Today, it is officially 18 days until my surgery. Am I nervous? Uh ... yeah.
It seems like the last year has gone like lightning. From the moment that I determined that I was going to try and have surgery (at one time, even considering the notion of lap band surgery, which I now realize that for me would not have worked at all) to this point, things have moved quickly. Even though there has been a lot of "hurry up and wait," some of it has been of my own making.
Things only recently have begun to feel really ... real. My last visit with Dr. O'Rourke, the surgeon, sealed it for me. He wants me to lose more weight before the surgery, but has no intention of putting it off any further. So ... it's a go.
Last night, I took the one step that I had been dreading --- ordering protein products. As one of my fellow gastric-bypassers (I'm going to start calling us GB'ers) told me, the miserable part isn't the surgery so much, but the protein shakes.
I visited the website of Unjury (a very weird name ... yes), a company that produces protein items for people who have had surgery, diabetics or those who are just looking to lose weigh. I ended up ordering a container of vanilla shake mix (which somehow seems less intimidating than the chocolate or strawberry), a container of "chicken soup" and a starter pack, which has samples of the other flavors of shakes, etc.
This should seem simple, but with all I've read and heard, the notion of making this commitment was rather off-putting. Other GB'ers have said that their tastes changed after the surgery. A friend of mine who had the surgery roughly three weeks ago said that he was only able to take in small amounts of protein and fluid. A couple of sips, and it felt like he'd eaten a Thanksgiving meal. Plus, the shakes had become nearly intolerable.
The flipside is that he is dropping weight fast. Of course, on roughly 500 calories a day, a person will do that. Ideally, 1,200 is a good calorie amount for weight loss, but if you can't stuff it in, you're sort of stuck.
I still find it hard to wrap my head around this notion. Then again, I'm almost a walking stomach. Feed me, Seymour ... feed me.
When these niggling thoughts crowd into my head, I always have to stop and remind myself that this is going to be life-changing on many levels. The biggest one is my health.
A recent flareup of tendonitis proved that to me. I sat in the chair this morning at Longview Orthopedics while the talented Dr. Lauder administered a cortisone shot to my left wrist. My hand had become nearly unusable from pain, which had spread from my thumb to my shoulder. I told the doc that I was having surgery at the end of the month. I asked him if it would help the tendonitis if I lost weight.
He said that weight loss helps "nearly ever system in your body."
I believe him. As the days wind down, I'm sure my case of nerves will get a little worse. But the upside of this experience will far outweigh the downside ... no pun intended :)
