chicagomom312

Hey Mom6 and all - I'm totally in the same boat as you all. I haven't posted at all until yesterday b/c I had been so in denial that I would ever get approved and that I had 2 months to go, and blah blah. But here we are - my surgery is literally 19 days away. I have the same question as the most recent posts on this thread - and I wanted to ask specific questions: - what supplements have you been taking during your pre-op? and I'm sure we've all been poking around about suggestions for pre/post-op supplements - any good observations? [i'll list mine below] - a total liquid diet seems so impossible to me - would most of you say that some kind of modified Atkins' Diet seem the way to go? okay, so I'll share some research with you all and if I got anything wrong here, please PLEASE let me know :hurray: - supplements seem so critical - a solid multivitamin, calcium, B12, iron all are critical, but I haven't seen anything about other herbal supplements to keep energy levels up, to balance hormones, maybe even a cleaning kind of routine to get our bodies totally ready for this transformation. Has anyone had success with a more involved regimen of supplements or is it all hype? - Slimfast and one meal per day - so it seems like the pre-op diet can be about 2 meals w/the protein drink and one which is very limited and focused on lean meats and veggies only - no carbs if possible. I guess I'll worry about the post-op meal issues when that bridge gets closer. Thanks again all, I hope I'm not clogging up this thread too much, but I'm done lurking and want to share anything that may be useful for folks who are like me :rolleyes2:

Hey rdt - I'm not a trained medical specialist but I'm not sure if I need to be one to at least share some observations about your situation with you. 1) Your family situation doesn't sound so ideal right now - your dad asking why you can't do this w/o the surgery indicates to me that he is still unclear about what the surgery is meant to be - a last resort for people who have spent many years dealing with weight-related illnesses and diseases. If you were suffering from Type-II diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, lower-back sciatica, or whatever and the doctors said: well, this lap-band surgery will be a step in the direction of healing, I'm sure it would help him see the light about what the surgery is for. 2) If you are still sneaking food and you're supposed to get this surgery on 11/20 (which is when my date is) then I'd request from your PCP some additional visits to a nutritional psychologist, someone who can help you address the underlying issues that have been driving you to do that to yourself. When I started this process 4 months ago, I just saw all the visits to the nutritionist and the psych. eval. stupid hoops I had to jump through to satisfy my HMO. But I've lost 10 lbs in the process, and actually changed my eating behaviour (which included a lot of mindless snacking). Even if you could address the sneaking food part successfully, I think it would be a huge step forward in preparation for the surgery. 3) Finally, as for your sisters - I'm sorry, but I think their "concerns" are quite transparently self-motivated. Maybe they're thin, maybe they're overweight too - whatever it is, I really really don't think how other people will react when you have a small portion of food is a valid "concern". What I'm starting to realise is that for some people around us, even family members, our being obese sometimes acts like a security blanket for them - they may not be aware of it, but knowing they can count on you to fix a huge meal and to overeat with them when they're feeling low is something that maybe they can't handle? Well, I hope these observations helped - I can't say I know exactly what you are going through b/c we're about 15 years apart in age, but I do remember my early 20s and I wasn't as overweight as I am today and I still had a lot of issues to deal with :rolleyes2:. Good luck to you - have faith in yourself! kathleen

Hi Monika - I guess one thing that I haven't dealt with is what to tell family and friends. My husband knows and has come around to being supportive - his initial reaction was more mixed than I would have imagined. He was worried about losing me to the operation, complications, anesthesia and then he was unconvinced that I wasn't taking this like a "magic bullet". Anyways, 4 months later, he is totally on-board and understands how important this is for me. My son is 18 months old - so no complications there :teeth_smile: As for friends, this is where I totally feel you Monika. I haven't told my close friends yet. Part of me is like - look, lemme just get through this and then if the weight is really dropping, and they ask, then I'll tell them. It's not that I don't think they'll be supportive, but that sometimes you never know exactly where your friends may be at with respect to their own body-images, etc. I have found that when someone reacts angrily to something, especially dealing with body image, that is often a sure-fire sign that they may be having issues too. Just speculation, but it may help when she is being unsupportive to tell her about all the pills and shots you're looking forward to stopping. I think people initially really think losing weight is about body image, and they fail to see all the real health problems it can create. ok, sorry this got so long. but good luck! k

Hi all - I guess I should just jump in here myself to say hi and to stop lurking :teeth_smile: I've been going through the whole process of medically supervised weight loss since July 2008, and I've been approved and scheduled for surgery on 11/20/08. It happened slightly faster than I expected - the UIC medical team has been great and with a little bit of proactive questions from me, I think I shaved 2 months off of the required 6 months of waiting. I'm excited like everyone else, and a bit scared like vanilla and others are worried about with respect to actually losing weight. I feel like I've always been overweight, and the idea of being anything less than 200lbs just seems so impossible at times. But the upside is that I have lost about 10lbs since I started in July, my PCP and surgeon and psych. eval. all point to me being a very good candidate. I guess we have to believe that this is the tool we've been looking for to help us get past that last roadblock. It isn't a magic wand, and by everything I've read about the pre/post op diet and such, it isn't going to be a walk in the park. Good luck to you all and I hope to be a more regular poster on the forum. kathleen