Hi guys! My surgery is sched for 10/22. Up until i got my date i was motivated...i was excited...BUT nowwwww i am super scared and i keep thinking something bad is going to happen...idk why!!! I try to think positive but for some reason my mind is on the fear of "not waking up". I have had nightmares as well. HELP!!! PLEASE!! any ideas to help my anxiety?and my stupid subconcious? Also my surgeon only wants me to do a 24hr liquid diet..i keel readimg everyone is doing a 2 wk diet..and i am a heavy patient BMI about 65!! Anyone else going thru somethin similar? Anything would help! Thanks ????

*Plz excuse thumb errors*

Your body has all sorts of sneaky ways to try to keep you fat. It wants you to stay fat forever, and is flooding your brain with messages to be "nervous" and be scared of the surgery. Don't let your fat impact your decision to get rid of it and get healthy. This surgery is incredibly safe and your surgeon and his/her team are skilled at keeping bariatric patients safe, I am sure.

As for the pre-op plan, many surgeons have plans similar to yours. You trust your surgeon to open you up and work on your major organs . . . trust him or her to know what kind of pre-op will work best for the patient in question. I know it's tempting to go online and survey what everyone else's doctor is doing and wonder about differences, but *every* surgeon has their own way of doing things.

Three things come to mind:

1) You are going to change your life for the best. You are taking charge of things and making a decision to improve your life. This was the biggest hurdle I faced. Everything else afterwards just flowed logically and fairly easily.

2) If you are concerned about a pre-op diet......then maybe you could contact your surgeon and do one. Have that discussion and don't let it be a source of stress.

3) If your anxiety still is high.....maybe something could be done about that, too. I had an honest conversation with my primary care doctor....and laid it all out for him: my sources of daily stress: preparing for this surgery and irrational fears of it, my job stress and my fear of the workload that would be piling up as I'm at home healing up (3-4 weeks due to a couple hernia repairs during the sleeve surgery), life stress....etc. etc. We agreed that I'm not having depression, but periods of anxiety that hits....not every day and not even every week. He prescribed a medication to take as needed. I've used it on 6 occasions over the last two months and it helped. It had relaxing effect....chilled me out....allowed me to remain calm and sleep easy that night and awake fresh and renewed to face the next day's challenges.

This stress has eased off a great deal since getting through all the steps leading up to the surgery. The date is set and all I have to do is continue following the pre-op diet and ticking off the days on the calendar.

I wish you the best.

Thanks guys @@Dub @@Bufflehead