Deb_Believes

Fabulous!!!!! Thanks!!!!!

Thanks Jenni! Very helpful! I'm taking reading / listening materials & would rather my friends return to work (close by) than take extra time off. That way we have more time for fun stuff over the summer! If I am more nervous than I am today on Monday, they have given me the right to change my mind but I doubt it. Thanks for the well wishes & best wishes to you too!!!

Thanks, Royal! That makes me feel very comfortable re: my plans & answers my lingering question about how soon I will be able to drive! Thanks so much for the info and I'm sure I'll be posting about my progress! Best wishes to you on your continuing positive journey!!! Deb

Fischer, I'm inclined to believe that honesty is the best policy in this situation, even if it ends up having repercusions that you don't like. I would suggest getting in touch with your doctor and being honest with him / her about what happened and what you've done to correct it / get back on track. What I've heard here is that the time that folks have to be on the liquid diet varies WILDLY between surgeons. Some docs say 1 week, others say 2 weeks, mine said 7 to 10 days, but I increased the time b/c I was going to be off of work for the hardest part of the time (the first few days of the liquid diet) and thought it would be easier to get that under my belt when my time was more occupied. It may be that your surgeon will be flexible when you talk with him or her and it won't mess up your date, but better to know than worry and better to know than to have it cause complications. Just my opinion!

You are going to be great & do Great! Look forward to hearing about your procedure & Progress! Thanks for all your Encouragement!

Hi all ~ Just trying to find out if this is a reaction to the liquid diet or maybe a medication reaction. The 1st 3 days of the liquid diet have been a relative breeze, just through dogged determination. Today, however, I have been experiencing annoying diarrhea. Not sure if it is switching over my pain medication to a patch (less to swallow later) & a side effect of that or my body adjusting to liquid diet or both. Anyone else have this experience? Also wondering if this will pass? The pain med is one that I hope loss of weight will help me be able to stop! Less weight, less back / neck pain, less pain med needed is one ultimate goal!

Not mean at all! Much appreciated!

Gigglypug, Thanks so much for this info! I just ordered one to use post-surgery (July 1st is my date)! Much appreciated!

Hey ReadySetGo and other July Folks! I'm also July 1st. I had my pre-surgery meeting with my doctor today. I will be starting the liquid diet tomorrow. Doc said to stay b/t 800 - 1000 calories per day and was very specific about the Protein requirements, etc. This should be.... ummm, interesting. I'm nervous about the liquid diet part, but excited about the surgery and the transitions to come. I have told my close friends, both at work and outside of work, and my family, of course. I just decided that it would be easier for me to be open with people than to have to come up with evasive answers, excuses, or lies. For me, these people are part of my support network and are all being very helpful and offering encouragement. Some asked questions or expressed concerns, but relaxed when I didn't get defensive and was able to answer their questions. Some asked questions that I also wanted the answers to that I added to my "ask the doctor" list. For me, so far, being open with people has been great! I'm not posting it to Facebook or anything like that! Just communicating directly. Nice to see someone who has my same date!!! It will be great to be able to compare notes as we are progressing if you are up for that?!?

Monmouth County here! Bradley Beach. Finally got the formal insurance approval today so my surgery date is now set in stone for July 1st. I have my pre-op mtg wit my dr tomorrow! Excited!

I'm like you, so grateful that I "stumbled upon this site!" At my last appointment with my surgeon, I told him that I had been reading everything I could to learn and soak up information including a website or two and mentioned an app / website. He asked me which one. I told him this one. He said, "Oh, that's good. It's really the best one out there!" I had not really posted to any of the boards before that and had been really cautious. Once he said that, I felt like it was so much easier to just relax! My instincts were that this would be one of my greatest supports and it really has been and I haven't even been banded yet!

Sounds wonderful! My date is July 1st so I have 3 different doctor appointments this week. Two tomorrow and then my pre-op with my surgeon on Wednesday. I've connected with other July folks through another post here. They were suggesting becoming friends on MyFitnessPal.com to help support one another and that sounded great to me too! I've set that account up and have put in the shakes, etc. that I will be using to make it easier. I have tried some of them to see how I like them. I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of how to use that program and this site, but getting better, I hope! Good luck to you!

I'm meeting with the nutritionist on Monday! Doctor's office is confident enough that the insurance will approve all based on their conversations with my insurance company that they scheduled have confirmed my "tentative" date of July 1 as definite. My cardiologist has been trying to get my insurance to approve an echocardiogram for 2 years. This surgery finally got it signed off on, so I have that on Monday, too! I have my final pre-op on Wednesday with my surgeon. I haven't gotten to the nervous stage yet; still feeling very excited. I think nervous will hit when I have to start the liquid diet. I have bought a variety of different products for the liquid diet part so it will be less boring and I'm ready! So glad to have others to talk with who will be going through the same experiences.

Hi - I'm in Monmouth County, too. Dr. Kipnis is also my surgeon. Surgery date is just around the corner.... July 1st.

I wrote out a version of my whole story and accidentally deleted it. Oops! So this will be much shorter and then I will get back to doing the longer one another time. I am very excited to jump headlong into this journey. I joined this site at the beginning of June and am grateful to so many of you for helping me in ways that you didn't even know that you were. I was lurking in the shadows soaking up all of your knowledge and information and thank you for providing it! Now I have my surgery date: July 1, 2013. I am quite excited, a bit nervous (mostly about starting the liquid diet soon - mainly because I have never done it before). But quite frankly, at 49 years old, I am simply sick and tired of being sick and tired, in pain, yo-yo dieting, years of weight loss / gain / loss / gain..... and ready for something that will help me gain a greater permanence. So here goes! Looking forward to getting to know many of you better! Deb