Opps. I didn't report on the nutrition appointment or the support group. Last Monday, the 9th, I met with the nutritionist. She gave me the run down on what to eat and when to eat it. Surprisingly, it's more about texture and protein than it is about calories.
The basic philosophy is that you need well chewed food that won't get stuck in the new small lap band pouch. In addition, you don't want to eat greasy or buttery or finely milled foods like cream of wheat because they will just slide right through the new opening and defeat the whole purpose. Keeping good high protein foods in the pouch for as long of a time as possible means that you can't lubricate the stomach with liquids for 15 minutes before eating and you don't want to wash it down with liquids for at least an hour after eating. Absolutely no liquids during the meal.
Things I will have to avoid: bread, steak, and salad. No matter how much you chew them, they will reconstitute in the stomach and cause you to throw up or necessitate an ER visit. I'll go through the ABC's of staged eating in another post.
The support group was awesome. There isn't too many places where you can feel comfortable being over weight. Most of the participants already had the surgery and they looked pretty healthy and happy, but they are more than compassionate towards other obese people. Actually, I think most of them are still fat in the head. They haven't gotten used to being normal sized yet. Very nice welcoming people. We broke up into smaller groups depending on the type of surgery you had. I was with the realize band group. They were all women.
There was a 65 year old woman that had the surgery in December 2010. She has already lost 65 pounds and she hasn't even stuck to the liquids rule. Initially, her daughter had to push her to her first support group in January 2011 in a wheel chair because her knees are in such bad shape. Last month she walked in with a cane. At this meeting she walked gingerly without a cane. It was magical.
The other women were in different stages of post op and they shared their eating tips to make it all bearable. They had all lost an amazing amount of weight and their various obese conditions had decreased if not disappeared completely.
TODAY: Today I had my annual physical which is the last missing pre-qualifier for insurance approval for the surgery. My platelets were back down to 90,000 units and I was lower on Vitamin D than last year and I have been taking 2000 u.. somethings a day. He thought is had to do with the absorptive comparison between the gel caps and tablets so I'll switch vitamins and take 4-5,000 units. He still called me diabetic, but my numbers are way too low for that diagnosis, but I left it alone because it will be just one more reason for the insurance to approve the procedure. I don't think I am going to have much of a problem there anyway.
Next step: Insurance approval will take several weeks and then several more weeks until I have the surgery. I'm still thinking I will have the surgery in August. With God's help I have been able to catch up on all my bills and paid down my credit cards and fixed my car and ect... and I have $3500 USD coming in from Paris and another $2800 from the sale of two of the four burial plots I had for sale. I am also waiting for a smaller check of $750 giving me a total bariatric war chest of $7,050. If I am able to sell two more plots than I will have just over $10,000. I have yet to receive an estimated cost but I am sure I have more than I will need. I will probably put some away for plastic surgery to remove flappy skin when I have lost the weight. See? It will all work out. I am sooo excited. I have several overseas trips to make in 2012 and I hope to be thin enough to sit comfortably in coach. YEAAAA!
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