To All Pre-Ops and Newbies

Pre-Ops

Please do your research!!! Attend support group meetings!!! Please do your research!!!

List the Pros/Cons of each surgery. Visit the individual surgical forums for more information.

Choose a doctor that has a COMPLETE before care/after care program. You will need a good NUT who will provide you with a diet plan for each stage.

Newbies

Capitalize on your honeymoon phase. Don't waste your mastication on empty calorie foods. Remember to always chew, get your protein in first and drink plenty of water.

Vitamins are soooo important. A friend of mine had RNY five years ago. She is so deficient  She hasn't taken a vitamin in several years and now she's suffering a major health crisis.

Attend support group meetings!!!

Hear, hear! That's good advice.

I would add that you should not overlook the medical literature out there that is published in peer-reviewed medical journals such as JAMA, etc. It can help keep you current on the efficacy and aftercare issues of each surgery type you are considering and/or had.

A good tool is www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/. This site is run by the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health and can get you abstracts of thousands of published research studies out there. 

Nicolle