Barbara278

Marci, best wishes. Already started praying for you and will do so tomorrow as well.

Fabby, I wish I could wear bikini's!! Hopefully after my sleeve and probably plastics...I might be able to. lol :001_tongue:

Thank you so much Katrina! I will have my laptop with me and will be posting updates. :001_tongue:

JeepChick..Congrats!! You are on your way to a new healthy life. You will be in my thoughts and prayers today and if you can, keep us posted on how you are doing.

Well 5 days away from surgery. :001_smile: I think I'm as prepared as I'm going to be. I did last minute shopping for things I need to take with me to the hospital. I bought a cheap gown to wear, just in case I feel good enough after surgery to wear one. I bought a comfy jogging suit to wear there and back. I also took peoples advice from this site and bought some "big girl panties". Sounds like your belly swells up a bit after surgery and big panties are more comfortable than your regular ones (not that my regular ones aren't big girl panties already:001_unsure:). I normally buy my undies at Dillards and never really paid attention to the size. I just pick up an individual pair, eye ball them, and then buy them. Well last night, I decided to go to Wal-Mart to look for those panties that come in packs. I've never bought undies like that before and was a little confused as to what size I needed. After some serious contemplating I picked a pack that I thought would be big on me and headed home. First thing hubby said when I walked in the door is "Did you find some big girl panties"? I pulled out the sealed pack to show him and started to open them up. The first thought that went through my head was "What if these fit me perfect, and I just think these are going to be big on me"? I would NEVER bring these back to get bigger ones. As it was, I made sure it was a lady cashier before I would check out and felt like I was waving them over my head as I walked to the check out counter saying "Hey everyone, look at these huge panties"! :lol0: Funny how our mind works, huh? lol Thank goodness they were big and will work just fine.

Tiff, my choice for you is A.

Here's the information my doctor gave me for pre op diet: Pre Op diet In the obese, the liver is a huge, fatty organ. It is “in the way” of the surgical area during surgery, and must be held back with surgical instruments. An enlarged liver is very fragile and bleeds quite easily when touched or manipulated during surgery. This bleeding can be difficult to control, and the extra care required with an enlarged liver increases surgical risk, as well as surgical time. Longer surgical time and extended time under general anesthesia can make both immediate and longer-term recovery much more difficult for you. For those with a BMI of 40 or over, a special high Protein low-carb pre op diet has been extremely effective in shrinking the liver, so that the risks of bleeding and extended surgery times are greatly decreased. Those with lower BMIs may also choose, if they wish, to follow the liver-shrinking diet to further decrease their surgical risks. Following this SPECIFIC DIET PLAN is extremely important. The goal is not to lose weight, necessarily, but to enter a temporary period of dietary ketosis, which is not harmful to you at all. However, many do lose a good amount of weight, which will jump-start your weight loss as you begin to regain and improve your health. It is this dietary ketosis that results in liver-shrinking and the normalizing of your metabolism so that you can do well with weight loss surgery. LIVER-SHRINKING DIET PLAN There are NO CALORIE LIMITATIONS on the LIVER-SHRINKING diet. You may eat/drink as much as you wish of the allowed things to feel satisfied, although we suggest reasonable limits to assist your weight loss. This does not have to be a liquid diet. Start a low carb (30 grams or less daily), high protein (minimum 60-70 grams daily), keep a close eye on the fat intake (don't over do it) and at least the minimum required daily amount (64 ounces) of plain Water intake diet prior to surgery. If you chose to drink a Protein shake. Please read the labels. You should get at least 15 grams of Protein & less than 6 grams of total Carbohydrates per serving. Protein shakes are NOT required, but are very convenient. You may have low fat yogurt, lean meats, grilled chicken, green vegetables. We recommend checking the carb content on your food. You can find a very useful carb counter on Atkins.com http://www.atkins.com/Program/FourPhases/CarbCounter.aspx

Rachel I'm like you, pretty much meat and potatoes or starches. But I think part of that is because I'm always hungry and those things fill us up. Once we have the sleeve and aren't starving all the time, I think we'll be satisfied with meat, and a few other things. Good Luck on your journey!

Kai, Posted on the other thread, but wanted to tell you here also. Thinking about you and praying everything goes fantastic. Can't wait to hear from you.

Hi Sandy. You will find so many wonderful people here and everyone is willing to answer questions if you have any. Look forward to hearing more from you.

Kai, Just wanted you to know I'm thinking about you and praying everything goes great! Can't wait to hear from you.

Thanks Cajun. I'll be posting from my laptop along the way.

Hopefully everything will turn out great for you. Thanks for your well wishes.

I did buy some Isopure, but still need some other ideas as well. I also bought Pro Performance whey Protein unflavored powder. I bought unjury (unflavored, strawberry sorbet, vanilla, chocolate, & chicken Soup flavors). I also got some Chike (orange creme, banana magic, chocolate bliss, & very vanilla). I haven't tried out any of then yet. Now I'm wondering if I should keep the Pro Performance power. Is it really bad? :scared0:

I'm so sorry to hear that. Why would he think that 210 doesn't warrant another weight loss surgery? If you did so well with the band, I'm sure you'd do wonderful with the sleeve. I would consider seeing another doctor if at all possible. Best wishes to you. Don't give up.

I'm so excited too!!! I haven't done a bunch of shopping. I've had to hold myself back. I'm afraid I'll buy to much stuff and then end up not liking it. I did order sample protien powders from a few companies, and a few other things. I'll probably pick up some other items during the week.

Thanks so much! It's greatly appreciated. :w00t:

Ladies...one more week!!

Thank you so much for your encouragement Tiff!

DeeDee, it's just around the corner but can't get here soon enough. Thanks!

Tracy...ouchie!!! I sure hope the pain eases up and that it's not as serious as it could be. Hopefully the doctor will have some good news for you.

I'm counting down the days. My surgery is January 19th. I've been on the preop diet for 5 days and so far so good. It's a low carb (below 30) high protien diet. The only issue I had was getting a severe headache the first 2 days. The doctor only required a one week pre op diet but I decided to do two weeks. Hopefully next week will go as smoothly as this week did. Next week I will cut out caffiene totally. I only drink it in coffee but I know that will need to go as well. I've only told a few close friends and family and my boss about my surgery. It's kinda of wierd because everyone just thinking I'm going to Mexico for vacation. It's not that I really feel the need to hide it, but I just don't want to deal with all the questions etc before hand. I think after I will be more than willing to say I had WLS. I have some daughter issues that have been pretty stressful but I'm trying my best to keep a cool head and not get overly stressed as I think it can effect surgery and recovery. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude in all areas of my life. I'll write more later as it gets closer. Ciao:001_tongue:

Good to hear your update. Sounds like you are doing very well and adjusting to your new life. Keep up the great work. It will all be worth it. :thumbup1:

Ok...I had to ask Dr. Aceves what his standards were on bougie size. He usually uses a 36 bougie and then he sutures over the staple line making the stomach smaller as if he had used a 34 bougie. He has had patients ask for a larger size and so he is flexible. Thanks for posting this Tiff. This was one of the questions on my "Ask Dr. Aceves List".

Bambi, congratulations! It's so exciting, isn't it? I'm on day 4 of my preop diet and it's really not so bad at all. Maybe it's because I'm so excited about the future. Good Luck and can't wait to hear your journey.