NickelChip

In the interim, if all you want is something that sits on your left ring finger and says, "Back off, I'm taken," Amazon has super cheap sterling silver with CZ wedding ring sets that are surprisingly convincing. I stopped wearing my real ring after I began the divorce process (go figure, right?) but sometimes it's convenient to have a ring on, like when you're traveling alone, so that's what I got. I would never in a million years have chosen the ones I did for real, but they do the job and look pretty real.

I had my surgery on 02/12! I am glad I had a tripod and used my phone to videotape me in various outfits that were too small for me, but I always wanted to wear. I plan on re- trying those outfits , after one year post op to see the progress♥️

Hey, February surgery buddies: February is next week! If you haven't already, this would be a great time to take your "before" photos and measurements. I see so many posts from people who wish they had remembered to do it before surgery, and lots of others who are so glad they did because it gives you a great non-scale victory to focus on during the process.

Tips:
Choose something form fitting to wear, such as exercise clothing, and plan to keep it so you can take your photo wearing the same thing once a month for the next year or more. Try to take the pictures in the same spot each time and choose a background without too much distraction, like a blank wall. Use good lighting. Get front, back, and side angles. No sucking it in or tricky poses to make you look smaller. Let it all hang out! As hard as it may be to look at the photos now, you'll appreciate it later when you can compare the results and truly see your progress If it's too hard to look at photos, don't opt out! Have your spouse or a best friend, someone you trust, take the pictures and keep them for you to look at later. For measurements, make sure you do the standard chest, waist, hips, and also get help doing your right and left biceps and thighs, plus calves and neck.

I just got home from my appointment and am happy to say that I'm now scheduled for surgery on February 21. I was able to meet with the dietician right after my appointment with the surgeon and she went over the differences between my old program and their protocols, which are similar with the exception that I will need to do the 2-week liquid diet (my old place only did 2 days). I head to the hospital tomorrow for pretests and then just have to wait the 7 weeks until surgery. Time to get back to my good eating habits after the holidays!
I thought everyone was very nice and I got a lot of sympathy for what I'd gone through with the center closing. I was told one patient who is now at the new practice actually arrived at the hospital the day of her surgery and only then found out it had been cancelled. No one even called her. I don't even know what I would have done had that happened.

UPDATE
10 mins later….
lol 😆 I peeled off the glue from my incisions! The more I thought about it I couldn’t stop myself. After peeling, they looked way better than I thought. Very well healed. 😮‍💨
Now I can start applying scar gel on them. Yay!

Hey Ron! I had my BP on the 6th. I’m doing pretty good as well. I don’t start Vitamins until Tuesday a full two weeks after surgery. I guess they want to make sure I’m eating something to protect me from getting nausea. I saw my nutritionist yesterday and he said I can ease into soft foods with yogurt and cottage cheese. Luckily I love both! I was able to have about 1/2 a cup without feeling uncomfortable. I just stopped eating and I wasn’t hungry or wanting more. A few hours later same thing with a Greek yogurt. I’m so ready for eggs, tuna, cheese etc.
I also was told to wear my binder for 4 weeks. It definitely makes me feel more secure. My glue is still on my incisions. I guess they put a super deluxe hospital grade glue on me. I’m not scrubbing it off or peeling it off until it comes off naturally. I’m too scared to open something up.

So, good luck my friend. And everyone else hang in there with your liquid diets. It’s definitely worth it. It will make your surgery go smoother and recovery easier. 💖💖💖

It can be challenging when your taste buds are against you but it is a great opportunity to try things you haven’t before or give food you didn’t enjoy in the past another go. I wasn’t hungry or interested in eating either (for 8 months or so). So I ate to a routine to ensure I got on my required nutrition. It helped to change how I looked at eating - not for comfort, to make me feel good/better, if I was bored or …. but to fuel my body. Eating to live not living to eat. Was also when I began asking myself if I needed the next bite or just wanted it. Never forced myself to eat all my portion if I didn’t need it or thought nope, no more.
At two months, I was eating only all real food & eating a wide variety of meats. Some vegetables were challenging but steamed green Beans, cauliflower & cabbage were good. I could add tomatoes, celery, capsicum, onions, mushrooms to any slow cooked Soup, stew, minced meat dish. etc. About a month later all vegetables were fine. Didn’t touch shakes from purées.
Aim for three meals a day & maybe one snack. (I snacked on fruit or yoghurt.) Check with your dietician to see what they recommend for you. Try to avoid falling back into the old habit of eating if you have head hunger.

Filing that advice away for next week. I'm not allowed to have it yet, but cream of wheat in on my post-op diet. I guess they don't want the carbs for the liver shrinking but it's okay after, or something. I already bought some and will welcome anything that isn't the same old stuff I've had for the past 10 days!

I won't lie, this is hard. After the first couple of days, I was doing okay, but today was a challenge. I've been freezing all day and I keep thinking of favorite foods, just randomly popping into my head. Not even unhealthy things, just things I can't have. Which is basically everything right now. Next Wednesday can't come fast enough! I hit 229.4 on the scale this morning, which is the first time I've made it below 230 in over a year. Just have to stay focused on why I'm doing this!

@RonHall908 Glad to hear you're feeling good and meeting your goals!

Day 9 on the liquid diet. My greatest disappointment so far has been a batch of "natural" Jello that didn't remotely taste like lime. My biggest treat has been tropical flavored Popsicle brand sugar free popsicles.
I literally yelled at a robot when I had to call FedEx after they mis-delivered an order from Celebrate that had three new flavors of Meal Replacement shakes in it. Do not mess with me when I'm hungry and sick of fake cappuccino flavored shakes that don't actually contain caffeine! The robot transferred me to a human and I was much nicer.

Three bits of advice if you can manage it: 1. Curbside pickup for groceries 2. Takeout instead of eating in for your restaurant meals 3. Hotel close to your hospital for the night before if poor weather is at all a possibility.
For many reasons, my mom and I are staying in a hotel the night before my surgery, and Mom will stay the next night while I'm in the hospital. Traffic, early call time for surgery, snow. I live about an hour from the hospital and there is a nice Courtyard Marriott about 1 mile from the hospital on a very busy road that is sure to get plowed 24/7. Plus my mom hates night driving, especially to and from areas she doesn't know well, and she wanted to be sure she could come see me in recovery and feel safe driving by herself.

Yeah, so I chose the RNY gp because I liked that it has a stronger metabolic impact than VSG while not being too malabsorptive like DS. Based on the risk calculator, there was a somewhat higher likelihood of addressing/resolving my hypertension and blood sugar issues, and I didn't want to risk developing GERD and requiring daily medications or a revision. I need this to be a one and done surgery if possible for financial reasons. Given that a full 20% of my surgeon's practice is revision (mostly to RNY, but they also do DS), this revision issue felt like something that is common enough with sleeve patients to give me pause. Also, my brother had the sleeve 15 years ago and while his overall weight is still well under where he began, his weight regain has been significant. I wanted the additional threat of dumping syndrome to keep me in line where sugar is concerned. And also, the more I thought about it, the more I preferred the idea of rerouting instead of removing parts of my organs.
As for not telling people, I was tempted to do that, too. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided to just own it. A lot of people out there mistakenly believe obese people can "just" eat less and exercise more to lose weight and keep it off. How many of their real life examples are people who quietly got WLS and then credited their diet and exercise for their transformations? I don't want anyone using me as an example in the future to tell some other obese person what to do.
Thankfully, I turn 50 in a few weeks and have therefore reached the age where I officially no longer give a fig about what anyone else thinks and am happy to direct naysayers to a wide selection of their own body orifices where they are welcome to stow their unsolicited opinions. Also, luckily, my close friends and family are very supportive, which helps immensely.

I've officially got the house to myself for the next 10 days! Since I have two kids in middle/high school and every illness known to humankind is running rampant, my parents have just picked them up and are taking them until I'm post-op. Let the self quarantine begin!
I sent all the remaining food from the fridge with them, so now there's just yogurt and milk in there. And Jello. I'm hoping to get a few organizing projects done while they're gone because it's so much easier to deep clean when no one is coming behind you to leave toothpaste blobs in the sink and drop their socks in the middle of the floor for some unknown reason. Seriously, why do they do that? I may start with cleaning the fridge shelves because now that it's empty, the grime is pretty obvious.

In the interim, if all you want is something that sits on your left ring finger and says, "Back off, I'm taken," Amazon has super cheap sterling silver with CZ wedding ring sets that are surprisingly convincing. I stopped wearing my real ring after I began the divorce process (go figure, right?) but sometimes it's convenient to have a ring on, like when you're traveling alone, so that's what I got. I would never in a million years have chosen the ones I did for real, but they do the job and look pretty real.

In the interim, if all you want is something that sits on your left ring finger and says, "Back off, I'm taken," Amazon has super cheap sterling silver with CZ wedding ring sets that are surprisingly convincing. I stopped wearing my real ring after I began the divorce process (go figure, right?) but sometimes it's convenient to have a ring on, like when you're traveling alone, so that's what I got. I would never in a million years have chosen the ones I did for real, but they do the job and look pretty real.

Good point about the US/UK measurements. I have several UK cookbooks and they do pose a challenge, although most of our scales and measuring cups in the US offer both metric and imperial side by side, so it's just the temperatures that needs calculation. Took me forever to figure out what a gas mark was.
I think the portion plate is probably only helpful for those who lean toward over eating during maintenance. Or if you happen to have a family member who preps your meals and needs guidance on the portions. I recall a friend whose husband got a sleeve, she just couldn't visualize the right portion when she would make up a plate for him. She thought she was doing a "small" portion, and it probably was compared to pre-surgery, but totally inappropriate for after surgery. (Why he couldn't just serve up his own plate like a grown up is a totally different issue.)

If you don't already have some bariatric cookbooks, I can highly recommend these three of the several I bought:
Bariatric Meal Prep Made Easy by Kristin Willard
The Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook by Dr. Matthew Weiner
The Easy 5 Ingredient Bariatric Cookbook by Megan Wolf
All three have sound nutritional advice as they are written by bariatric experts, as well as some really nice recipes. They talk about portion sizes and what to aim for nutritionally as you go through the honeymoon period and into maintenance, and even give you different portions for different phases. None of the books give specific calorie goals, but that's rather standard with many programs. The focus is often for you to discover what works for you and not get sucked into a dieting mindset by counting everything so closely you drive yourself crazy.
But the basics are generally to fill one half of your (small, child or luncheon sized) plate with a 3-4oz portion of lean Protein and no more than a 1/2 cup serving of starch/grain, and the other half with non-starchy veg. Consume 60-80g protein. Drink at least 64 oz Water. (Apologies for not having the metric measurements).
Using a small plate is a really great visual cue. Check out the Portion Perfection plates, which are 8-inch melamine and printed with exactly how much of each food goes where. If you need to retrain yourself, this is an easy tool to use. They have bowls, too. (All the books and the plates can be found on Amazon in the US).
Going back to liquids is extreme. I would think it would be sufficient to go back to three meals per day as described above, and either no Snacks or only fruit and veg or a Protein Shake as a snack if truly hungry, and make sure you weigh your portions and get all your water in every day. The other thing is to look for processed foods that have crept back into your diet and get them out of your house. You can't be tempted by what isn't there.
Good luck to you!

Filing that advice away for next week. I'm not allowed to have it yet, but cream of wheat in on my post-op diet. I guess they don't want the carbs for the liver shrinking but it's okay after, or something. I already bought some and will welcome anything that isn't the same old stuff I've had for the past 10 days!

I just ate the best thing. I felt like I was cheating, but I wasn't! If you are allowed to have Cream of Wheat, I would highly recommend making it with broth instead of Water. I don't like the stuff, but this was amazing! I don't eat meat, so I used vegetable broth. It was the best thing I've had in 4 days

My toilet seat was moving. What the ....? I had it tightened down because it actually was loose. But even after, it still felt loose. Hmmmm
I figured it out after doing a pee test at the doctor's office. I felt that same movement and thought surely their toilet isn't loose. Turns out it was my loose skin shifting as I sat. OMG. That's a good problem right????? LOL

I am schedule February 28, I am BMI 32. Since surgery approved I am going through many different emotions and thoughts.

I Just had surgery my on the 14th, I am feeling pretty good. The first night in the hospital I was very nauseous so they gave me some other drug to help with that so I could keep my Water done. I felt fine after that. I drank about 2oz of broth, and sipped on ice chips and water. Today I am home and really all i feel is the incisions. and on my right side, i believe that is where they pulled it out. I have 6 incisions. along my belly line. I have been doing SF popsicles and ice cips and water, I think I have had at least 6oz of water today and 2 oz broth and two SF popsicles. But I am feeling hungry for sure.

There are two responses that come to mind. First, "So what if I did? You don't get a trophy for making your life even harder than it has to be, darling. Be a martyr in your own life if you'd like, but I have better things to do with my time."
The second is a the classic quote from Saturday Night Live, "Jane, you ignorant sl*t..."

I won't lie, this is hard. After the first couple of days, I was doing okay, but today was a challenge. I've been freezing all day and I keep thinking of favorite foods, just randomly popping into my head. Not even unhealthy things, just things I can't have. Which is basically everything right now. Next Wednesday can't come fast enough! I hit 229.4 on the scale this morning, which is the first time I've made it below 230 in over a year. Just have to stay focused on why I'm doing this!