I am starting on the 2nd month of my mandatory 6 month pre-op! I decided to jump on in and get all the mandatory stuff out of the way, blood work, Dr clearance, upper GI, and psychologist eval. I go for the upper GI next week and then it will be nothing but a waiting game. I hate the hurry up and wait. The surgeon isn't putting me on any special diet and I will not have to do a 2 week liquid only diet, so that's good.

So what do you do while you wait? I have worn out Youtube videos and forum posts reading everything I can about the surgery and other peoples stories.

I'm much in the same boat as you... and the wait is killing me! Like you, i've done everything I can so far, burned through youtube and podcasts, etc, etc. The wait is driving me crazy. I do know that I should start to limit my portions, eat slower, practice not drinking while eating, etc but its hard to do. Sometimes I feel like all of this isn't real.

My surgeon has a monthly support group which has been helping - everyone says the time flies by, but it doesn't feel like it to me so far.

I've also been collecting recipes of things that I think I might like post surgery - i figure it will be helpful then during meal planning. I suppose trying hard to distract yourself with other things in life is best, but hard to do. Hang in there!

20 hours ago, Superfox1 said:

I am starting on the 2nd month of my mandatory 6 month pre-op! I decided to jump on in and get all the mandatory stuff out of the way, blood work, Dr clearance, upper GI, and psychologist eval. I go for the upper GI next week and then it will be nothing but a waiting game. I hate the hurry up and wait. The surgeon isn't putting me on any special diet and I will not have to do a 2 week liquid only diet, so that's good.

So what do you do while you wait? I have worn out Youtube videos and forum posts reading everything I can about the surgery and other peoples stories.

You could hit a few local support groups, not just for the sleeve but others as well, so you can get yourself a nice full picture of the process overall. You could also start getting into an exercise habit now rather than waiting for after surgery.

On 5/24/2018 at 10:45 AM, reboot said:

I'm much in the same boat as you... and the wait is killing me! Like you, i've done everything I can so far, burned through youtube and podcasts, etc, etc. The wait is driving me crazy. I do know that I should start to limit my portions, eat slower, practice not drinking while eating, etc but its hard to do. Sometimes I feel like all of this isn't real.

My surgeon has a monthly support group which has been helping - everyone says the time flies by, but it doesn't feel like it to me so far.

I've also been collecting recipes of things that I think I might like post surgery - i figure it will be helpful then during meal planning. I suppose trying hard to distract yourself with other things in life is best, but hard to do. Hang in there!

I haven't thought about podcasts. Any you recommend?

On 5/24/2018 at 11:02 AM, Matt Z said:

You could hit a few local support groups, not just for the sleeve but others as well, so you can get yourself a nice full picture of the process overall. You could also start getting into an exercise habit now rather than waiting for after surgery.

I will be starting the work out part next week! Definitely want to get a head start on it.

27 minutes ago, Superfox1 said:

I haven't thought about podcasts. Any you recommend?

Absolutely... google "Reeger Cortell"

The mandatory 6 month preop diet seemed like it lasted forever, but I'll tell you it was what made me a success with the surgery. I lost 88lbs during that preop diet by changing my eating habits BEFORE the surgery. That made all the difference ss I wasn't trying to make life - changing nutritional adjustments at the same time as life-changing physical adjustments.

My advice is to go "all-in" during the 6 month pre-op diet phase. It will lead to a much higher success rate and more rapid loss. For me personally, this meant 88lbs pre-op and now almost 75lbs post-op at about 5.5 months post-op. I'm only ~17lbs away from goal weight and not even 6 months out, whereas most people take 12-18 months to get to goal weight. I also have never hit a stall. My surgeon and nutritionist attribute both of those to me going all-in during the 6 month pre-op phase.

On 5/27/2018 at 9:11 AM, BlueCrush said:

The mandatory 6 month preop diet seemed like it lasted forever, but I'll tell you it was what made me a success with the surgery. I lost 88lbs during that preop diet by changing my eating habits BEFORE the surgery. That made all the difference ss I wasn't trying to make life - changing nutritional adjustments at the same time as life-changing physical adjustments.

My advice is to go "all-in" during the 6 month pre-op diet phase. It will lead to a much higher success rate and more rapid loss. For me personally, this meant 88lbs pre-op and now almost 75lbs post-op at about 5.5 months post-op. I'm only ~17lbs away from goal weight and not even 6 months out, whereas most people take 12-18 months to get to goal weight. I also have never hit a stall. My surgeon and nutritionist attribute both of those to me going all-in during the 6 month pre-op phase.

Good advice. I've been making slow progress, but I would like to be at least 20 pounds down before the surgery