orea15

I'm in Northern VA. I'll be at the Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax. Great place, from what I have seen so far. 10 AM according to the schedule. Thanks for your prayers! Orea

Thanks! :wink2:

I'll take all the good wishes and prayers I can get! LOL I believe those things really make a difference. I'm hoping my surgery time doesn't get pushed back. That would be miserable! I can eat - or rather, drink, and I am on liquids today - until midnight (and take my morning meds later with just enough water to get them down), but I hope to be fast asleep long before then! :wink2: I swear, my body knows something is up, I am SO HUNGRY today!

Good luck and God bless, Mich! :thumbup: Orea

Hi Katarina! I see you. Welcome! It is very common for the second through fourth days to be more uncomfortable because the nice stuff they gave you at the hospital takes a while to wear off. I've heard that our kidneys get stressed if we take in too much protein all at once, so there is another reason to spread it out a bit. General note: I'm finally starting to feel excited! Tomorrow is going to be like Christmas! -- With a little twist! :biggrin2: I'm down to my last few Optifast shakes, which is cause for celebration on its own, in my book. I can hardly believe it's finally here. It has "only" taken about a year. But at least I put that year to good use. Orea

I surely will! I can't wait! LOL

Thank you! I'm feeling calm, ready and just a little excited. :-) The hard part will be jumping up early and hitting the shower first thing while still groggy. I've been trying to adjust my sleeping hours, so maybe it won't be so bad. :thumbup: Orea

Great to hear from you, and I am very glad you are doing so well! I hope I do as well as you, tomorrow! :thumbup: Hugs, Orea

My only regret is that I can't stay awake and watch the whole thing on the monitor! LOL (They did promise me some still pictures, though!) Orea

For the July butterflies banner, choose the one you like from someone else's post, highlight it and copy it. The go to "Edit Options" from the selections over on the right sidebar>>>>>>>. When you get there, choose "Edit Signature" from the left sidebar. You can paste it right in the box there. You can make your own ticker at tickerfactory.com. When you have it completed to your liking, go to the boxes of text at the bottom of that page, and copy the text in the bbCode box. Paste that in your sig file box as well. Check your work by doing a preview. I had to fiddle with it a couple of times to get it to work right and look good. (And I had to remove some blank lines to get it to fit the limitations.) Good luck! Orea

That's great, Lynn, and I see you are over half way to goal! :biggrin2: Orea

I am a day behind you, and I am calm because: I know I have a skilled and experienced surgeon The hospital staff I have met, has been wonderful I know how badly I need to lose this weight I know the rate of complications is very low. I know what is expected of me in terms of diet, etc. Most of the bandsters I know love their bands and only wish they had done it sooner! I know I can handle anything if I just take it one thing at a time. Best of luck to you tomorrow! The surgery is the easy part: You get to take a nap while the surgeon does all the work! Orea

My instructions on mushies/pureed food is to measure out 2 tablespoons of protein and 2 tablespoons of soft veggies or fruit for my meal. Orea

Know that you are in my heart and my prayers, too. :-) We are embarking on the adventure of our lives! Hugs, Orea

That's great, congratulations!

I don't want cartoon characters, either. I went on Ebay and got some Tupperware sippy cups. But you know, those mugs they make for drinking coffee in your car would probably work, too, if they have a relatively small hole at the top. I also found that the tops for my Magic Bullet type blender work well too, because of the relatively small hole at the top. (My blender is by Tribest; I got it from Amazon.)

That's really something to look forward to! As for me, I reached an important mile marker today: As of now, I have exactly 200 pounds to lose. It surely beats where I started. It's going to be a great journey. :teeth_smile:

Welcome, Babysoftly! :-)

ROFL! Well I used to want to be a doctor back in the dark ages, and my handwriting is bad enough to qualify me...

Well that simplifies things! The spirometer is a doohickey you breathe into to measure your lung capacity... to keep your lungs healthy after the surgery. :-) I didn't know what they were until they gave me one and showed me how to use it, at a class I had to take.

Some people are released the same day. I don't know how this decision is made, but my surgeon seems to prefer to keep us overnight. The laparoscopic procedure will change if the surgeon has a problem doing it that way, for example if your liver is too big and fatty, or you have lots of adhesions from previous surgeries. This is why it is so important to adhere to preop diet instructions! There is a lot at stake. If an emergency occurs, they may switch to an open procedure, too. Hope this helps. I'm off to have more Optifast. Orea

The CPAP machine is for those of us with sleep apnea. We need to bring it along so we can use it in the hospital. I've heard that lip balm is good to bring along. Someone suggested Wet wipes. Whatever you need for a little personal hygiene. The interview nurse at the hospital (who had a bypass 6 or 7 years ago and looks great!) suggested I might want to bring a pair of shorts or the like to wear with my hospital gown while walking. A bra that is soft, with no underwires in case you have an incision that might be irritated by it. If you have an incentive spirometer, bring that along. The hospital gave me one to practice on at home -- If you don't have one, they'll provide it there. If you don't know what one is, don't worry! Bring something to occupy yourself, a few books or a DVD player and some movies or an Ipod...labeled!! Reading glasses or contacts if needed. That's all I have on the top of my head at the moment. I was thinking of bringing some funny videos, but then I wondered if it would hurt to laugh.:tt2:

I am excited, and nervous more about forgetting something I need than about the surgery itself. But my wonderful husband has put together a spreadsheet with the master list of what to take to the hospital, what to have ready for afterward, etc. so I guess I'll do okay. They said to label my CPAP machine and stuff, so I had a bright idea and used some of my extra address labels where I could, and a Sharpie for the rest. I'm almost all packed... :-) I may be more thrilled to be on my last few days of Optifast, than the actual surgery! LOL

Aspirin is one, too. It isn't just about upsetting the stomach, NSAIDS coat the platelets in your blood stream so you don't clot as quickly and bleed more. If you have surgery coming up, switch to Tylenol or ask your doctor for a week's worth of Celebrex or something else safe. Interestingly enough, Celebrex is also an NSAID, but it lacks the factor that causes the problem. I'm on it this week for my arthritis in preparation for my surgery Wednesday. --Orea

When you complete your ticker, or update it, if you are using the same place I did, toward the bottom of the page you'll see several boxes of text with labels. You want the box that says "bbCode". Copy the text that is in the box and paste it into your sig file area. Check it with the preview function. I seem to recall that the HTML URL tags showed up, so I removed them and then everything looked fine. Hope this helps! Orea