ShoppGirl

Ignore this. I had an idea but it says contains milk.

Just checked the protein water I have and it’s whey protein 😢

Just got a call from the pre op nurse. Boy is this getting real!! I’m sure your instructions will be different so Idk if any of this is helpful fo anyone else but I typed it out for myself anyways and figured I may as well copy it here in case there is something someone hadn’t thought of yet. Please let me know if I am missing anything as well. Two Days Before (Monday) Switch to the liquid diet this morning. I also think I’m going to go ahead and pack that evening because there is enough to remember the night before. I have duplicates of all my toiletries and stuff I plan to pack so why not.(move my one rx so I don’t forget and take it in the morning) The Day before surgery: (Tuesday) Skip that one medication I moved starting this morning, switch from full to clear liquid this evening, remove rings, change sheets, take my shower with the special soap, take the nausea pill at bedtime and of course nothing at all after midnight. Surgery Day: (Wednesday) Wake up at 3:30am and take my allowed meds with 12oz of regular sugar Gatorade- finishing everything before 4:30, take my second shower with the special soap, toss towels in wash so they are clean post op, brush teeth and get dressed (which should be pretty fast considering I can’t put anything on my body or hair at all except clothes-no jewelry, makeup, lotions, deoderant, perfume-Nothing. (She said they don’t care if we stink. lol), Then head to the hospital at 5:15. *I have to remember not to pee after that Gatorade because they need a urine pregnancy test shortly after I arrive at 5:30. Turn off phone and give to hubby just before Surgery which is scheduled for 7:30am🤞 I asked about my meds. They say to leave everything valuable at home (except ID and insurance card) including wedding rings and medications but for the sleeve I was on some pretty new meds that they didn’t have in their pharmacy so my husband had to run home to get those. She said that very rarely happens but I could have them handy at home for him (in the original bottles) just in case. So, just a heads up if your driver can’t ever find anything like mine and you are on something less common it couldn’t hurt to leave them in plain view 🤣 I also plan to have a couple of things ready on the table that I will just ask my husband to bring me if it looks like I will end up staying a second night like my crochet bag, a book and some drink mixes (if they don’t have the ones I like). Things I can live without for one night but may want if I’m staying longer. I know at my bospital that they don’t give you a room until you are done with surgery and recovery so your bag has to go into a locker or something and they have to inventory all the stuff so they were very appreciative that I packed light for my sleeve.

Just got a call from the pre op nurse. Boy is this getting real!! I’m sure your instructions will be different but I just thought I would share mine for anyone having surgery for the first time to have some idea but it will also help me to organize all of this in my mind 😊 Two Days Before (Monday) Switch to the liquid diet this morning. I also think I’m going to go ahead and pack that evening because there is enough to remember the night before. I have duplicates of all my toiletries and stuff I plan to pack so why not.(move my one rx so I don’t forget and take it in the morning) The Day before surgery: (Tuesday) Skip that one medication I moved starting this morning, switch from full to clear liquid that evening, remove rings, change sheets, take my shower with the special soap, take the nausea pill at bedtime and of course nothing at all after midnight. Surgery Day: (Wednesday) Wake up at 3:30am and take my allowed meds with 12oz of regular sugar Gatorade- finishing everything before 4:30, take my second shower with the special soap, toss towels in wash so they are clean post op, brush teeth and get dressed (which should be pretty fast considering I can’t put anything on my body or hair at all except clothes-no jewelry, makeup, lotions, deoderant, perfume-Nothing. (She said they don’t care if we stink. lol), Then head to the hospital at 5:15. *I have to remember not to pee after that Gatorade because they need a urine pregnancy test shortly after I arrive at 5:30. Turn off phone and/or give to hubby just before Surgery which is scheduled for 7:30am🤞 I asked about my meds. They say to leave everything valuable at home (except ID and insurance card) including wedding rings and medications but for the sleeve I was on some pretty new meds that they didn’t have in their pharmacy so my husband had to run home to get those. She said that very rarely happens but I could have them handy at home for him (in the original bottles) just in case. So, just a heads up if your driver can’t ever find anything like mine and you are on something less common it couldn’t hurt to leave them in plain view 🤣 I also plan to have a couple of things ready on the table that I will just ask my husband to bring me if it looks like I will end up staying a second night like my crochet bag, a book and some drink mixes (if they don’t have the ones I like). Things I can live without for one night but may want if I’m staying longer. I know at my bospital that they don’t give you a room until you are done with surgery so your bag has to go into a locker or something and they have to inventory all the stuff so they were very appreciative that I packed light last time.

I honestly don’t think them smart scales are super accurate. I’ve seen a few people on here say they got DEXA scans and that their scale was not the same. That being said. They do warn that we will lose muscle and that’s why it’s important to start with some strength building as soon as we are cleared to do so. About the stall, some people do actually gain a little. Usually it’s followed by a quick drop of that gain- plus some. I think it’s your body trying to hang onto every single calorie it gets because it thinks it’s starving. Sorta has to recalibrate for a short time and then you should be back on the downward trend. If my google search is correct 1kg is only 2.2 pounds. Honestly you could see that fluctuation any day. Doesn’t even have to be a stall. Could be your body retaining water or your bowels are full or you weighed at a differnt time of day. Virtually anything can cause that. That’s why they say it’s best to not weigh daily. I know it’s hard not to and I’m guilty of it too but we really do just cause ourselves unnecessary stress by doing it. When I had my sleeve my daily loss fluctuated several times by a couple of pounds. Even 3 or 4 a couple times because I weighed daily. But I did only record my weight once a week and that made it way easier to see the overall downward trend.

With my upcoming revision I was asking about the long term effects of PPi’s and my Dr told me that if I was really concerned we could try famotadine. So the past three days I took it twice a day as prescribed and it wasn’t bad all day but at night when I laid down the heartburn was enough to keep me awake. Does this mean it just doesn’t work for me or do I need to give it more time? The lady at the pharmacy said it took lile a week for her but I don’t know if she was on something before that. I literally took my Omeprazole the day before. Does it mayne just depend on what causing it?

My jello says you can add ice cubes to speed it up some 🤷🏼‍♀️. I’m on day 8 of 16 I’m doing okay but I think this diet is making me kind of testy. My friend thinks it’s hilarious because it is so not me and she thinks that I need to be more assertive and speak my mind anyways. I have to admit I got a little smart with a customer service rep who had dropped the ball on something and that got the ball rolling again real quick. I hung up and thought maybe I need to be bitchy more often. 🤣 🤣

You guys may have seen it one here as well but on another thread someone said that they wrote a letter before their surgery to their future self to read at like 6 months out or whenever things started to get a little tough. Just a reminder of where they were and why they don’t want to end up back there. I thought that was a great idea. One worth sharing.t

Great ideas. Just keep in mind if you wear readers you will for sure need them for that diamond painting. Even still my eyes were bugging out after a while. Them things are tiny. I had that for another surgery and I did it through the recovery but ended up giving the book to my neice after that. And Netflix is really great because there are not any food commercials. They do have food on the shows but at least it’s not like a sizzling burger that they are tryin to make your mouth water in order to sell you one. Puzzles are another thing I’ve heard some people say they did during their recovery. And of course journaling. Lots of emotions to write about.

So I follow the food before and after thread and I’m always amazed by all the yummy looking things they come up with but I am more of the five ingredients or less kind of cook so I lurke and admire but rarely post anything. I really struggle with variety and I am always looking for new ideas. Today I bought lean beef, mahi mahi and chicken breasts and now I’m sitting here trying to think of what to make for dinner but nothing sounds good. Does anyone have any tasty, yet somewhat easy, recipes or suggestions. I am trying to start eating close to how I will be eventually eating post revision surgery that is scheduled for early august. What your plan for dinner tonight??

@Greekmom4 looks like you are the day before me. I’m August 7th. My pre op is 16 days total so I am on day 8 of 16. Woohoo half way there. It’s not awful but I am getting board with it. Only 6 more days till I switch to liquids.

How many people can eat a cup and a half of food once they are a ways out from sleeve? If not, how much can you eat? I am so sorry for those who are probably getting sick of watching me vascilating but I am getting so close and I am still just not sure if I am making the right decision to revise to SADI. I am so worried that the results he is promising me won’t be what I actually get since I can already eat more than most people with a sleeve. At least with the bypass he would operate on my stomach too. He had seen my sleeve during endoscopy and says it looks good. I don’t know why but I feel like I can eat more than I should and I just don’t know if that’s going to make my results less than others witb a smaller sleeve.

Is anyone else a little snippy on this LSD? I didn’t remember being this way last time but I just lost my patience on a billing representative over the phone. I didn’t swear or say anything mean, I was just very short with her. She was pretty annoying but still that’s really not like me at all.

No cheese? That’s the best part 😂. My husband may have tried to steal your slice though. He usually picks off the cheese. I had to look up aubergine and couragette. We call them eggplant and zucchini. I’ve never had them on pizza but now I’m going to have to try it. I like pizza with bell peppers and onion. Those and mushrooms are about the extent of the veggie options around here. I actually had a lot of pizza shortly after my sleeve. I would do it with cauliflower crust then add ricotta, mozzarella and chicken plus pepper and onion. It was quite tasty. Then my capacity grew larger and the calories just added up too much to be on my plan. If only I could eat one slice and stop myself. Guess I wouldn’t be needing this surgery. 🤣

Sounds like your boss may be taking you to lunch more often. I don’t really know off hand how to do the conversions either but a third of a pizza sounds about right. Like a frozen pizza not a pizzeria pizza. Although I wonder if our pizza in the US is larger. Seems that just about everything else is food wise 😆.

Hummm. Its weird how one person has all the side effects while the next person has none. I actually read that the famotodine loses effectiveness over time and you have to increase the dose which makes me think that eventually I would end up back on the PPI anyways so it doesn’t seem like much of a solution. Plus if they are the treatment for ulcers which I am more prone to maybe I want to save them for that issue. Maybe I’m just overthinking this. i wish I knew how many people really have the scary side effects of long term PPi use and how many are just fine. I mean if someone is not obese they probably Just take the PPi if it controls their gerd instead of doing surgery, right? Plus they sell the over the counter and lots of people don’t even go to the Dr if they find a pill that works at the store. So there must be plenty of people who do take them for life and they are just fine. I’m on a low dose 20mg and he doesn’t seem to think its an issue. I know that they have to list like every single side effect no matter how unlikely So maybe these are the kind of thing that only happened to like one person. I need to talk to him more about all of this. I thought I would try the over the counter stuff and see if a lower mg would work but I just checked and 20mg is what it comes in over the counter too. Anyways, thanks for your reply. I’m off to do more research. 🧐

Glad to hear it’s easing up a bit at least. Hopefully overnight it gets a lot better. 🤞

How are you sound now? Any better?

Good for you with your loss. I guess you showed them!! i would love to lose it all but I know that not likely going to happen with either of these surgeries. I was not always obese. In fact, I was quite tiny until I was 25. I started gaining right around the time my bipolar manifested and i started on the meds. I have lost weight here and there but overall I have gained steadily ever since. I was used to seeing myself thin more than half my life, though and i have not been happy with my body since I was like 30. I often see people on here say they see a stranger when they lose weight but I still see a stranger when I look in the mirror now. I realize that I am not in my twenties anymore and I’m not going to be a size one again but if I had a magic wand I would love to be close. I set my goal to 180 with the sleeve and I did surpass that a bit but I still wasn’t happy if I’m being honest. The dr had told me that I would probably get to around 150 so when I didn’t I was pretty let down. This time I think I will be happier to get to the 168 than I was before. Now I realize that I was at least healthy at that weight but I would still keep trying to go a little lower if I could. i think I will figure it out in terms of the surgery once I calm down a bit. The logical part of me knows that either one will get me to a much healthier weight, which is the most important thing. I don’t know why I am freaking out so much this time when I was so calm with my sleeve. I do have some pretty major stuff happening in my personal life that’s occupying a lot of my brainpower this time so maybe that’s why this decision is feeling so overwhelming. I really do appreciate all of your kind and thoughtful responses as well as everyone else’s here. I don’t think I would’ve made it this far without the support of this community. ❤️

Did they not put you back on the schedule at all? I would’ve figured they would give you an appointment but then call you if they had a sooner one due to a cancellation. Also, At this point you have been on that diet for 6 weeks, right? I would call and make sure that it’s okay with your doctor that you continue on with that same diet. Some of these diets are only designed to be short term.

Yea. I don’t eat all three either. I eat the meat and veggies And save the fruit for a snack later. I thought I said that, maybe I wasn’t clear. Anyways, it sounds like I still can eat a little bit more than you because I can eat all the meat and you would eat half. But still we are not nearly as different as I previously thought. I thought I could eat WAY more than others with the surgery. When I say Veterans I’m talking mostly about the people still posting on the food before and afters that we’re posting when I had my sleeve 3.5 years ago. It seems ljke their portions are still pretty tiny. But maybe thats Just what they limit themselves to and not what makes them full.

Actually he said I can always decide to do the bypass instead.on surgery day. In fact he asked me if he gets in there and can’t do the SADi for some reason if I want the bypass since he can’t exactly wake me up to ask. I said yes. I am 90% sure I want the SADI now though. I’m just scared. Scared of the what ifs that are more with the SADI. What if I am one of the ones that has problematic diarrhea that doesn’t resolve, what if my lifelong commitment to PPI’s causes ulcers or kidney issues. Even worse, what if that results in my needing a transplant now that I know that’s a problem because i can’t absorb the anti rejection meds properly. It was so much easier when I thought bypass was my only option. Now that I have a choice I am just petrified I am going to make the wrong one. I thought about postponing for a little while but I honestly don’t think that I am ever going to get to the point that I am 100% certain in my decision either way. I don’t think any amount of research is going to give me the clear cut assurance that I want. I know that I will lose with either surgery and that they both carry risks. I am just letting my anxiety get the best of me I think. I guess I really do just have to take the plunge with one of them and hope for the best.

Sounds like I am actually a lot better off than I thought I was. As most of you probably know I am on my LSD now which is two shakes and then a low carb dinner of 3oz lean meat, 1 cup of cooked veggies, and 1 cup berries or melon. Well, I do not feel stuffed to the brim, but I am satisfied after just the meat and veggies. I end up having the berries later as a snack which cuts out one of the snacks I am allowed for the day so win-win. . What worried me was that this diet was written for someone with normal anatomy and I was getting closer than I thought I should to finishing it. That and some of the plates I’ve seen posted on here by veterans seem to be such tiny portions compared to my 8” plate full. I felt that my restriction was way-way less than anyone else with a sleeve. I worried that even if I was keeping it to healthier choices and some was being malabsorbed that the portion size would still get me in trouble if I don’t eat lean meat and veggies forever. i do realize that it’s more about what the foods are than how much I eat but I would like to add in some other options eventually (for maintenance at least). . I am fighting against a pretty complex scenario too. Not only am I asking for this surgery to help with obesity but I also have Bipolar Disorder. I have been on meds and doing okay but the meds are not a cure. I still have episodes and during those periods things like healthy food choices are…well…out the window. I try not to keep unhealthy options in the house but I have things i am allowed in moderation and my husband has some bad foods that he eats as well. On top of that I cannot go off of the meds that make me gain. Long story short, I really do need the most aggressive surgery I can get to give me the best chance at this. it sounds like my stomach is pretty normal for someone that is over a year out though. Some of the doctors redo the sleeve when during a revision which sounds ideal but mine does not. He says I that’s not worth the risks involved. Obviously I don’t want to risk more side effects, complications and lifestyle changes to get the SADI if I’m not going to get anything more out of it than I would a bypass which would also be more likely to resolve my mild gerd. I just wish there was more data to go on. I guess what it boils down to is having to trust my doctors judgement. Past experience witb doctors just make that SO difficult for me. Thank you all for sharing your experiences with the sleeve and the bypass.🩷 This does help me a great deal. Now I know that I actually am where he should expect me to be in terms of capacity. At least I know he did have all the correct information when he said the SADI was my best option.

Some people who are really restricted have posted that they were advised to eat more small meals but I would ask your team about this. Some are very adamant on three meals period.

I am trying to clean and get organized pre op for my revision and I want to put all these protein shakes away. Well if you have a tony kitchen and tiny pantry like me, I want to put them on top of fridge but I bough the big ones of the flavors I knew I could give away if I don’t like to save some money but, they are going to be too hard for me to lift post surgery. I wish I had got the smaller packs for now. No biggie. Just have to stay on top of it and ask hubby to get them down individually but it would’ve been easier yo ask him to get down a 4 pack. in the whole scheme of things it’s pretty tiny but something to think about. And if you are by yourself I would probably take them out of package and put on counter ahead of time anyways.