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I will be having surgery soon

M

Melissa Traylor

Member
I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Melissa. I am 44. I will be having the gastric sleeve surgery hopefully next month. I am looking for support, advice, input, wisdom.
Glad to be here!
Melissa
 
Melissa-Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your decision to have WLS. Your surgery date will be here before you know it. You will be having a lot of emotions happening at once and this is perfectly normal. Feel free to ask questions. I hope you visit the forum often.
 
Hi Melissa, Welcome to the forum. I was so glad when I found this site. It has provided so much support and good advice to me. I am 9 weeks post op sleeve. At first I complained about how I wasn't losing weight fast enough and was reassured that if I contiue to follow my meal plan it would come off. I think I still had the diet mentality. That is changing for me. This is my life plan with food. I have been dieting and losing and gaining weight for 40 years. Enough already. I just want to make peace with food and the WLS is the tool I am using. Keep coming back and best of luck with the surgery.
 
Support

Thanks for the Welcome everyone! So far, I don't have a lot of questions or concerns. I know it is a huge life change and an even bigger mind set change. So far I have met a lot of those challenges. I've been having to go thru 6 months of doctors/dietician visits per my insurance. The hardest thing I had to give up was diet coke! I've been practicing drinking just a liquid diet that I will have to do for 8 weeks after the surgery. (well not all liquid) but for the first couple of weeks. She wants me to drink the low calorie high protien powder shakes that take some getting used too. And I have succeed. So I've been preparing myself for this. my last 2 visits are next week and then they gather all the work and doctor's visits notes, and the shrink eval and the dietician's notes and the bloodwork will be turned into my insurance and then hopefully they will approve the surgery and I can have it as early as next much!
 
Melissa-Just to let you know, some people have a change of taste after their surgery and find they no longer like the way some things taste that they used to like. So if you find a protein shake you like now, don't stock up until you try it again after surgery. I never had an issue not liking my protein shakes except for 2 brands that taste very bitter to me. Unjury makes a very high quality line of protein powders. You can check them out at Unjury.com. I had to give up diet coke too :( It was hard to do but I stopped drinking it over a year before my surgery. I don't even think about it anymore and believe me I used to drink at least 2, 2 liter bottles every day and up to 4, 2 liter bottles a day in the summer. A lot of people on this forum use sugar free, caffeine free powder drink mixes like Crystal Light or Hawaiin Punch brand. You can usually get Hawaiin Punch individaul packettes at WalMart for $1 per 8 packetts in a box. I like the taste way better than the other brands.

Make sure you let us know how you are doing.
 
Thank you Pat for the advice!! I'm drinking unsweet iced tea and crystal light and water. I love the sugar free Hawaiian Punch too! Question, My dietician said that I can no longer use straws to drink. Do you find that to be true? Again, I am really happy to be here!
 
Melissa-I probably shouldn't say this but I continued to use a straw after surgery. I tried not using a straw like I was told to do but I was swallowing so much air that I went back to using a straw. I have been using straws for a very long time and I guess I just don't know how to drink without one *LOL* The reason to not use a straw is because you run the risk of swallowing air which causes pouch pain and fills the pouch up too fast. But like I mentioned it didn't work very well for me. Try not using a straw to see if you can drink without it.
 
That's kinda funny that you were swallowing air without the straw, one of my diaticians said the reason we shouldn't use a straw is because we can swallow air and that would make us bloated, after a while most of us go back to using a straw, I still haven't but I hardley ever used a straw before.:cool: Tom
 
Not only was I swallowing air without a straw I was dribbling like I had a hole in my chin *LOL* Until I went back to the straw I had to fold up a kitchen towel and tuck it under my chin to keep my clothes clean. I also have a hard time drinking from a drinking fountain *LOL*
 
Pat, I almost have the same problem. I find it is easier to sip with a straw and I seem to be better able to control how much air I swallow so I do use a straw for some things. (Not my shakes though because they are mixed in special containers that are really easy to drink from). I have a problem with regular glasses. But swallowing air is the reason I was given to not use straws.
 
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