Surgery is scheduled - On My Way to Life after Gastric Bypass

Yes, it's been awhile since I blogged...such is the life of a wife/mom/nursing student. But I've made it through my medically supervised weight loss plan. I have to admit that it was a struggle because I was not as motivated as I wanted to be. I was initially...and lost 9 pounds. But then summer holidays, injuries, and school stress kinda kept my focus elsewhere. But I managed to lose about 17 pounds during the entire 6 months and 30 pounds total since the first of the year which, to be honest, is really good for me. So now I'm in the pre-op period where I have to get tests done. Nothing major...a psychological evaluation and a meeting with a bariatric dietician. Then they will submit my records to my insurance company for approval. If all goes well, my surgery will be December 8th. And I'm so glad that surgery is scheduled before Christmas. It gives me more time to recover before the holidays. Plus, my DH wants to go on a cruise in January so I should be able to be on soft foods by the time we go on vacation.

I've been trying bariatric vitamins and purchased a 90 supply so I'm ready to go after surgery. I got Bariatric Advantage which is good but I really don't like the calcium citrate. I'm going to get some chocolate calcium chews and use them every other day to help. I'm not really worried about the vitamins...I know I'm going to be good about getting them in after surgery.

Dave is getting use to the idea of me having the surgery. In a way, it's been good that it took so long to get here. He's much more ready for it now.

I'll update more often now that the surgery is closer. I'll talk more about how I'm feeling and all the changes I anticipate in the coming weeks. This is life-changing so I want to make sure that those that might be considering surgery understand what you may (or may not) experience yourself before surgery.

Started Protein Shakes: Monday, May 16, 2011

This weekend I did a lot of searching the various bariatric websites, blogs, and forums. Since protein shakes are going to be a big portion of what I "eat" post-surgery I decided to try some of the recommended stuff out there. I currently have a protein powder called "DESSERT" in my cupboard as well as a soy protein. I'll be using these pre-ops as much as possible. I also have some Myoplex Lite that I have to get rid of - they have too many carbs. So I'm fitting two shakes into my current diet until they are gone.

I purchased some chocolate and cookies 'n cream versions of PureProtein via Amazon.com along with a recommended shaker bottle. That should come this week and I'll be checking those out. I also figured out which vitamins I'll need to take post-op and came up with a recommended purchase that I'll put together once I have approval and a surgery date. For now though I'm taking the vitamins I currently have to get into the habit. I'm taking multi-vitamin, B-complex, calcium, vitamin C, and omega-3 fatty acids right now. I need to also start taking an iron supplement so I have to go through my stuff from work to find it. I'll do that tomorrow.

Well, got to go. Taking Daniel to get his haircut and then trying to finish cleaning out my closet today.