Panicked!!!

Hey everyone!

I found that ever since I got my surgery date, the stress has increased two fold.  The pressure is on and I am definately feeling it.  I am on the pre-op diet early to lose weight b4 surgery to aid in the surgery.  I guess the point of this weight loss is for a safer surgery...to help reduce the bulk of the liver.  My problem is that I wa s recently diagnosed with Lymphedema and my weight fluctuates dramatically from water gain and water loss. For example...When met with the surgeon on February 3rd I weighed in at 442.  This past Wednesday. the 11th, I went to my primary physician's office and I weighed in at 421.9.  That is a huge leap in one week and it was water weight.  I should be happy for the loss but I am not because just as fast as I lost it, I can gain it back. I am a yo yo and it has nothing to do with eating.  The surgeon told me to make the water irrelevent and lose the weight and said that it can determine whether surgery will be on or canceled depending on the weight.  How can I make the water irrelevent?  Well I am following pre-op diet to the T and praying to God that I lose the weight and have no delays in surgery.  Totally stressed!  Any suggestions welcome.

I think that if you continue to follow the pre-op diet to a "t", you will be fine, especially if your surgeon knows you have lymphedema.  The more you stress about it, the worse it will get.  Just relax, do what you know you need to do and it will all work out!  You are right about shrinking the liver to make the surgery easier.
I'll be thinking about you!
Breathe!!!
Ruth

Ditto what Ruth said.
You're lucky you found us to talk to and we will help you get rid of all that nasty stress.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and encouragement. Sometimes you just gotta throw things out there and get some feedback to put things into perspective. Feeling a little better.

Thanks for expressing this.  That has been one of my concerns too.  I have lymphedema of my legs and it can easily vary up to 20 lbs in a day or two.  Have they put you on fluid pills?  Also, are you using compression wraps?  Both can help a little with the fluid accumulation.  I personally think that the compression wraps help more than that fluid pills.  I wish you the best of luck!

Bev

Well, they consider my LE to be mild.  Beginning stage I guess.  Rehab called me yesterday and said that they would ordinarily start me with compression wraps, however are concerned with it causing mobility problems. The therapist recommended that since I am close to surgery that they are going to treat me with conditioning. PT.  I'm not sure when I am going to start but actually looking forward to it as it might help with pre-surgery weight loss.  I am on two kinds of water pills. Spirolactone and HCTZ that is in combination with my blood pressure med.  I avoid processed food like the plague.  Keeping sodium intake to the very  minimum is helpful.  Thanks for your input as always...found it helpful. Will keep u posted.

I know if I don't wear my stockings my weight can fluctuate greatly.  You ARE losing weight and if you keep at the diet you WILL continue.  Good luck!!

I'm not good with the blind faith thing, but this one time I would advise you to just simply follow the program to the best of your ability and trust that all will be fine.

I see that we have some people who also have LE on this board - I'm not sure if you read the main board or not - but there is a woman by the name of Sarahlicious who is very open about her experiences with LE - I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.