Jimmy James

Thank you very much. I finish up my pre-surgery work schedule with not too much the next two days followed by a morning of court on Wednesday before taking the afternoon off and getting ready to drive to Richmond. I'll be recovering at my parents' house in the area, and I assure you all that I will be well connected to Internet and updating you. Heck, I hope to be like some others who manage an update the evening of my surgery date! Good luck to everyone!

Some in a support group meeting I had to attend actually reported GAINING weight (like a pound or two) on the pre-op. The point of the pre-op according to my hospital is to shrink the liver, not to lose weight. That's why I have been so bemused by the people who have asked me for a copy of the liver shrinking diet because they figure they'll try it out to lose a few pounds. With that said, I was very bad in the weeks before my pre-op started. I hit 450 after bouncing around 420-430 for most of my supervised diet. I had several last hurrahs. I'm back down to 426 since I started the pre-op. I think it's a YMMV.

I tried the MIO Fruit Punch and won't be back. The packaging in no way regulates what a "squeeze" is, so you're left sweetening to your judgment. While some may view that as a plus, I view it as a minus. With packets, everything is pre-measured for me. It's too bad there isn't a liquid alternative that is appropriately measured to take the guesswork out. I did like the Fruit Punch flavor.

I don't think I'd suggest this to people who haven't done it. Everybody has to decide the amount of risk to take post-surgery for themselves, but I'd personally hate to have a leak that required another surgery due to something like this. I am very happy it seemed to work out for the two of you, and I'd just suggest to anybody who considers this to consider the possible consequences. I can't say whether this was indeed against your doctor's orders, but I can say with confidence based on the course and materials I have received my doctor would not be happy.

I'd kill to have 7-11 here. In the aftermath of my wife's RnY, the sugar free Slurpees were one thing that kept her going. We moved away from Richmond so I won't have them once I leave my parents' house in the area after my one week checkup give or take. If you buy into the don't use a straw stuff, Slurpees are easy enough to eat with a spoon. As for me, when I encounter a 7-11 post surgery, I'll be sucking one down with straw (sugar free of course). I buy into carbonation being bad, but I don't buy into the straw thing personally.

I'm in the 2 shakes plus a small meal camp. I eat the following each day more or less: 2 shakes, 1 sandwich with 4 ounces of ham on double Fiber bread, 1 banana, and 1 container of yogurt (light). I can have some non-starchy veggies, but the sound diet including veggies has always eluded me. I'm actually doing things strangely I suppose. I completely understand and will adhere to the principle of four eating opportunities during a day post-surgery, but I spread this food out to deal with the issue of hunger. I eat the sandwich around noon, the banana around 3, the yogurt around 6, shake number one around 9, and shake number two around midnight. We were advised in nutrition class the timing and distribution of the items in the diet didn't matter, just the content. So far, I think it has been very tolerable. The biggest issue for me is that I'll pass some food ad or somebody eating something delicious I can't have and have to remind myself I can't have that. I love about this surgery that more or less nothing will be off limits in reasonable quantity once in a while unlike the notorious RnY dumping, so I just remind myself nothing is permanently off limits when this happens and I get through okay. People around me are worried I'll be despondent or crabby, but I don't think I have been.

My preop was today. I was supposed to be at St. Mary's in Richmond Virginia at 8:30 to start, but I was there at more like 7:30. I think it paid off because they rocketed me around the hospital and got me out for the labwork by 9:30. That wasn't bad in my opinion for outpatient registration, hospital registration, ultrasound, 10 vials of blood, arterial blood gas, x-ray, and EKG. It seems that's the usual for St. Mary's for anybody going there. I did paperwork, had a consultation with Dr. Bautista, and got my physical at 1. Again, it was pretty quick. I was out by 2. My next appointment is August 11 for this little thing called surgery. Dr. Bautista clarified one thing for me -- he hasn't been using Da Vinci for VSG (just for RnY). That may change with my surgery. If he can get the robot, it seems I'll be the first sleeve he will complete that way. I'm not worried because he is reputed to be an ace with the system to my understanding and this surgery in a lot of ways is simpler than the RnY.

Everybody really is different. I'm scheduled for August 11 and am due back for court (I'm a public defender) on September 12. I built in a conservative amount of time because rescheduling court is problematic, particularly when my clients are in jail. That's just not fair to them. My wife had a lap-roux en y bypass and took four weeks off. She went back a week too early evidently because she was back out and in the hospital after week 5 for another week. Her sister had an open (yes open) roux en y bypass and went back to work just fine after I think 10 days because that's all the leave she had. She didn't look back, either. I'll keep my fingers crossed this works for you!

I started the journey toward this surgery in many ways about six years ago. My wife had a roux en y bypass, and I just wasn't ready for it. My insurer at the time did not approve lap band, and I could not handle the idea of malabsorption. I knew there would come a time when I would take a step like this. I was also in law school and didn't want to interrupt my studies. Fast forward to January 2010. I'm an assistant public defender, and I got a message from my new insurer that a twelve month life coaching/supervised diet would be required for surgery. I decided at that point it was time do do something about my 479 pound self and signed up to begin orientation at Commonwealth Surgeons in Richmond, Virginia. They treated my wife right, so I feel comfortable with them. I went in expecting fully that I'd be resigned to lap band since I am still not a fan of malabsorption. That's when I heard about the VSG. My insurer, Anthem, wasn't approving that procedure but I could hope that would change. I got to start my year of waiting in June (paperwork troubles on the insurer's part), and I found out in December I could get the Sleeve! I finished my coaching in June only to find out my psychiatrist had not completed the written evaluation. It took nearly all of June to persuade him to finish what he started in February. I then ran into a mistake on the part of my surgeon's office that happily they worked with me to correct and we literally beat the clock on getting the surgery scheduled in August without harming my clients by about 5 minutes. I have pre-op education on July 20 and blood work on August 2. I got down to 416, and I settled in now at about 425. I don't have high aspirations -- 250 would be outstanding, and anything south of 300 would just about tickle me pink. Have I missed anything?

I'm all set for August 11 with Dr. Bautista at St. Mary's in Richmond, VA.

AUGUST!!! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jimmy James 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 KristeyK, KristinaRN 25 26 27 28 29 30 31