…Heart On Her Sleeve…

2 days!  i think i’ve got all my ducks in a row.  i’ll be picking up the vitamins i need in the states cause they’re a hell of a lot cheaper there. i have protein powders, blender bottles, a magic bullet… pretty well everything i need.

tomorrow i’m on clear fluids all day, meaning today is my last day with solid foods for about 3 weeks. weird.  we will leave for ypsi around noon.  boyfriend and mom are coming with me because they are awesome. the hospital phoned me last week telling me to report there at 8 am wed morning and that i was the second surgery of the day.  this makes me happy, because i won’t have the entire day to wait around and drive myself nuts with nerves.  so far i think i’ve held it together pretty ok-ish.  i’m sure you might get a different story from my boyfriend who’s experienced some anxiety-related snappyness.  we always take it out on the ones we hold dearest, right?

sometimes i feel like i’ve been waiting a long time for this day to come, but honestly, i can’t believe i’m only two days away.  these last couple months have flown by.  at this point, i just want to be in the recovery room

i installed some wordpress spam plugin cause i was getting slammed by spambots and somehow it deleted all my comments, which makes me sad like this:

i’ve installed a different, less aggressive plugin, so hopefully i won’t lose any more comments.

i’m happy to report that all the tests they ran at barix came back satisfactorily.  they were happy that i lost the 10-15 (12) lbs i was supposed to pre-op, and i was cleared for surgery!

i really have to applaud barix for being the finely tuned machine that they are.  i arrived at 7:15 in the morning, and was seamlessly passed from station to station for all my tests and my meeting with the nutritionist. i was out of there by 11:15, without being made to wait more than 5 minutes between stations. the staff are friendly, helpful and professional.

the only complaint i have, and i know barix’s forte is the Roux En Y surgery, but they need to update their staff, literature and nutritional counseling to be inclusive of the VSG.  the eating plan and nutritional info i was given was all about RNY.  i found that to be a bit annoying.  hopefully they will get up to speed on the VSG now that more and more people seem to be going this route.

today i’m on a mission for post-op necessities. protein powders. vitamins. little tiny dishes to make my little tiny meals seem not so tiny.  i’m 8 days out. i’m not nervous or scared, but holy shit, 8 DAYS!

3 weeks!! honestly, i’m having trouble focusing on much else right now.  i’ve been reading all i can about life post-op, talking to people who’ve had it done, just to get more of an idea what i’ll be dealing with.  i mean, i know on paper what i’ll be dealing with, but when i hear someone say “yeah, i can’t even eat a whole egg 3 weeks post-op”, it becomes a lot clearer.

my doctor recommends full fluids for the first 3 weeks post-op, followed by a week of purees and a week of mushy foods before returning to a normal diet.

i’m definitely going to go have a steak dinner before surgery.  can’t have red meat until six months post-op!

anyhow, this picture was snapped of my boyfriend and i in barbados.  it shall henceforth be known as my before picture.

can’t wait for the after shots

in an attempt to lose 10-15 pre-op pounds, i’ve been doing a modified southbeach type eating plan for the last week, and sure as shit, it works like a charm.  i’ve always done very well when i’ve cut out refined carbs.

newsflash: they’re bad for us.  *GASP!*

so basically, i’m sticking to meals consisting of lean protein, low fat dairy, plenty of veggies, and good fats like nuts and olive oil.  no counting of calories, just eating sensibly sized meals and stopping when i feel satisfied, not stuffed.  funnily enough, this is pretty well the recipe for success post vsg, as well but of course the surgery will have me feeling full much sooner due to my eensy weensy tummy

this morning i had a mushroom eggbeaters omelet with a cheese string cut up and thrown in there, and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

for a snack i had a small handful of almonds.

for lunch i had some yummy creamy broccoli soup that i made, a couple pieces of smoked fish (i love the stuff), and a salad.   oh and a lil sugar free creamsicle

dinner will be some roasted chicken that i made yesterday, more soup, and some steamed veggies on the side.

i will also CHEAT by having some blackberries and sugar free lemon yogurt with some slivered almonds on top.  phase 1 of southbeach is not supposed to include fruit, but i figure no one ever got fat by eating a cup of blackberries once every other day

so i’ve been getting back into meal planning and cooking, and it makes me happy.  it makes me happy to be in control and making healthy choices.  and it makes me SO unhappy to be making poor choices and eating crappy foods and feeling like garbage all the time.  so why is it always so easy to revert back to these bad habits that make me feel terrible?   oh, my brain is messed up, folks.

seacrest out.

so, dig..  my surgery is performed laparoscopic.

lap-a-ro-scope

/?læp?r??sko?p/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [lap-er-uh-skohp]
–noun Surgery. a flexible fiberoptic instrument, passed through a small incision in the abdominal wall and equipped with biopsy forceps, an obturator, scissors or the like, with which to examine the abdominal cavity or perform minor surgery.

the abdomen is inflated with c02 gas to give the scope a nice clear view.  anatomically,  your stomach is somewhat obscured by the part of your liver that drapes over top of it.  if you’re really fat, your liver also becomes fatty and gigantic, covering up more of the stuff the surgeon needs clear access to.  a small weight loss (in my case 10-15lbs) can shrink the liver significantly, making things less complicated during surgery.

a southbeach-like eating plan has always worked very well for me in the short term, so today i bid farewell to my cruel carby mistress.  sayonara, sugar.  byebye, bagel.  you get the point, i’m gonna have a headache for a few days.

all this pre-op/post-op talk makes me feel like i’m discussing sexual reassignment surgery.

for the record, i am not a tranny.

not that there’s anything wrong with that…

once you have approval from OHIP, this stuff sure does move with the quickness!

my very nice and lovely parents came with me for my consult last week.  the consult itself is of two parts.  they have a group info seminar (8 people altogether, 4 of which were from ontario, jeez.) dr poplawski talks about the different wls types they perform at barix, (rny, vsg and lapband) pros and cons of each one of them, what life is like post-op, etc etc.  then you have a one-on-one consult with him afterwards so that he can answer any questions you may have.

i am jewish. funnily enough, so is my mother. have you heard about jewish mothers?  they worry. they worry like it’s their job.  so i knew that if my mom sat in with me for the consult and the one-on-one, that perhaps she’d learn a lil something, be able to ask some questions, and perhaps feel a little better about the whole procedure.

after arriving, i filled in a lengthy health history form. i handed that in and a nurse took me into an exam room, weighed me, measured my height and blood pressure, and asked me a few further health history questions. a little while later, the group of us were directed to a meeting room where we’d have our seminar.

after about 10 minutes, dr poplawski came in and introduced himself.  i found him to be engaging and honest.  he didn’t sugar-coat any of the information or make it seem like post-op life would be any kind of walk in the park.  he spoke for close to 45 minutes, and at no time was i bored, even though i already knew a lot of what he was telling us.  my mom kept saying “wow” and “oh my”.  she learned a whole lot during that seminar.

a little tip for you if you are planning to have surgery at the barix clinics.  they arrange the one-on-one part of the consult on a first come/first served basis.  meaning if you arrive only a few minutes before your appointment time, that you will be at the bottom of the list to be seen for your one-on-one.  usually the groups are about 8-12 people with the one-on-one lasting 15-30 minutes long each… so yeah. arrive early. it’s better to wait around before than after, if you ask me.  especially if you’re hitting the road to drive back to toronto afterward

during the one-on-one, dr pop was a bit surprised to hear that i had opted for the sleeve.  i guess with most people being familiar with the RNY and the lap band, those are the two that patients opt for most of the time.  he then went on to tell me that if he were going to choose a bariatric surgery for himself, that it would without question be the sleeve.  upon hearing that, my mother got up and kissed him full on the mouth.  ok, not really, but i think that statement alone gave her a lot of relief.  honestly, it was very nice to hear from someone who performs wls for a living.   i asked some questions, my mom asked some questions, we laughed with the hysterically funny dr pop a whole lot, we both developed little crushes on him, and we set off back to toronto feeling very satisfied with my choice of clinics, surgery types, and surgeons.  a great experience on all fronts.

today i received a phone call from the barix scheduling department, and we booked my pre-admission testing (PATS) and surgery dates!

april 7th- PATS

april 22nd- I GET SLEEVED!

i am SO stoked to finally have this date written IN PEN.  i feel now like i can close this hurry up and wait chapter of my life that has been going on since sept/08, and finally allow myself to become excited about this life-changing surgery!

i am out the door, headed to the barix clinic in ypsilanti mi to have my consult with my surgeon.  today i’ll secure my surgery date.  this is feeling pretty real right now

howdy, and welcome to my shiny new digs. i’m about to embark on a very exciting (to me) journey, and i’m happy to have you along for the ride.

in september of ’08, i started researching the different types of weight-loss surgery (wls) available, finally deciding on the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, or VSG. (heartonhersleeve… GET IT???)

OHIP approved my surgery on feb 5th. i’ll be meeting with my surgeon on thursday feb 12th, at which time, i will receive my surgery date! i am hopeful for some time late april.

i’m still riding my post-approval high. it was quite the process, getting here, and i still haven’t fully wrapped my head around how new and improved my life is about to become.

i plan on updating quite regularly. it delights me to think that someone researching wls may one day use this blog as a resource for information. it was personal blogs like this that really allowed me to understand what i would be in for post-op.

so thanks for stopping by! feel free to leave a comment and let me know you’re reading!

~jude.