soon as I"m able to once I'm post-surgery (probably late 1st or very early 2nd May US time). Today is my last day for a while having solids, so I plan to REALLY enjoy my meat and veggies tonight. Tomorrow I have to do full fluids, then fasting from midnight Tuesday (but continuing with water until I arrive at hospital 8:45). My weight loss slowed down a bit last week so I won't be making my overly optimistic pre-op weight loss target of my husbands current weight (106kg) but I"m currently between 111 and 112 which I think is pretty good down from 119kg just over 2 weeks ago. I have already shrunk out of most of my pants I was wearing, and today picked up a few last things at the shops (a sleep/eye mask, a size 20 pair of track pants with drawstring waist (which I could put on today but is still a little tight), and some warm fleecy PJs for the kids now that cool nights are finally setting in. Oh, I also bought a little teacup and saucer set (which will be my soup/purees bowl and plate for a while) plus a couple of mini "dipping sauce" bowls that I think will hold about a third of a cup serving of soup/liquids. I still need to make and freeze small portions of cauliflower soup tonight. Never seems to be enough time to get everything done! I did at least get the rest of my onion seeds and smaller garlic (to eat as garlic greens over winter) planted and deeply watered in yesterday, so my veggie patch should be ready to chug along on it's own until winter now. I've also just realised that I'm having much less trouble swallowing my formulite meal replacement shakes at lunch, and that it is probably because it now tastes a lot more bland to me than it did initially (I assume my taste buds have adapted to it?? fingers crossed it goes down as easy post op once I hit full liquids).

I can't tolerate Optifast because it contains aspartame among other sweeteners (headache trigger for me) but I did sample the chocolate shake (decent when made with ice and icy water) and the optifast lemon mousse dessert was actually really good (made me sad I couldn't tolerate them, but my mum was really happy to take the rest of the package home for her to use!).

YAY EVERYONE! And welcome to all the new May sleevers/bypassers posting here. We are so close now! I only have 3 days to go (my mum and sister were shocked yesterday when they realised how soon it is!) and still haven't been hit by any pre-surgery nerves. I'm hoping that my certainty that this is the right direction for me prevents stressing, plus I've had anesthesia a couple of times (post miscarriage emergency D&C, uterine cyst removal, emergency c-section) it will be nice going under for something PLANNED and not a scary emergency! We had an impromptu family dinner at my house last night after my brothers birthday BBQ in the park as his partner was struggling with lack of sleep with their 3 week old newborn and I offered for everyone to come here and let my brother's partner rest. Had a lovely afternoon and evening with my brothers family, my sister and my mum, and they loved the dinner I cooked, asking for the recipe for the roast chicken wings. I'm so glad I've still been able to have regular meat & veg dinners on my pre-op.. it makes family dinners a lot easier! - I did have to give the delicious tasty seasoned skin from my 2 chicken wings to my husband to devour though - they lasted about 1.5 seconds on his plate LOL. I've been a little more tired the past few days (probably because I've dropped from half real, half decaf to a full decaf coffee in the mornings) but otherwise feeling far better than I would have expected while running at 600-800 calories a day on the pre-op, and I'm only feeling actual physical hunger shortly before lunch and dinner. While I couldn't tolerate the honeycomb flavour, I was happy to find the sample of vanilla formulite meal replacement I ordered goes down fine, the same as the choc-hazelnut formulite I've been having for lunch (I use Aussie brand formulite instead of optifast because it is stevia sweetened, not aspartame, and is lower carb with 34g protein per serve versus optifast 20g). I'm still just having a 200ml 1% milk coffee and a scrambled egg for breakfast. My chewable bnmulti calcium&Vitamin D tablets arrived the other day and I'm super glad that they taste quite decent, I was worried I'd be forcing down something like the fake saccharine orange tasting chewable vitamin C tablets (which I hate) 3 times a day separate from meals (to avoid clashing with iron/multivitamin supplements with meals). I hate the chewable multivitamin (which tastes fake orange) but will be switching from those to the bnmulti capsules as soon as I can tolerate them post op. I almost have all my stuff organised for my hospital stay (minimum 3 nights with my surgeon) - comfy clothes, ear plugs, sleep eye mask, dissolvable semithicone (like American Gas-X) to help with gas pains, comfy slippers, a few bottles of ready-to-drink protein waters, some books to read ROLL ON WEDNESDAY OP DAY!!!

I'm still a few days pre op, but am down 9 kilos (about 20lb) from my 121kg at the start of this year, 124kg mid last year. So far I've retired two of my three pairs of pyjama pants (they were size 24 and got so loose they were creeping up my legs overnight). The last pair is a 20-22 and that will do me until I shrink into the two size 18-20 pairs I bought last week at Kmart ($4 and $7), though as my legs get thinner the material of the current pants is hanging lower and I have to be careful not to trip now while walking! I've also retired some size 24 khaki pants now their waist is too loose to be safe wearing in public. My comfy elastic waisted jeans I'm just pulling in at the back with a safety pin for now, and will make do with them and some yoga pants until I can try some new stuff on a week or so post op.

7L (28 cups) of rich homemade chicken stock. It will chill overnight in the fridge then I can remove the solidified fat tomorrow and make some soup to freeze in 75ml cubes, and I'll freeze some cubes of plain stock for drinking post op too. Bought stock has nothing on the taste and nutrition of the real deal.

My bariatric physician wanted me to do four weeks of pre op VLCD because my BMI was almost 50. However when I saw the surgeon a few days later he was happy to schedule me in for a surgery date 3 weeks later, 2nd May. I'm on the home stretch now with only 6 more days to go, but was lucky that mine isn't full liquids. I was assigned a shake for breakfast and lunch and regular meat and veggies for dinner. I found a shake in the morning upsets my tummy, so stuck with a scrambled egg and coffee using 250ml 1% milk instead. Though I had lost a few kilos earlier this year, just avoiding most carbs, I've now lost 7 more kilos (about 15lb) on my pre op diet these past 2 weeks.

Yikes, that makes things difficult regarding protein intake. Is it only supplements with added vitamins like folic acid? Or is it any form of processed protein at all? Prawns are very high protein, eggs and milk are good for mornings. You could make yourself some baseless quiches with ham/spinach/veggies. Low calorie tinned flavoured tuna is good, as is ALDI tinned smoked rainbow trout. I season (with Italian herbs and a garlic seasoning blend) chicken legs or Marylands and cook for 4-6 hours at 165F with my ANOVA sous vide and they come out amazingly soft and delicious (and the skin stays looking soft, fatty and yucky so you don't have to fight the urge to eat crispy fatty skin).

EDIT: sorry, I misread your first post as the hospital found you DEHYDRATED How much water are you getting in? If the hospital found you were dehydrated then that may be the trigger for the high blood pressure? Start logging your volume of water with something like MyFitnessPal and work at it the whole day long ,(are you still on all fluids? If so you don't need to have non drinking periods before and after meals like will happen soon). The main postings I've seen of (non surgical) health issues in the first 2 weeks after surgery were people who weren't able to get enough water in.

I think in the recipes section there is a subsection for vegetarian/vegan recipes so you'll likely find some other vegan members posting in there Good luck and welcome to the May team! MAY you succeed beyond your wildest dreams!!!

Remember that at 4 weeks post op your body may not be ready for many solids yet. Being full after one or two bites can be normal at this stage. Consider keeping protein water/shakes as part of your daily diet to get enough protein in and focus on getting lots of water in. Your body will still have plenty of fat stores to feed on and provided you can get enough liquid protein in and your essential vitamins you won't be losing muscle mass. Be patient with your body as it recovers from the extremes of surgery. It's been through a lot! Don't start eating unhealthy foods just to enjoy the feeling/experience of eating larger volumes, as eating to appease our minds/feelings are part of what led us to weight loss surgery in the first place. Enjoy the restriction while it is there, and keep up the mental focus needed to make your surgery an effective tool in your weight loss journey. (I am still 1 week from sleeve surgery, I know I'm going to miss a lot of stuff for a while, especially while I continue to cook all the regular healthy solids for my kids and husband, but this is my time to put myself and my health first (for once) and the mental game is key to me succeeding!) You can do this! Keep your long term goals in focus

Pain meds would be good, but dealing with all the heavy bleeding and the loo trips while trying not to hurt my incision points would suck.

For any other Aussies who need to avoid MSG and Aspartame (it triggers nasty headaches for me) or just want to avoid it when having protein supplements, especially during pre and post op liquid phases, I can recommend the following: Choc-Hazelnut Formulite meal replacements are Stevia Sweetened (34g protein per serve is almost double that of Optifast, with fewer carbs). NOTE: I can't stand the honeycomb one, but I assume it's something in the flavour as the choc-hazelnut is fine. I have a sample of vanilla on it's way to me to try soon too. https://formulite.com.au/ Bodie'z clear protein waters are Stevia sweetened. Available in ready-to-drink bottles from some supplement stores and Chemist Warehouse. RTD flavours are kiwi fruit, berry (both 30g protein) and orange however sadly the orange is only 20g protein and has caffeine and guarana included so I avoid it. The RTD drinks are very smooth and easy to drink (taste like cordial/gatorade) and I'll be bringing some of these with me to hospital for post-op. Their powders are available as sample sachets and larger tubs in unflavored/unsweetened (though it still has a weird flavour, am hoping it will be ok in soups at least!), berry powder and an orange powder (the orange powder doesn't have caffeine or guarana added and I'm hoping it tastes like orange gatorade! I have a sample sachet to try soon). https://www.supplementyourhealth.com.au/bodiez https://www.pharmacyonline.com.au/search/go?w=bodie'z&ts=custom I've also just found today a second Aussie-made protein water option called "Protein Perfection" which appears to be Splenda/Sucralose sweetened and you can order a sample pack of 7 sachets of the different flavours available for $15 with free shipping (I've just ordered the sample pack now!) Flavours – Wild Raspberry/ Pina Colada/ Lemon Lime/ Mango/ Passionfruit/ Strawberry Kiwi / Icy Lemonade https://costpricesupplements.com.au/products/1-protein-perfection-protein-water-sample-pack-6-different-flavours/ And the same brand makes a protein jelly in 5 of the flavours https://costpricesupplements.com.au/products/1-protein-perfection-protein-jelly-5-servings/ I plan to order myself a pack of jelly and one or more larger tubs of the protein perfection powders once I've tried the flavours in the sample pack (they sound awesome!) Cheers and best of luck to my fellow Aussie bariatric buddies!!!

I'm still 8 days pre-op, but already 8 kilos (approx 20lb) down in the last 2 months as I cut out carbs and then started VLCD 2 weeks ago. Already had to retire my old PJ pants as they were so loose on my legs they'd ride up above my knees overnight, and today one of my pairs of pants was too loose in the waist for me to be comfortable to wear them in public (I dug out my old size 22 work pants from 2 years ago and put them on instead). I'm looking forward to many nsvs, including being able to cross my legs properly!

Looks delish!

Some headaches could be from lack of caffeine (if you were a regular coffee drinker pre-diet), or from MSG or Aspartame in meal replacements if you are sensitive to them (like I am). I'm about to put up a post for other Aussies looking for palatable options that don't have MSG/Aspartame/Acasulphemate K in them , as our options here are different to those over in the US. Hang in there folks, not long till surgery and the birth of our "new and improved" tummies

I'm 2nd May (8 days to go woohoo!!). As are at least 3 others I've seen posting on these forums, however I'm in Australia so will be a half day ahead of my us buddies. Il try to make a posting ASAP after surgery if I'm up for it. I'm annoyed that my period was due by yesterday but hasn't started yet as I get really heavy periods with nasty cramping and headaches so I really don't want that hitting while in hospital for 4-5 days. I'm guessing the VLCD has thrown it out of whack maybe? I'm otherwise doing fine. The high protein VLCD seems to be agreeing with my system as I'm really not feeling hungry before meal times despite only having 600-700 calories a day. As I said in another post, it would seem my body is happy cannibalising itself! I have to sit down with hubby in the next few days and draw up a detailed schedule for him to keep things running while I'm in hospital (school routines for the kids, dinner plans, managing the Guinea pigs etc)