...its now or never...

Well one appointment down and 1 to go. I went to my nutritionist appointment to learn all the things i will need to do before surgery and for the first month after surgery. Pre-surgery, starting Feb 2nd, I am going to be on an all liquid diet. Now, its not just liquids like water and milk but close to it. I am suppose to follow a high-protein liquid diet. This is to help prepare for surgery so that Dr. Svendsen (my surgeon) can have more room in my stomach to move around his tools. The instructions for the high-protein liquid diet are as follows:

- Drink 8 ounces at a time 5 or 6 times a day. (these replace the solid foods i would normally eat)
- Between "meals" i can have unsweetened and artificially sweetened beverages.
- High-protein beverage's i have to choose from are: 1)Skim Milk 2)Skim Milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast. 3) Canned nutritional supplements like Boost, Ensure, or Slim fast
- Unsweetened and artificially sweetened beverages I can have are 1)Water 2)Coffee 3) Tea 4) Broth or bouillon 5) Sugar-Free Kool-Aid 6) Propel 7) Fruit2O 8)Crystal Light

Its crazy to think that I am going to be able to live off of all liquid for 10 days. It seems completely unachievable but i suppose everyone has to do this. Like I said earlier the reason I have to do this is to prepare my body for surgery. This will help Dr. Svendsen do the surgery laproscopicly and not have to make a huge incision on my stomach... weighing my options... i am okay with this. Now I have had friends tell me to live it up these last couple days and go to my favorite restaurants because I wont be able to have it for a while. Though I have been indulging a little bit I don't want to go crazy. I am ready for this change. I am ready to make this change and I feel like if I were to go to all my favorite restaurants and over eat I would be taking a step back instead of a step forward.

After surgery I will be in the hospital for 2 days where i will be still having only liquids. They will have tablespoons of liquid for me to drink and I will be full.

After surgery, starting on 2/14/08 I will continue with liquids. I will be sipping throughout the day surgery free or artificially sweetened drinks. The recommend things are juices (apple, white-grape, cranberry and pear), broth, sugar-free gelatin, sugar-free Popsicles and sugar-free non-carbonated beverages (like crystal light and sugar-free kool-aid), water, tea and coffee. The recommend amount I have its 4 to 6 ounces every hour. I am suppose to stay on this diet until i go in for my first post-operative appointment which is on 2/19/08.

Starting on 2/20/08 i will be on the full liquid diet for 3 days (if you are counting, i will be on an all liquid/full liquid diet for 21 days, 3 weeks!!!). Full liquids are things that are creamy like tomato soup, creamed soups (without chunky bits of food), skim milk, custard, smooth cooked cereals (Cream of wheat, cream of rice, or malt-o-meal) and smooth yogurt (without fruit bits). While also maintaining drinking calorie-free clear liquids and milk between my meals. The sample meal plan they give me is:

7 am - 2 tablespoons of Cream of Wheat (yes tablespoons... really)

8 am - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, trying to drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes

9 am - 8 ounces skim milk (Milk is VERY important to drink to keep me full between meals)

10 am - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, trying to drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes, finishing this by 11 am (the reason for this is because I am not suppose to have anything to drink 30 minutes before and after every meal. I can't drink with my meals also. The reason I can't do this is because it will wash the food out of my pouch and i will not get the feeling of being satisfied)

11 am - 2 tablespoons smooth yogurt

12:30 pm - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, trying to drink 2 ounce every 15 minutes

2 pm - 8 ounces skim milk

3 pm - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, trying to drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes, finish by 5:30

6 pm - 2 tablespoons cream soup

7 pm - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, trying to drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes.

8:30 pm - 8 ounces skim milk

9:30 pm - additional water or calorie-free beverages


now as you can see there is VERY little food and A LOT of liquid. Its is important to drink milk because it will not only give me the protein i need but it will also keep me satisfied. The reason for having calorie-free beverages is because I have to keep myself hydrated. This diet I will keep doing until 2/23/08.

Starting on 2/23/08 I am going to begin the pureed diet until 3/11/08. Continuing with the smooth theme. Like Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat, yogurt, canned refried beans (fat-free), applesauce, homemade pureed meets. They also say I can have baby food... mmm.. i will have to keep track of which ones are good and pass on the information to baby buster. This is also when I start taking multivitamin/mineral supplements daily (chewable). The pureed food is basically browned fresh ground turkey or chicken that gets blended with broth or milk. Nothing seasoned. just plain. the sample meal plan:

7 am - 2 tablespoons smooth yogurt & 1 tablespoon cream of wheat.

8 am - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes.

9 am - 8 ounces skim milk

10 am - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes, finishing by 11:00 am.

11:30 am - 2 tablespoons pureed turkey or chicken & 1 tablespoon fat-free refried beans.

12:30 pm - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes.

2 pm - 8 ounces skim milk

3 pm - 8 ounces of water or calorie-free beverages, drink 2 ounces every 15 minutes finishing by 5:30 pm.

6 pm - 2 tablespoons pureed turkey or chicken & 1 tablespoon yogurt

8:30 pm - 8 ounces skim milk

9:30 pm - additional water or calorie-free beverages.

This is just for the first month after surgery. there are still a couple phases left. however, we have not gone over those quite yet. The funny thing is when I was reading through these meal plans... i was like dang that is a lot of food, i am going to need to go to the grocery store weekly and then i looked closer and realized that i am going to be eating tablespoons of food. I wont be going through that much food at all. One small container of yogurt is going to last me all day! hahaha. wow. bizarre.

My emotions/feelings towards surgery are still the same. I am feeling very excited. I still can't believe that this is going to happen! I feeling like I have my life in front of me. The hardest part is dealing with what people are going to think about me. I haven't told me many people that i am doing this. Its not that I didn't want to share it with people, its that i didn't want to share it with people until I made my mind up and I had my surgery date set. I wanted to make sure that I made this decision by myself.... for myself. It was a huge deal when I finally decided. Though I knew I was doing it, it was still hard to tell people and listen to what they had to say. I am not saying it was right to hide it from people but it wasn't their decision to make.... it was mine and I have the right to do what I want. Hopefully people are just going to support me.

Well up next is my pre-operative physical on 2/1/08 and then I start my liquid diet on 2/2/08. Hopefully soon these blogs will have pictures so that I can track the changes in my body. My blogging with show my mental state and emotional change and the pictures will help me visually see the changes.

signing off for now. lata.

... trying to find a balance ... trying to build a balance.

More of my story. I have been over weight all my life (man that sounds so generic). I have struggled to lose weight just to gain it back. After fighting the bulge for a couple years I started to look into surgical options. I went to a seminar on gastric bypass in 2006 and ultimately decided that it wasn't for me. I tried weight watchers again, lost and then gained back all the weight. Then when gastric bypass came up in conversation with a fellow co-worker, I started researching it. I went to another seminar and here we are. My feelings changed the 2nd look around, for whatever reason, everything felt right. I felt like this was my answer, this was going to help me lead a healthier life, I was going to be able to do things that I never have before and for once in my life I was going to be able to fix the one thing I hated the most, the one thing I can barely stand to say I am, the thing that controls me, i was going to be able to lose the weight and keep it off. And that... is where I am today. Preparing for the rest of my life....

So Far what I have had to go through is: gastric bypass information seminar (times 2), gastric bypass knowledge test, psychic tests, personality tests, blood tests, meetings with my nurse practitioner, physical therapy, nutritionist appointments, and meeting with the surgeon to discuss surgery. Up next for me is: pre-surgery nutritionist appointment, pre-operative exam, and then surgery. As you can see, I am almost there. It has been a long process but ultimately i feel like in the end it will all be worth it. I have been doing this since 9/4/07... my surgery is 2/12/08... so by the time I have my surgery it will be a little over 5 months. The gastric bypass process to set up surgery takes a while but in the scope of things, this is going to be a process for the rest of my life. I am going to always have to take vitamin supplements, i am going to always have to watch what i eat, i am going to always have to exercise, i am going to always have to go to the doctor, so by no means is this process limited to the pre-surgery information, this is about the long haul for me.

Well tomorrow is another milestone in this process. In the morning I have an appointment with a nutritionist to discuss what will happen after surgery.

more to come at a later time. :D

... i wont give up on you

word on the street is when you are going through a dramatic change or experience in your life that you are suppose to document it. Now. This usually is an experience that you want to share with other people due to the abundance of knowledge that people can gain from you and said experience, hence the new addition of my blog to the world. I dont have much knowledge nor am I a great writer but I do know that I want to document what I consider my "life changing experience" and if someone were to stumble upon this blog and learn something from it, then that is just the icing on the cake.

The "life changing experience" that is about to happen to me is I am going to have gastric bypass surgery. I am sure that I will get into more detail about everything in later blogs but getting to this point in my life has been quite the struggle. I am so excited to know that I have my whole life in front of me and that the opprotunities are going to be endless.

This is just a starter entry to introduce what this blog is going to be about. I am sure that whoever reads this is going to hear and see a lot more then they want to know about me... but... hey you could learn something from it... right?