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surgery tomorrow, any advice?



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On my phone and search is not working.

Surgery tomorrow at 1230 any advice to give from all you postopers?

Thanks ladies and gents.

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Congrats!

Have your liquid pain reliever ready, GasX strips also....remember to sip sip sip all day on liquids. I'm just 12 days post, was off pain reliever within 3-4 days, also didn't need the GasX after 4-5 days. Each day you will feel so much better.

Good Luck and keep in touch!

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Congrats!

Have your liquid pain reliever ready' date=' GasX strips also....remember to sip sip sip all day on liquids. I'm just 12 days post, was off pain reliever within 3-4 days, also didn't need the GasX after 4-5 days. Each day you will feel so much better.

Good Luck and keep in touch![/quote']

Thanks! Have my gas strip in my bag. Can we use those at the hospital? While on the other meds?

Congrats to you. Glad all is well.

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The gasX strips can be used in the hospital, no problem. They will not affect your pain meds or antibiotics. Good luck to you! :rolleyes:

agree...did not have mine with me, but the hospital provided some...

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Best of luck on your journey. My best advice is to recognize that this is a journey and you need to follow the program directives. It is not easy, but it is very achievable. I had my surgery on 11/26 and have not really had any problems. I am down 18.6 pounds. Yeah!

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good luck girl!!! so ready to be where you are :)

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Best of luck on your journey. My best advice is to recognize that this is a journey and you need to follow the program directives. It is not easy' date=' but it is very achievable. I had my surgery on 11/26 and have not really had any problems. I am down 18.6 pounds. Yeah![/quote']

Thanks ;-)

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Best of luck on your journey. My best advice is to recognize that this is a journey and you need to follow the program directives. It is not easy' date=' but it is very achievable. I had my surgery on 11/26 and have not really had any problems. I am down 18.6 pounds. Yeah![/quote']

And awesome job on the lose!

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I'm 10 days out and I was lucky and never had the gas pain. Don't bother with a robe because you will have a bag of saline on you all the time you are there. I took all this stuff with me and just brought it back home.

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Good luck I am 4 days post op and feeling great! The first 2 days are rough because of the gas pains but don't be discouraged everything gets so much better!

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I'm 10 days out and I was lucky and never had the gas pain. Don't bother with a robe because you will have a bag of saline on you all the time you are there. I took all this stuff with me and just brought it back home.

Oh that's true I won't be able to put it on will it :-(

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I have given this advice before, it worked wonders for me.

Be happy tomorrow and cheerful. It's normal to be a little nervous but keep a favorite song in your head and sing it to yourself. Try to go from the moment you wake up through the surgery itself with as much positivity as possible. It actually works.

Bring your favorite decaff tea, my recommendation is Bigelow Peppermint Tea and your favorite sugar-free sweetener. I only use Truvia and they don't have that in the hospital (bring your own glass if you would like and ask for hot Water. Most places do not allow you to drink coffee and yet they serve you hot Water in a coffee cup and you can smell the coffee and it made me feel a bit queasy. They were kind enough to bring me a styrofoam with hot water after that and I had my own tea & sweetener.

Bring lip balm. Your lips will dry out. Many hospitals give you a patch behind your ear that is for anti-nausea. That causes dehydration. When I would go for a walk, I would try to talk and my mouth dried out so darn fast. I made sure I brought one of those swab sticks that were moistened after that.

Bring butt wipes for the restroom, it really does seem to help. The potty thing is annoying after you get your catheter out, sometimes it's a little weird because your bladder sort of goes to sleep so I spent a lot of time sitting on the toilet trying to pee.

If you are given a spirometer, use it often. Pneumonia is terrible, the #1 place to catch pneumonia is in a hospital. Using the spirometer is imperative to open up those lungs. If they don't give you one, ask for one. Make sure you use it often.

If your doctor uses inflatable teds that go on your ankles and calves, ring your nurse to give yourself PLENTY of time to get to the restroom at night, because it takes a while to unhook everything so you can get in the restroom. I had a close call one night, it took a while for the nurse to get to me and unhook me and for me to get out of the bed.

WALK, WALK, WALK, the walking will help with gas. sip, sip, sip, dehydration is horrible.

If you are going to be going in for an upper gi the next day, ask your nurse for an anti-nausea medication beforehand. There is a plethora of anti-nausea medications out there, there is no reason to have nausea.

If drinking cold water is hard, start out trying to drink warmer water or the tea, do your best with the liquids. You aren't going to be chugging 64 ounces of a water for the first few weeks. The peppermint tea was very soothing and it tasted good after it cooled off too, but you can try lemon or whatever you like. They serve plain decaff tea in the hospitals.

If they give you little one ounce med cups, use them. I used to get 3 sips per cup. I kept a water one loaded, and a tea one handy.

It took me about 7 weeks before I could drink water easily out of a water bottle. It caused too much air intake and hurt my esophagus. When you get home, try using med cups or even a shot glass.

When you get home, walk around in the house, set up a timetable of walking, even if it's in a circle through the house. I would walk 20 minutes at a time. I walked loops from the kitchen, living room and dining room. I didn't go anywhere because I had a drain for 9 days.

If you know you are going to have a drain, prepare easy nightgowns to pin the drain to.

If you have a pair of crocs or something to help you walk that helps a lot.

Every day is better than the day before and this is so worth it. Stay positive!

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Walk and sip more than you want to. I mean MAKE yourself do it, like you're in training for the Olympics. The walking and sipping Olympics. Forget about what the scale says for at least 3 weeks. Weird things will be happening that have nothing to do with fat loss. Take measurements and "before" photos right now.

And prepare to be skinny.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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