How to get in 64oz a day for New-ops!!

Ok, I see so many posts from people just home saying they cannot possibly get in anywhere near a life-sustaining level of fluids.. and frankly, this sends a lot of us to the ER for fluids.

Here's a post from ElizabethN on how easy this can be with just a little effort. Yes, this is only a struggle for that important first week or two- so (sorry for the harsh) but literally, suck it up & sip your fluids! Too many of us end up in the hospital unnecessarily.. dehydration is the NUMBER ONE risk, and it's very preventable.

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This is something I want all you preops to practice a bit until you really KNOW what it is to sip. It will stand you in good stead in those early postop weeks when you are thinking you'll barf yourself to death on more than 16 oz. of fluids.

Get the following: a measuring teaspoon, a measuring tablespoon, a single size shot glass. Sit down with them and a glass of fluid of choice. Oh, and get a stopwatch or digital timer. 

I shall divide this exercise into three parts. Please try all three. 

1. Let us begin with the shot glass. Pour out a shot of water and down it by sucking it through pursed lips--sipping, not chugging--in one swallow. Feel how big that swallow is? Practice it several times until you KNOW how it feels. 

Once you KNOW this feeling, take out that timer and take a full minute to ingest that jigger of water. TIME YOURSELF and make yourself do it over a full minute, NOT in one swallow. 

64 oz. per day means doing one of those shot glasses 64 times. If you take a full minute to empty that shot glass, you will spend a total of 64 minutes of your whole entire day drinking. 

2. If you fear this will be too much water to ingest in one minute, take the tablespoon and repeat the exercise. A tablespoon is 1/2 oz. So, by drinking a tablespoon of fluid in one minute (USE THE TIMER AND TAKE THE FULL MINUTE TO DO THIS), you will spend two hours and 8 minutes of your day drinking. 

3. Think this is impossible? Repeat the exercise using a teaspoon. Doing a teaspoon per minute (TAKE  THE FULL MINUTE!!) will take you six hours and 24 minutes of your day. 

Okay? Don't tell me 64 ounces is an impossible amount of fluid to ingest in a day. You can do it and still have LOTS of time to sleep, poop, walk etc. Yes, you will feel it. It might be uncomfortable. You might have nausea. If you do, get it medicated. Use your acid reducer and your antiemetic. If you can't keep down a teaspoon of water per minute, you are in trouble and belong in your doc's office or in the ER. It might feel like pure **** to keep it down, but that's basically tough bananas. Keeping it DOWN is what counts. Feeling good while you keep it down does NOT. 

It might take this kind of work to hydrate yourself early postop. Get your head around it NOW. 

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/4213311/ATTENTION-PREOP S-How-to-ingest-64-oz-of-fluids-in-a-day-by/

LOVE this!

I used a 1/2 c measure and got that down every hour. I never had any issues with my liquids, I think in part cause I KNOW how serious it can be and I told myself it was NOT an option.

Anyway, thanks so much for sharing this! :)

My hand was locked in the kung-fu grip for a solid two weeks around my water bottle.. but I was getting 55oz at 4 days out, and hit my goal before the end of the first week. It seems like full time job, but doesn't have to be if you follow these directions.. I was very scared of having to get fluids..

I can't read the post, but myself having ended up in the hospital for dehydration, I would say that to some extent - yes, it is preventable, but in other cases, it's not entirely the patient's fault. I had a surgeon *****fused to prescribe me anti-nasuea medication even after I got home and called to complain that I couldn't drink anything without the heavy saliva building in my mouth every time I took a sip.

Once that issue resolved itself though, I was easily able to get 64oz in

 I will go back and put it in the body of the email.. thanks for the heads up!
PS I hope you read your dr the riot act for his lack of a very important treatment! There is no reason to not rx an anti-emetic after surgery if needed.. gah!

The first day post op when I could drink, the nurses brought me 3 bottles of fluid..1 bottle of water, 1 bottle of crystal light, and one bottle of isopure. Between the three there was almost 70 oz of fluid. I was given a stack of medicine cups and told at least every 15 minutes while awake to drink one medicine cup full of fluid (30cc or 1oz) and it should take me several sips to swallow it, not one gulp..and that I was as well to do my best to injest all of the fluids brought on my breakfast, lunch, and dinner trays....It got me in a rhythm for drinking, that made it very easy for me to get all my fluid in post op...sip, sip, sip, and when you think you've sipped enough...then start over and sip some more! Immediately post op and on fluids...what else do you really have to do??
And let me give you pre-ops a suggestion from an old nurse regarding nausea....if it's just nausea...try holding an alcohol pad under your nose and sniffing deeply for about 30-45 seconds, any nurse worth their salt knows this trick for new post op patients...try it and you might not need nausea medication.
Good Luck to all!!

Alcohol pads are good, and another one is a fan blowing on your face too- good tips!

Good looking out.

Thanks Jo for this post it was very informative to me who didnt know... it really is going to help.. because I myself was wondering how in the world are we going to get all that fluid down when everything is swollen and freaking out.. but broken down like that it makes a lot more sense and sounds a lot more feasible to do.. I am going to practice today and tomorrow since Tuesday is the big day.. Thanks again! 

Thank you for sharing this. I go in for surgery on Wed. and I am taking in as much information as I possibly can. I appreciate the honesty and the "kick in the pants".