It is official! Yowza! My surgery has been scheduled for February 22, 2021! After months and months of checking off all the boxes in what felt like slow motion, it now seems like someone finally pressed the fast forward button! I am jumping for joy while pushing the panic button at the same time! ACK!

I am in search of book recommendations, items you found invaluable after surgery and any other advice you are willing to share!

Congratulations! I haven’t read any books about WLS. I honestly think this forum is the most valuable thing you can read because it’s from people who have actually gone through what you’re about to do. You can ask any questions that come to mind and there will probably be someone here who can answer. I think a lot of programs fall short on telling patients what to expect, but if you stick around here, you’ll be well prepared.

Items that I find useful:

• A good food scale.
• Protein powder (I tried a bunch of samples during my pre-op diet to find some I liked) - flavored and unflavored.
• A portable blender/milk frother really helps for mixing protein powder.
• Small containers - I have a bunch of 4-ounce glass containers (sold as baby food containers) that are perfect for meal prep, and I also use a ton of disposable 2-ounce containers with lids.
• A good pill organizer- you’ll have to take a lot of vitamins after surgery, so it’s nice to have a big pill organizer. I have one with 7 separate boxes, 3 compartments per day, that all fit into a larger box but can also be taken out individually.

I can't remember if I read any books (I spent A LOT of time on the internet researching WLS, though), but some of the vets on another site I'm on are often recommending "Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies" to new people. I can't really vouch for it myself, though, since I've never read it...

That's great news! Advice: Take the pre-op diet seriously. Now that you're scheduled, don't do any "food funerals" or binges.

Congrats! If you can, try to see if you can find samples of a few different protein shakes or powders for afterwards. The ones I liked before surgery where horribly sweet, smelled gross or didn't sit well afterwards. As such, I spent the first week and a half after surgery I was trying to find and buy different powders or shakes almost daily. It has been very expensive to go that route. Your sense of smell and taste change after surgery so it is hard to know what you will actually like afterwards.

Something else I found invaluable for the first week and a half (I am 2 weeks post surgery and just stopped using it a couple days ago) was an abdominal binder. Velcro to do up, covering from hips to boobs basically. It will help support your sore stomach and lesson the pain if you cough, sneeze, twist or breath wrong. lol. Seriously, huge help!

Thank you all for the advice! I will look into each of the suggestions.

I am sure it is just nerves - I just feel like no matter how much time I spend reading/watching online about the surgery and what to expect after - that I am still going to be severely underprepared... hence the search for books. It is absolute craziness, I know.

Deep breaths. . . . . .