ouroborous

By depleting the free blood sugar (which eating a low-carb diet does), you force the body to burn glycogen from your liver to keep you going. Glycogen is stored bound to a lot of water; going low-carb causes your liver to shrink and become less "slippery" through, essentially, dehydrating it. This is very, very important before your surgery, so you must follow your doctor's advice to the letter. It may be hard, but it's only for two weeks, right? You really do NOT want surgical complications (or, god forbid, liver damage) due to not following instructions. If you're unwilling to follow the pre-op diet, you might want to reconsider the surgery. It might be difficult for you to live with how restricted your diet will be post-op.

Interesting responses, thanks for sharing that! I think that my tie to food has never been as emotional as most. I DO, sometimes, eat to soothe myself emotionally, but it's usually due to anxiety, and my anxiety is almost ALL body-centered. In other words, my anxiety is based upon feelings of impending death or sickness. I'm hoping that losing the weight will make a lot of that go away so that I don't NEED to soothe the anxiety with food. Other than that, I don't really have an emotional connection to food. I definitely overeat (or I wouldn't be obese), and I definitely eat too fast, but I rarely care too much about food on an emotional level. As long as it's not something that repulses me, I don't really care much what I'm eating or WHEN I'm eating; my girlfriend has commented that in some ways I'm like a camel: I can eat a VAST quantity of food and then go without for many hours. And yes, I know that that will have to change after surgery. So, I suspect that my depression will improve after surgery, since my main reason for anxiety (fear that I'm going to die unexpectedly due to some hidden illness, usually exacerbated by obesity) will be gone. Also, sleep is so important, and I know for a fact that almost all of my actual depression was intimately tied to my sleep. Thanks again for sharing.

Well technically hypoglycemia is below 75 mg/dl of fasting sugar. Mine was 85 at its lowest last night. However, I tend to run around 105-110 mg/dl, so maybe it was just the relative levels? I really think dehydration might be more likely, though, since when I went for my final appointment before surgery today (*gulp*) the doctor said that my blood work showed that I might be a little dehydrated. I thought I was drinking enough Fluid, between my Water and Crystal Lite and diet soda, but I'll try to drink more...

During normal procedures, it's uncommon to lose much if any blood, but it's definitely a good idea to think these things through beforehand!

Congratulations on your success, brother! I notice that you're still doing the "baggy black T-shirt." I betcha that if you wore something that was a bit more tailored to your new, slimmer physique, the change would even be more apparent, but I can definitely see it in your arms and face and the fact that you don't have anywhere near as much visible abdominal fat. In short, you're looking good! I hope that my results are anywhere near as good as yours!

New stage of joy: a PROFUSELY runny nose.

I'm skeptical of the blood sugar idea (even though I was thinking that too) because my blood sugar per my home test unit was still within "normal" range (95 mg/dl, normally I range about 100-110 mg/dl between meals). Still, I don't seem to be passing out or anything, and I've consumed like 32 oz of Water in an hour, so I'll try not to stress out.

Thanks... I've been trying to pound as much water as I can tonight, to make up for any possible dehydration.

Well, FWIK about melatonin, it's sometimes used to treat anxiety, not supposed to cause it. I suspect that your anxiety about the surgery is just good old fashioned, normal human fear. Everyone receives solace differently. For me, I did a LOT of research about the lap sleeve surgery, to the point where both the surgeon and nutritionist commented on my level of knowledge. I even emailed my surgeon a link to the five year studies that just came out. The point is that by educating myself about all of the alternatives, and by looking at the real success rates of people trying to drop weight and keep it off the "old fashioned way" (which are not good), I came to the following conclusions: 1. Obesity is a killer. It will shorten your lifespan as much as a pack a day smoking habit will. Not only that, but it will make your quality of life -- which is, in some ways, more important than your quantity of life -- horrible. 2. Almost nobody is successful at losing weight through diet and exercise and keeping it off long term. Everyone knows someone who is able to drop a tremendous amount of weight -- if that weren't the case, then shows like The Biggest Loser wouldn't exist. But KEEPING the weight off that way is very, very rare -- like 1 in 20 people are successful at it. 3. The lap sleeve SEEMS to have the most successful, healthy, and (importantly) DURABLE weight loss results around. There might be a better option in ten years, but in ten years who knows how much damage obesity will do to your body? 4. The lap sleeve, despite the fact that it is invasive, seems to have relatively mild and minor complications rates; the death rate from lap sleeve (about 0.1%, or one in one thousand) is far lower than the long-term mortality rate from obesity (which is, IIRC, about 50% per decade... so 1 in 2 chance of dying from obesity vs. 1 in 1000 chance of dying from lap sleeve). Your husband is right in one respect; you probably shouldn't rush the surgery. If you still really aren't sure, I personally don't think it's a good idea to rush into it. Don't delay it just because you're anxious about the surgery -- the surgery is a big deal, and you WILL be anxious, regardless. But that's different from real doubts and misgivings; THOSE you really should process before rushing into it. For me, I pushed my surgery date out almost a month from what it could have been, to give me time to make sure I was making the right choice. So, while I'm not as good at emotional support as Tiffykins is, I like to think that I come armed with all the facts and figures that show why, for me, at least, the lap sleeve is the only rational choice to make. I know I'll be anxious as my surgery date draws near; that's normal, and they have wonderful drugs for that! But from the perspective of "is this the right choice?" I've made my peace -- it is, absolutely, the right thing to do, for me. I hope there's some help for you in there somewhere!

So, in my lunches, I've been packing raw almonds. For some reason, I had them in my mind as a healthy "snack." They are relatively healthy as Snacks go, but as always -- portion size is king. I weighed one of the ziplock bags that I've been taking to work, and it was 183g of raw almonds. I looked up the nutrition facts (for almonds, found it here: Raw Almonds), and... WOW. That "little bag" of almonds was almost 6.5 servings. It was 36g of carbs (! almost my entire day's allotment in one "snack"), and over 1100 calories. Yeesh! So my other healthy snack was a cup of grapefruit. Turns out that that "little" cup of fruit was 32g of carbs. I can see that I'm going to have to relearn EVERYTHING if I want to comply with my pre-op diet!

So, with fitness, I need to develop new habits. My whole life, I've been a fairly cerebral guy, and I've never been one for sports or fitness. My career -- as a computer programmer -- is both mentally and financially rewarding, but it is very sedentary. Being the guy who was usually "picked last for the team" (due to obesity; by nature I have the build of a football player, but since I'm so sedentary, my body was always soft and unformed) I never cared much for organized sports. So, I'm facing a fairly large hill to climb trying to change a lifetime of sedentary habits into one of good habits. I have a few weapons in my arsenal that I'm going to try to use, however. I have always had problems with depression and anxiety. Most of these stem from poor sleep (when I sleep well, I have NO problems, but I almost never sleep well due to sleep apnea!) and too much caffeine (which, again, I abuse due to being tired all the time). One thing I've discovered in the last ten years or so is that nothing will calm me down and "level out" and improve my mood like some hard cardio work will. So I'm hoping to use this to combat the inevitable post-surgery blues. Boredom. Let's face it, I get bored easily, and I have often tended to eat out of boredom. I won't be able to do this (as much) after surgery, and I'm going to need something to replace eating with. I'm hoping that I can replace eating with exercise to entertain myself. One problem is that I find traditional gym-style exercise very, very boring. Weightlifting is okay (because you can try different machines, and different weights) but machine cardio is the most boring thing on earth. So hopefully, I'll be able to find some entertaining ways to keep moving and keep fit. I've always enjoyed martial arts, but since my 20's I've been too heavy to really get into it; I'm hoping to take it back up. At almost 40 I will probably be the oldest one in the class, but what the hey, it's good for me. Understanding how habits work for me. I've realized that it's really hard to quit a bad habit, and almost as hard to start a new habit out of the blue. From what I know about myself, what works best is substituting one habit for another, worse habit. I'm hoping to use this to learn how to substitute healthy fitness habits for older, unhealthy, sedentary habits. I would LOVE to hear any advice people have on these topics. I really, really, really have to make fitness and exercise a habit now, and make it lifelong. I'm not just doing the sleeve to lose the fat; I want to really make a turnaround in my whole body health and learn how to stop being my body's enemy, and start seeing it as my friend, my vessel, and my ally.

Start here: Weight Loss - Diet Ticker

I'm grateful that I shave my head!

Thank you for saying that. I get SO frustrated at people who treat weight loss as a moral issue; showing people that weight loss surgery is (as you say) a great tool, and nothing to be ashamed of, is very important! Everyone at my work knows that I'm scheduled for weight loss surgery on May 6th. My immediate team even knows what KIND of surgery. So far everyone has been from neutral to very supportive.

I think you don't even have to act upon it to want the attention. I'm happily involved, and I wouldn't mind it if gals were willing to chat and flirt with me. It won't go anywhere, but it would be such a tremendous boost to my self-esteem to no longer be the "smart, funny fat guy" that women like to chat with, but who never makes their hearts go pitter patter (etc.)

Actually, there's one more Seattle sleever: my girlfriend, who was sleeved in November and is doing great (she says it was the best choice she's ever made) and doesn't post on this board. We live in North Seattle, just south of the border with Shoreline. Over in the Northgate/Wallingford area.

I can't say this enough: the best thing in the world to help you get to sleep, and stay asleep, is regular, vigorous exercise. Not right before bed, and it's not a 100% cure-all, but in general exercise is the BEST thing for sleep.

Congrats on your surgery, Tiffany! Oh, and to the Seattle fans: hello from Seattle (I'm sitting listening to the cars driving in the rain along Elliott Ave. right now :thumbup1:)

Well, actually, my nutritionist said that for the two weeks before surgery, I'm supposed to limit myself to no more than 40g carbs per day from all sources except green vegetables. After surgery, I'll probably spend much less time counting carbs!

Yeesh... pick breathable fabrics!

Yes, spot reduction absolutely IS a myth; you cannot induce where your body loses fat. However, it's VERY possible to spot "tone" -- to build up the muscles in a trouble area. And post WLS, I would wager that most complaints come from lack of muscle tone, not from fat.

Good luck! You'll be fine!

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to avoid having to take medication for life. I have moderate reflux right now, and no hiatal hernia. Bottom line, however, is that obesity is worse and more dangerous than acid reflux, so if I have to take acid reducers, so be it.

Of course, if the doctor orders it, do it, but I am still curious as to WHY you'd need this done. Is it to check for gallbladder issues? From what I understand, at 3 months out it's almost unheard of to have a leak. The only other thing I could think of would be esophageal issues due to reflux. Anyone know?