Surgeon's Appointment
At the surgeons appointment they weighed me in, took "before" shots (these below are my own version of them, not the actual ones they took) and gave me Rx's for antibiotics to tack before the surgery and pain and nausua to take when I get home from the surgery.
They then gave me my pre-surgery diet to shrink my liver. (Everytime I hear shrink the liver I hear Julia Child's voice from a SNL episode where she says "Keep the Liver!") I really expected an all liquid (like protein drinks) diet and was surprised that it basically is 3 protein drinks a day PLUS 2 Lean Cuisines. The whole idea of a pre-surgery diet is to shrink the liver so when they do the surgery they don't have to work around it so much and therefore the pain will be less. After all the diets I've been on in my life, I'm actually happy to go on this!
I thought that I'd be given some pre-surgery prep instructions, sort of like the prep for a colonoscopy but he told me that it wasn't needed. It seems each WLS office has their own way of doing things and this is the way we do it! Since my surgeon is one of the top 5 in the country, I'm going to trust him to know what's best. Besides, it's easier that way! ;-)
Testing Day
This past Tuesday was "Testing Day" - the terminology of that makes me laugh now that I've been through it! The only tests were bloodwork, an EKG and a chest x-ray - the rest was meetings with a nurse, dietition, exercise physiologist and hospitalist. I had to be there at 6:30 a.m. and left about 2:30 p.m. - lots of talk! They drew 14 vials of blood, joking that if I wasn't anemic before that - I certainly would be afterwards. They will use this information as a baseline for what vitamins/minerals to take and the quantites of them after surgery.
We were given a 2 inch binder and informed that this will become our bible for life after surgery. Tabs included Nutrition, Exercise, and the like. I've started reading it - and I think it will be something that each time I open it I will discover something new in it.
My favorite part of the day was our meeting with the dietition. She let us taste several protein drinks as they will be the major part of our food intake for at least a month post-surgery. After we were finished she informed us that after surgery many of us will experience changes in our taste buds and what we liked today may not be what we like then. So don't go out and buy those giant jugs!
I have to confess, I already purchased a jug of flavorless protein from bariatriceating.com that came highly recommended and several sample packs of various ones because I've always hated the stuff...good luck to me on this!
EGD
Today was my EGD. The worst part was that I was to not eat any solid foods after breakfast yesterday and I had a raging headache! I woke up today and had I had any solids in my stomach I would have lost it all - so there was a benefit to starving yesterday after all... I woke up about 5:30 and used an ice pack on my neck until we left for the hospital at 6:30.
The best part of the test was they gave me pain meds with my IV which took care of that pesky headache!
The proceedure took maybe 15 minutes and then about 30-45 minutes in recovery and there I was, checking off another box on my 'to-do' list! Yea!
Naturally, I have dosed most of the day - but I did want to get this all down for posterity!
Next up - pre-surgery diet!
~ barb
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