Hi all! I've been a lurker on this forum but finally decided to sign up and get busy posting with only two days to my surgery day! I am doing the band + plication on Thursday and have just started my pre-op 2-day clear liquid diet... So I was wondering if any of you out there has been told to do the same or not. If so, what's on the menu. Mine does include sugar-free Popsicle and Jello. Other than that just Water and the sugar free soda, tea, coffee, and low-sodium chicken broth without bits. I have never ever tasted chicken broth... Bought a can or two from Target the other day, but I have no clue what the best method to drink it is! Do I heat it or just cold? Anyhow, any tips, pointers, etc. will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

You def want the broth to be heated!! I didn't have a pre-op diet, but I was borderline for a BMI of 30 and if I'd lost weight I wouldn't have qualified for my op.

Your pre-op diet sounds like the week one post diet I had - clear liquids! I also had Miso soup which is easy to make up (you just add hot water to it). They normally don't recommend carbonated drinks post op, so Crystal Light is great (I really enjoyed the peach iced tea flavor).

All the best.

I second everything Tijuana said. However I also had to do a 2 day pre op liquid diet but was not allowed soda, I recommend crystal light or no calorie vitamin water.

Hope everything goes great.

KUP

Well with only a few hours left to eat, I am proud to say that I think I am going to be just fine.... it went by real fast--work has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY which I think has helped tremendously... I heated the chicken broth, added some white pepper (just a tad) as well a tiny amount of lemon juice (0 everything). I have always disliked chicken soup very much... this was better than chicken soup by a tad... not much. But when the closest to food you've had in 48 hours is coffee, everything tastes better I suppose. I could have maybe a cup over the past 2 days... Diet c4arbonated soda was on the list of the things I could have... I just had some diet ginger ale which was really nice (maybe 1.5 cans in the past 2 days). My biggest fear has been lever shrinking... I am hoping I've shrunk that bad boy down enough. I am pretty determined not to even use toothpaste tonight or of course tomorrow... no mouth wash, etc. Just good ol' floss, shower, some sleep (if I can get any), and then head out the hospital real early in the a.m. I have had a ton of surgeries as a kid pretty much since I was born and all the way to around 16... maybe once a year--but they were on my legs for my disability. So I have horrible memories of OR and hospitals in general. I've managed to keep my nerves kind of calm so far, but tomorrow will be an entirely different story I am sure. Do they give you something before taking you to the OR to calm the nerves? I'm gonna take it!

Thank you, ladies, for the helpful hints. Wish me luck!

I think you can have a sedative if you want one. I've always refused them if offered, although some hospitals that know me better just don't offer me them (probably seen on my notes that I don't have them).

Good luck for your surgery.

Well with only a few hours left to eat, I am proud to say that I think I am going to be just fine.... it went by real fast--work has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY which I think has helped tremendously... I heated the chicken broth, added some white pepper (just a tad) as well a tiny amount of lemon juice (0 everything). I have always disliked chicken soup very much... this was better than chicken soup by a tad... not much. But when the closest to food you've had in 48 hours is coffee, everything tastes better I suppose. I could have maybe a cup over the past 2 days... Diet c4arbonated soda was on the list of the things I could have... I just had some diet ginger ale which was really nice (maybe 1.5 cans in the past 2 days). My biggest fear has been lever shrinking... I am hoping I've shrunk that bad boy down enough. I am pretty determined not to even use toothpaste tonight or of course tomorrow... no mouth wash, etc. Just good ol' floss, shower, some sleep (if I can get any), and then head out the hospital real early in the a.m. I have had a ton of surgeries as a kid pretty much since I was born and all the way to around 16... maybe once a year--but they were on my legs for my disability. So I have horrible memories of OR and hospitals in general. I've managed to keep my nerves kind of calm so far, but tomorrow will be an entirely different story I am sure. Do they give you something before taking you to the OR to calm the nerves? I'm gonna take it!

Thank you, ladies, for the helpful hints. Wish me luck!

Good luck on your surgery.

Sounds like you are doing great already. Please let us know how things go and if there is anything that you need that we can help with.

KUP

Hi all! I've been a lurker on this forum but finally decided to sign up and get busy posting with only two days to my surgery day! I am doing the band + plication on Thursday and have just started my pre-op 2-day clear liquid diet... So I was wondering if any of you out there has been told to do the same or not. If so, what's on the menu. Mine does include sugar-free Popsicle and Jello. Other than that just Water and the sugar free soda, tea, coffee, and low-sodium chicken broth without bits. I have never ever tasted chicken broth... Bought a can or two from Target the other day, but I have no clue what the best method to drink it is! Do I heat it or just cold? Anyhow, any tips, pointers, etc. will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Well with only a few hours left to eat, I am proud to say that I think I am going to be just fine.... it went by real fast--work has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY which I think has helped tremendously... I heated the chicken broth, added some white pepper (just a tad) as well a tiny amount of lemon juice (0 everything). I have always disliked chicken soup very much... this was better than chicken soup by a tad... not much. But when the closest to food you've had in 48 hours is coffee, everything tastes better I suppose. I could have maybe a cup over the past 2 days... Diet c4arbonated soda was on the list of the things I could have... I just had some diet ginger ale which was really nice (maybe 1.5 cans in the past 2 days). My biggest fear has been lever shrinking... I am hoping I've shrunk that bad boy down enough. I am pretty determined not to even use toothpaste tonight or of course tomorrow... no mouth wash, etc. Just good ol' floss, shower, some sleep (if I can get any), and then head out the hospital real early in the a.m. I have had a ton of surgeries as a kid pretty much since I was born and all the way to around 16... maybe once a year--but they were on my legs for my disability. So I have horrible memories of OR and hospitals in general. I've managed to keep my nerves kind of calm so far, but tomorrow will be an entirely different story I am sure. Do they give you something before taking you to the OR to calm the nerves? I'm gonna take it!

Thank you, ladies, for the helpful hints. Wish me luck!

How did things go ,are you ok? let's us know

Well, I'm here and I'm alive, so I am grateful for that...

The surgery itself ended up being a nightmare I'm still trying to forget somehow... One little detail I left out when I made my original post was that my surgeon was also going to remove my gallbladder. He actually at first was not a huge fan of doing that but since I had gallstones and the gallbladder had to be removed, and also because doing that would mean the insurance would cover at least part of my surgery, he agreed to remove it too... So fast forward to the day of the surgery now... I go into the OR at 9:15 a.m. hoping I'd be done by 11 or so and head back home by 2 p.m. same day. Well, when I opened my eyes in the recovery room, it was 6:30 p.m. The surgery took 5.5 hours on the accounts that apparently my gallbladder was a "mess" (he hasn't told me what that really means other than that it was big), so it took him an unusually long time to remove that darn thing... Ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days before I was released--what a painful, miserable 3-day. My poor wife deserves a humanity trophy for sticky by me all that time--never went home even; I was in a lot of pain and had a lot of discomfort from the very long anesthesia... the first night my roomy was a poor, homeless guy (the hospital was also my doc's choice--THE worst hospital in this town hand down...). Two full weeks later, I'm still dealing with the stupid anesthesia--5.5 hours of being under takes a long time to shake off apparently! At least he was able to do it all laparoscopically, but the biggest incision (near my belly button) still hurt pretty bad (no infections thank goodness) and the other 3 are not so great either.

Now as for the results... Between my first pre-op visit (5/24/11) and my op day (7/14/11), I lost 18.2 lbs by simply cutting carbs out of daily diet (only 30 grams of "incidental" per day). Post-op, however, I have lost only 6.4 lbs. Haven't lost even an oz since 7/24/11 which is simply hard to believe! I eat just Proteins and vegetables--small amounts because of the plicated stomach, no carbs, etc. so I don't understand why the weight loss stopped all of a sudden! I don't feel hungry, but usually at night I get these weird feelings in my tummy area which feels like it's trying to eat my intestines and my stomach or something... very strange feeling... similar to starvation, but I am not hungry! Oh and I have a TON of internal gas and my stomach growls after the smallest amount of food intake. I had no pain that I could call "gas pain" really, but I do take Gas-X which somewhat helps with the bloating and gas in my belly area. Are these normal??! I saw my doctor 5 days post-op and at the time, he basically asked me to take more hydrocodone... My throat was sore (from the long intubation) up until a couple of days ago, and my right hand's pinky and ring fingers have been almost entirely numb since I got out of the surgery--doc said it's because of the blood pressure cuff, but the cuff was on my left arm not right! I didn't tell him anything then... but they are still numb--2 weeks later.

So now you know why I didn't update you guys on my status earlier. I guess I was hoping all these would simply go away and I'd lose 7 lbs. per week and then I'd update you all on the good news... which ain't happening yet.

Hey, BPdude, I'm sorry to hear you had such a hard time. I know I felt tired for many weeks afterwards due to anesthetic and I was only under for one hour!

My pinky and ring fingers were a bit swollen. Mine was due to it being near the site where they put my drip in. The Fluid caused it and it went away a couple of days after they removed the drip.

I remember swallowing a lot of air for my first couple of weeks, but you sound like you've had a lot more to deal with so it'll probably take a bit longer for your stomach's swelling to go down by which time you shouldn't be swallowing as much air or getting the gurgling.

I hope you start to feel better very soon.

Well, I'm here and I'm alive, so I am grateful for that...

The surgery itself ended up being a nightmare I'm still trying to forget somehow... One little detail I left out when I made my original post was that my surgeon was also going to remove my gallbladder. He actually at first was not a huge fan of doing that but since I had gallstones and the gallbladder had to be removed, and also because doing that would mean the insurance would cover at least part of my surgery, he agreed to remove it too... So fast forward to the day of the surgery now... I go into the OR at 9:15 a.m. hoping I'd be done by 11 or so and head back home by 2 p.m. same day. Well, when I opened my eyes in the recovery room, it was 6:30 p.m. The surgery took 5.5 hours on the accounts that apparently my gallbladder was a "mess" (he hasn't told me what that really means other than that it was big), so it took him an unusually long time to remove that darn thing... Ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days before I was released--what a painful, miserable 3-day. My poor wife deserves a humanity trophy for sticky by me all that time--never went home even; I was in a lot of pain and had a lot of discomfort from the very long anesthesia... the first night my roomy was a poor, homeless guy (the hospital was also my doc's choice--THE worst hospital in this town hand down...). Two full weeks later, I'm still dealing with the stupid anesthesia--5.5 hours of being under takes a long time to shake off apparently! At least he was able to do it all laparoscopically, but the biggest incision (near my belly button) still hurt pretty bad (no infections thank goodness) and the other 3 are not so great either.

Now as for the results... Between my first pre-op visit (5/24/11) and my op day (7/14/11), I lost 18.2 lbs by simply cutting carbs out of daily diet (only 30 grams of "incidental" per day). Post-op, however, I have lost only 6.4 lbs. Haven't lost even an oz since 7/24/11 which is simply hard to believe! I eat just Proteins and vegetables--small amounts because of the plicated stomach, no carbs, etc. so I don't understand why the weight loss stopped all of a sudden! I don't feel hungry, but usually at night I get these weird feelings in my tummy area which feels like it's trying to eat my intestines and my stomach or something... very strange feeling... similar to starvation, but I am not hungry! Oh and I have a TON of internal gas and my stomach growls after the smallest amount of food intake. I had no pain that I could call "gas pain" really, but I do take Gas-X which somewhat helps with the bloating and gas in my belly area. Are these normal??! I saw my doctor 5 days post-op and at the time, he basically asked me to take more hydrocodone... My throat was sore (from the long intubation) up until a couple of days ago, and my right hand's pinky and ring fingers have been almost entirely numb since I got out of the surgery--doc said it's because of the blood pressure cuff, but the cuff was on my left arm not right! I didn't tell him anything then... but they are still numb--2 weeks later.

So now you know why I didn't update you guys on my status earlier. I guess I was hoping all these would simply go away and I'd lose 7 lbs. per week and then I'd update you all on the good news... which ain't happening yet.

Oh ok, maybe my pinky and ring finger numbness is due to the IV... I had it for 3 days, so perhaps it's taking longer?!

One thing I forgot to mention is that I have felt no pain whatsoever in my actual stomach area.... I had the band+plication, and the band is not filled yet, so I have had no episode of getting things stuck although I have been having "soft" food for a week+ now. But thankfully, I have been able to eat my food with little to no discomfort. I had my first salad yesterday... it had shrimp and crab meat in it as well as lettuce, cucumber, and even some bacon and some ranch. I had less than 1/4 of the bowl and I was satisfied and full. In my pre-op diet, I would've finished almost all of the bowl (and I did eat lots of salad in my pre-op diet, and lost weight too). So at least I can eat OK

I'm sorry that u had to go through that horrible experience, but glad that things are starting to get better for u.

Can u Post it under tell your story? A lot more people will respond to this.It so others know of what we go through.

Your body is in shock from both the surgery and the limited calorie intake. It is very common to go into a stall about 2-3 weeks after surgery. Your body is just trying to figure it all out. Just keep doing what you're doing and the stall will eventually break. Don't get too discouraged. I, also had "starvation-like" pains in my stomach, unfortunately for quite a while after my surgery...like a couple of months. It was horrible. I felt like I was ravenously hungry all the time. It would go away for about an hour after I ate, but then it would come back again. Others have said that it could be increased stomach acid production and to take a protein pump inhibitor, but that didn't work very well for me. You might try a Gaviscon or Tums. My doctor didn't know what that was about and didn't agree that it was increased stomach acid, but I know others have said Pepcid or Prilosec or Nexium has helped them. You might talk to your doctor about it. Good luck and KUP!

My doc told me the pains were my stomach muscles fighting against the new stitches, trying to break them lose.

My doc told me the pains were my stomach muscles fighting against the new stitches, trying to break them lose.

What the....?

I'm sorry that u had to go through that horrible experience, but glad that things are starting to get better for u.

Can u Post it under tell your story? A lot more people will respond to this.It so others know of what we go through.

Will definitely do that... Just haven't had time... Hopefully tonight... Oh another thing I forgot to add was that I also had a huge hiatal hernia as well that he fixed! So it was really multiple surgeries all in one...

Your body is in shock from both the surgery and the limited calorie intake. It is very common to go into a stall about 2-3 weeks after surgery. Your body is just trying to figure it all out. Just keep doing what you're doing and the stall will eventually break. Don't get too discouraged. I, also had "starvation-like" pains in my stomach, unfortunately for quite a while after my surgery...like a couple of months. It was horrible. I felt like I was ravenously hungry all the time. It would go away for about an hour after I ate, but then it would come back again. Others have said that it could be increased stomach acid production and to take a Protein pump inhibitor, but that didn't work very well for me. You might try a Gaviscon or Tums. My doctor didn't know what that was about and didn't agree that it was increased stomach acid, but I know others have said Pepcid or Prilosec or Nexium has helped them. You might talk to your doctor about it. Good luck and KUP!

Thanks for the encouraging words and the advice. I am already feeling much better with the strange feeling in my abdomen area. It wasn't really pain, but it was kind of like starvation... but I wasn't hungry... Anyhow, it's much better now... It wasn't acid either by the way. I have been on Prilosec OTC for 11+ years... yup, one every day. Until the day of the surgery. My surgeon promised me that the last Prilosec I'd ever tale was the one I took the day before my surgery... and boy was he right. The pain and all the discomfort was worth just having my acid reflux. I'm still in full disbelief!

My doc told me the pains were my stomach muscles fighting against the new stitches, trying to break them lose.

OK. I have not heard that one before... but you never know... our body is capable of some strange things for sure...

thank you all for the advice and tips. I'll definitely make a post under the appropriate forum. I'm feeling much better already, and to be honest with you, having been in almost misery for almost 2.5 weeks, just the fact that I'm feeling a little bit better for me is a victory... Weight loss will definitely come second to feeling better. I have decided not to weigh myself for a while--just continue to eat healthy and in small portions like I have; in addition, I'm trying to get at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day, which according to my doctor will make a world of difference. Having felt better, tonight I went for a walk (I'm in a wheelchair, so I guess it's called a stroll) for about 35 or so minutes which felt really good. I didn't get that tired.

Good things should follow next, no?

Take care all!