Today I went to the doctor for my pre-op visit to learn what will happen the day of my surgery. My appointment was at 10:00. About 9:00 I received a call from the hospital to schedule my pre-op visit with them for Monday at 9:30. I am on a roll of getting things done for the surgery. I went to my doctor appointment and everything went great. I have to be at the hospital at 6:00 am on Monday, October 5th for my surgery at 7:30. The doctor explained why I was on the liquid diet to shrink the liver. When you are overweight you liver gets really big due to all the fat and other waste the liver filters. So I have to be on a liquid diet so that the liver will shrink and nothing is stored in the liver. The liver needs to be small because the liver lays on top of the stomach so it has to be moved during the surgery. If they can't move the liver they can't do the surgery and I want nothing to stand in the way of my surgery. While I was at the doctor, I met a lady that had her surgery 5 weeks ago and she was there for her first fill. I also talked with a lady that had her surgery 8 days ago and was having her staples taken out. They both said their surgery went great and they were feeling good. They were only down 4-5 days after the surgery and feeling really good after a week.

The doctor checked out my hernia and said that it was not a hernia but he would check during the surgery to make sure. He said it was the soft tissue around the ab muscle that was being pushed up by all my fat. He said after I lose my weight if it is still an issue, it can be corrected with cosmetic surgery. We will see how it goes.

My food today was a big issue. I ran out of my small bottles of water that I use for my protein drinks so I only had broth and water before I went to the doctor. After the doctor visit, my stomach was rumbling. I made the mistake of going to Wal Mart when I was hungry and I bought and ate food I should not have had. I go chicken from the deli and it was really good but the rest of the day I had to drink broth. Hope to do better tomorrow.

The protein drinks that I am using is from a company my son is a partner in. It is Viacore Nutrition and they have a time released protein drink that have 24 g of protein in a serving and that is more than the drinks have that the doctors sells. It comes in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate and I have all 3 flavors. As Ray, my son, told me, no matter how good it is, after a while you want a change so you need a variety of flavors. They are that bad. I will have to drink them also after the surgery while my stomach is healing from the lap-band being sewn in place around my stomach.

At the doctor today I weighted 258.4. My scales at home have always weighted about 3-4 lbs light so I am going to go with my scales. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.