Getting Close

Surgery day is officially less than two weeks away!

I have done most of the major appointments required by both my insurance company and my surgeons. All that's really left is my class with the nutritionist/dietician later this week, an appointment with my primary doctor in a week (so she can sign this letter required for surgery, but that's another vent for another post.) and then I have to stop in to the lab for some routine blood work. Oh, and then there's that pesky pre-surgery diet.

This is common for all patients undergoing this type of surgery. The diet will be used to shrink my liver. If they open me up to do the surgery and my liver is too big, they can't work on the stomach. I'm doing what it takes because I do NOT want that happening. It was actually about a month ago when I started this pre-surgery diet. I haven't stuck to it as strict as I have to for the full 10 days before surgery. I haven't stuck to the diet as strictly as I am now, and I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but....toot toot!

I have this sheet of paper that tells me what foods I can have and what ones I can't. It's a very low carbohydrate, high protein diet. Sticking to the diet hasn't been too hard because like I said in my last post, I'm a bit sick. It's kind of hard to eat when your throat is on fire. I need to drink protein drinks, and that has been really hard with my throat. I finally found a drink that I could stomach and then I wasn't able to drink it at all when I was at my worst. Now that my throat feels a lot better, I can tolerate it again.

The full pre-surgery diet is as follows:
*For 10 days before surgery, I must be on a low carb/high protein diet, drink only sugar free, non-caffeinated, non-carbonated beverages (pretty much everything but water!), and take a multivitamin every day (I really need should be taking those every day though.)
*I need to drink protein drinks, 40-50 grams of protein a day from these drinks. And they have to have a certain number of grams of protein and less than a certain number of sugar in each serving.

*Other foods allowed include: 4 ounces of lean meat, eggs or cheese daily. Non-fat or 1/2% milk (limit to 3 cups a day), unlimited cooked and raw veggies (of most veggies. high starch ones are off limits. think potatoes, corn, peas, and most squashes.)

*I can have these foods in unlimited quantities as well: Sugar free jello/pudding/popsicles, sugar free non-carbonated beverages, broth, herbs and spices.

*The foods I am to avoid are: all breads, cereals, pasta, rice, etc. Starchy veggies, and all fruit and juice.

I cannot even tell you how many salads I've had in the last month. It's starting to pay off though because at my appointment Thursday I was 13 pounds lighter than I was at my appointment four weeks ago.

I do miss my fruit though. My kids have been eating a ton of it lately, and I just want a nice bowl of fruit. I look forward to the day when I can join them in eating it and they can stop teasing me about it.