Thursday, March 5, 2015

Final nutrition appointment

So on Monday, L & I had our final nutrition appointments before our surgeries. We went in together, so we got a longer time than we would have separately. Also, L is better at thinking up things to ask than I am. I have trouble coming up with anything I want to know that they haven't told me already.




So what happened at the final nutrition was this. Marie quickly reviewed everything we already know about the two pre-surgery weeks. Two shakes and one meal a day for two weeks, but liquids only for the last 48 hours, then nothing after midnight the night before surgery. I am not looking forward to this. I hope it passes quickly.

After that, she checked with us as to what vitamins we've chosen. I let L pick out the vitamins. Because tbh, I didn't feel up to doing the research, and she was really into it. Weird for me, since I usually research the crap out of everything, but I just felt overwhelmed by it. So I concentrated on getting the protein shakes. L found an inexpensive  sublingual B-12 that has 5000mcg. Marie said that we could use that one. We can either cut it in half and take half a pill once a week, or just take a whole pill every other week. She thought we might even be able to cut back to one pill once a month, if our B-12 levels look good when they check them again sometime after surgery. I can't for the life of me remember what they're called, but I'm almost positive she found them on Amazon. Her blog is linked in my sidebar, and she probably says in it what they are.

We're doing Unjury's Opurity Bypass and Sleeve Optimized multivitamins. You can get them on their site. I don't think we've committed to a calcium citrate brand, but we don't need those until two weeks after surgery, when we see Marie again and she approves them. We were looking at Celebrate Calcium Citrate Plus 500mg chewables, which you can get on Amazon, but they seem to be out of the Orange Burst flavor, and only stocking the Cherry Tart flavor. Which, Cherry. Gross. Fake Cherry. Even worse.

After we went through that, she went over the specific dates that we need to start our pre-op diet, our 48 hours of liquid, and our nothing-at-all-after-midnight Gremlins fast. The day after surgery, we get to slowly begin having clear liquids. This is post-op Stage 1. The next day is Stage 2. We start back on protein shakes. If we can tolerate one slowly, and manage to finish it by afternoon, then they let us go home. Marie will visit us in the hospital on one of these days. Once home, we stay on all protein shakes and clear liquids for two weeks, until we see Marie again, and she clears us to advance to Stage 3. That is when we get to start eating food again. Soft, smushy food that is extremely ground/chewed, but food. That also lasts for two weeks.

Then, after approval, we can go to Stage 4. At Stage 4 you start slowly introducing normal foods, still chewing them a lot. And you stay in that phase until you reach your goal weight. After that, it's maintenance phase from then on. Stage 4 and maintenance are a lot like the last two stages of diets like Atkins and South Beach. Where the final, maintenance stage is quite like the previous stage, except you're no longer focused on losing, and you can occasionally have things that don't fit on the diet. It's mostly about making sure you don't go overboard, and you keep up your exercise, etc. So you can find out what you need to be doing to stay at or near your goal weight. You're adjusting to life from now on, where it's no longer a diet; it's just life.  That is the challenge in the last stage.

She wrote all of this down for us, so we'd have it. She also gave us an updated version of the handout about protein supplements and the two week diet that they gave out in group nutrition. I think we're going to take a trip over to our local Rite-Aid, which is listed as a GNC location on the GNC website. GNC sells Zero Carb Isopure drinks, which are ready to drink, and non-milk. The reviews seem to suggest that the blue raspberry and the icy orange are decent. And they'll be different from the things we're already drinking. I also bought a bag on unflavored Isopure powder, which you can mix with juice (once we're allowed juice -- calories) eggs, soup, or whatever. I'm trying to find a milk-based flavor of shake I can stand, too, just in case of boredom. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen, since I don't like milk.

So basically, shit's getting real around here. K is 11 days from surgery! Holy crap! Which means L is 25 days out, and I'm.... 39 days out? OMFG! Looking forward to being post-op, but I'm nervous about much of the remaining pre-op time. And I'm wondering what we do when we're home from surgery. Like do we just lie around in bed, and then get up and walk for however long we're supposed to walk? I can't imagine that I'll feel like doing anything more than I'm required to do. I don't have a decent TV over by my bed. I have an old ass not-even-flat-screen TV from the 90s. You know, the kind that weighs a million pounds and looks like you're watching a fisheye lens? And it's only a 19 or 20" unit. So the picture is pretty small, especially on things that are formatted in widescreen. I think I shall call it Squintvision. LOL. How did we manage to watch TV on that stuff back in the day? Damn, I had a 12" black & white in my bedroom growing up. OK, I am suddenly feeling old. LOL.

Until next time... See ya.

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