The week before your surgery....

My last big meal was 2 days before surgery. I had crab cakes at Swee****er Tavern with my angel, Sharon G (DS 2003, I think). I watched her eat, asked her lots of questions and she talked...I made like a sponge. Then we went to Dr E's support group and the other surgeon in practice with Dr E called me out at support group because my vitamin D was so low. lol 

I had broth on hand which I couldn't stand once I got home. My taste buds had radically changed overnight. Let's see...cream of whatever soups, SF Popsicles, diet cranberry juice, Atkins chocolate shakes, Fruit2O, IDS AllWhey protein shots, SF jello, SF pudding, Lactaid milk and some kind of GNC chocolate protein powder. Vitamins and minerals. DH picked up all the prescriptions Dr E gave him the day of my surgery...and there were a boatload. Most I didn't need. I never got nauseous after surgery and several of the prescriptions were for nausea. 

--gina

 Well on the bright side, since I'm freezing it I can always use it for other things in the future :)  I have some cream of soups too!  

I'm glad Dr. E prescribes stuff for nausea just in case, I have been worried about that!  

Crabcakes...nomnomnom.  This Swee****er Tavern must be pretty awesome, you guys go there a lot!  I have to come down to Falls Church tomorrow for my cardiac clearance but no clue where that is in relation to you.  NOVA is like one big suburban sprawly blob in my brain, it is awful!  It's really too big an area to all be considered so related! 

I nested.  I super cleaned my house and made sure that my husband and daughter had everything they could need for the next month.  I kept busy by cooking and freezing meals for them.  I am 2 weeks post op and it is convenient to just pull out a dish and put it in the oven for their dinner.  I feel better everyday, just tired.  I had a 10 day pre op diet of shakes.  My last meal was pizza.  I can't wait for the day I can at least eat the toppings again.  Don't go over board on buying for yourself.  Your taste will change. 

 Thanks Melissa!  HOLY COW, ten days of shakes!  You are a rock star!!!!!  I have been trying to include a few protein shakes and keep it low(er) carb, but I can't imagine doing ten days of just shakes.  At least not pre-op.  

Congratulations on your surgery!  I'm glad you are doing so well.  Love the idea of freezing meals.  One other thing I've done is stock up on paper plates.  We never use them, but that way the dishes won't pile up so fast for a while.  

The 10 days of shakes killed me.   I have several kinds in my kitchen right now and I gag on everyone of them.  I have tried the coffees, adding different flavors.    I am going to try making a cake shake tomorrow to see if I can get more protein in that way.   I have good restriction and I am never hungry at all.  It is a struggle with my protein.  I feel good and make an effort so at some point I hope I get it all together.   Best of luck to you.  You will feel like you where run over by a truck, but everyday is better.  Remember, sip, sip, sip. 

 Thank you!  The shakes are bugging me too.  They are giving me an upset tummy/queasy feeling.  I don't think it's just lactose intolerance because I can eat ice cream, drink milk, etc.  And the Champion tubs I have do not list any sugar alcohols;  the ingredients state sucralose for sweetening.  I think the concentrated protein is just hard for my tummy to deal with... or maybe all the caseins or something.  I don't know.  I have some syntrax on the way so hopefully that will be a little easier for me. 

i trained my toddler to climb up onto the changing table (with assistance), so that i didn't have to lift or bend - it worked wonderfully.
i stocked up on sugar-free popsicles and jello, and egg-drop soup mix.  and single-serve packets of cream cheese. 
i also loaded a couple movies onto my ipod (didn't have a laptop then).
might also suggest having some liquid tylenol on hand, and extra pillows.  lots of water bottles.  caffeine free tea (sleepytime?).

 That is adorable about your toddler!  Luckily my daughter is almost 5 so I don't need to lift her that much... though she does still spend tons of time on my lap having cuddles and hugs and kisses. She is my darling.  We have talked about how we won't be able to do that for a while post-op though. 

Mmmmmmmm, egg drop soup!!!!  Thank you :) 

My son is six and after we explained what the doctor was going to do to my tummy we drilled into him how important not jumping on Mommy's tummy was going to be. I don't know how rambunctious your daughter is but my son still has to be reminded even a month out. He has been very good about it tho...especially when he saw my 'ouchy booboos' LOL he wanted to see them..sort of..kinda like the horror movie you watch through your fingers.

anyway...something I did was mke sure all my will, power of attorney and living will stuff was in order and we had it on hand. The hospital will want copies of your living will if you have one. Grim stuff to think about but very important.

I way overpacked with extra clothes. All I ended up using was several pairs of undies since I wore the hospital gowns. Also take some maxi pads since you very likely will get your period. mine was due the day after surgery anyway but a lot of people have said the stress of the surgery brought theirs on early.

This is not meant to scare you, but ANYONE going in to ANY surgery should get thier business in order.  I dusted off the will and made sure everything still made sense, double checked the life insurance and the trustees and made a folder for my partner with all my info in it:  retirement, cash and other accounts that she would need access too.  This isn't scary, it's just reality.  I would do the same thing before an international trip.

I also enjoyed some amazing food - especially cake, and spent a lot of time with my family just relaxing and being happy.   It's also good to get anything cleaned up at the office (I did this and trained a few people on some emergency situations) because you never know how long before you will be up and yourself again, and made sure to have lots of DVDs on hand and that anything I needed on a daily basis (like cell phone chargers) were plugged in and didn't require bending over.

Oh yeah, and if I would have stocked up on one thing - it would be flushable wipes, and Summer's Eve feminine wipes.  Just to keep everything clean down there.

You will do great!  Enjoy your week!
Holly