Diane324
12 hrs until I leave ... my last PRE SURGERY POST!
Sep 14, 2009
So in 12 hours I will get in my mom's car (hear about what a mess my house is) and head up to the hospital for my surgery. I have to travel about an hour - not too bad in comparison to some of my friends here who are traveling 9+ hours. I suppose the trip home will be the challenge!
I'm suddenly calm and peaceful - the day I never thought would get here finally is here. 2 weeks and 2 days of a liquid diet have come and gone. Two more protien shakes, and I'm done (sort of). I have a feeling the liquid diet will be a whole other ball game on the other side - but I'm ready, OH SO READY.
I'm down 11 pounds (hoping for just 1 more so I can say I lost 80 pounds instead of 79 pre-surgery) - but my scale and I dance these past few days. Each day there is a pound that comes and goes. Today it went, maybe tomorrow it will take a friend with it. Here's hoping!
I can't say enough about the people I've met on the forum who are sharing tomorrow as a surgery date - or a day this week. I even met someone who is only 2 days older than I am. I can't wait to see how we all do - I love my support group here - but this has opened up a whole new group of people who I can check in with and compare notes with on recovery and weight loss and all those things that we will be doing at the same time.
We all have a lot in common - many of us don't have the support of some of our families or friends. I'm just oh so ready to do this after 3 years of research and waiting and preparation. I'm still a little concerned about the post surgery pain and dehydration, but it will be ok. Sip, sip, sip - walk, walk, walk. Or is it sip, walk, sip, walk, sip, walk? LOL
I really hope my "witchy" attitude takes a vacation soon - I know it's been hard on the kids, it's hard on me knowing I'm not myself, yet I can't stop it.I have a feeling a month or so from now, I will be looking back on these as the dark days and I will be in my sunshiney days.
Peace and love - I will check back in as soon as I can get to my computer and let you know how everything went and is going.
See you on the other side .... Diane 
48 Hours ....
Sep 13, 2009
I have a blood test tomorrow to make sure my INR level is low enough to have surgery since I just stopped taking Coumadin last Tuesday. I've been eating all of the green veggies that are high in Vitamin K that I have been avoiding for the last 6 months. There is also Vitamin K in my daily multi vitamin. As long as it's 1.5 or lower, I'm good to go. If it's slightly above, there are some medications they can give me to raise it before Tuesday. If it's really high, I am looking at another cancellation - and suddenly I'm a little freaked out.
Ok, I'm trying to have faith that there won't be any issues with my bloodwork tomorrow, and I'm sure that everyone is nervous this close to surgery.
I'm a little concerned about the Post Op recovery. I have a pretty good tolerance for pain - I've already been through the birth of a 9 lb 10 oz baby with no pain medication (
), gallstones and a kidney stone. But the post surgery pain after the gall bladder removal and the appendix removal wasn't very pleasant at all. I'm a little worried about getting enough to drink and becoming dehydrated. Drinking is no problem for me now, but then again, my stomach holds as much as I want it to - well, sort of. I do feel full these days. Something I haven't experienced in SO long. I'm trying very hard to pay attention to that feeling.Thankfully the liquid diet hasn't been too terrible. I don't mind the powdered protien shakes - the Magic Bullet has been a God send, a litte ice, and a little extra cocoa powder in the chocolate flavor and it's good. And it has a lot more protien and less fat & calories that the premixed stuff (which tastes icky). I'm thinking about experimenting with adding some extracts - maybe banana to the vanilla and mint to the chocolate?
Ready (maybe), set .... GO?!?!
TTYS - Diane
Presurgery Thoughts ...
Sep 06, 2009
I'm nervous and excited and optimistic - and witchy (with a B) LoL! Big family party this weekend and it was SO hard to drink protien shakes & have a salad while all kinds of appetizers, salads (the mayonnaise kind), deviled eggs, pulled pork bbq, sausage & peppers, and no lie SIX different desserts were served! 
The nice part was the people I haven't seen recently who noticed the weight loss so far
- but the people who think I shouldn't have surgery because I have shown progress - why don't they just shut up and keep their opinions to themselves. 
There are overweight people on both sides of my family - and mostly women - and I have spent almost 3/4 of my life fighting this or giving into it. Five years ago, I lost 140 pounds, and kept it off for about a year. Then I gained it back over a couple years - with an additional 30 pounds. Typical pattern for me, lose some and gain more.It would be easy to say that weight has been my only issue, but I'm sure like so many other people my eating issues go so much deeper than that. Emotional eating - eating too much when you're sad, depressed, angry - even when you're happy. And the baggage that I have carried from childhood has been enormous. And after a childhood of living with an abusive father, I turned around and married a man a lot like him. I have two beautiful children
- and I am thankful for them everyday - but I was smart and strong enough to walk away from him before he completely destroyed me.Originally I was going to have surgery on my actual birthday
- but it had to be delayed, and now I'm starting over on a different day, but it's a good friend's birthday - so I'm calling it meant to be. 
Though my meetings so far with my surgeon have been reserved, I have complete confidence in him. Ten months of attending a support group full of his patients has painted a much different picture of him once you get to know him better - post surgery. He is a kind, thorough, caring doctor that wants what is best for his patients. The support group has made a huge difference in my life - people who have been in my shoes, and headed in the right direction. A room full of encouraging people who don't think the surgery is a mistake, or don't quote to me about the person they know who it didn't work for ....
So, here I go, excited and scared and nervous ... and confident I am making the right decision for me and my kids. I will be posting pictures as this goes.
I need to see for myself the changes - especially since in the past 80 pounds, I don't see a different person in the mirror. I know I'm different because the clothes are 3 or 4 sizes smaller and I can get a cart of groceries without sweating profusely from the severe back pain. Sure, the pain is still there, but it doesn't cripple me anymore. So, I'll be back with more to say ...
