ATTENTION PREOPS: How to ingest 64 oz. of fluids in a day by sipping.

Great advice EN, but I took the lazy way out.  I bought little baby 8 oz bottles of Absopure and kept them well-chilled.   For some reason, it was much easier for me to keep track of fluids in eight-oz increments.   I'm worse now about getting in my fluids than I was as a new pre-op.   I know, I oughta be shot.    I've been doing better lately though, after my endo doc scared the crap out of me with warnings that I'm going to kill myself with my high oxalate levels long before I do with my low vitamin D.   I'm drinking like a madwoman nowadays, LOL.

Elaborate on the oxalate levels and drinking.  I need a swift kick in the ass as I've been slacking with the fluids......

My experience with this, which might be different from Julie's, is: Fail to stay truly swimmingly hydrated if your oxalate levels are the slightest bit elevated, and the results go anywhere from obnoxious sick feelings from an inflammation-like response (feels like the flu) to the multiple layers of agony caused by kidney stones from being a moron and not keeping your kidneys rinsed out.

Ever had a kidney stone? It'll give you a kick in the ass to remember. I've been pushing the fluids like a fiend out here in Montana Desert World cuz I got one here last summer, and I still have gotten behind enough to get sick twice. (with that flu-like experience) It's a *****

So fill your gallon container with water in the morning and DRINK IT.

Yes ma'am!  I'll go chug a bunch right now before I head to bed, too.

Oh, and are oxalate levels checked via our routine labs?

Nope. Julie has the kind of absorption issues that render folks worried about her kidneys, so that's why (I presume, at least) those levels get checked. I don't get mine checked routinely, I just had a full kidney workup done last year after my stone experience. Basically all was well, but I learned from the experience of knowing I was passing a stone that I'd had several of the little *******s before, just not nearly that bad. And I have had a few since then too, also not nearly that bad. There's nothing to be done for them unless they're too big to pass unaided. I just get good drugs and wait it out, guzzling like a fiend all the way. But my kidneys are perfectly fine, thank heavens.

*whack whack whack* Okay, consider yourself smacked upside the head.

Baby bottles of fluids are fine things :-). What I was especially thinking, though, when I wrote that post, was about the definition of what constitutes a "sip," and how people tend to wail about how "hard" or "how much work" it is to drink "so much." Give me a break. If you drink a teaspoon per minute, which is a LUDICROUSLY small amount, you can do 64 oz. in six hours of your day. Does it feel good early out? Probably not. Taste good? No, of course not.

But unless you have genuine complications, there really is no reason you can't do this. And that's without even beginning to count the fluid content of your liquid/soft diet. I know, I'm a ***** for being so hardnosed about this. Oh well.

Preops: Divvy up the fluids in ANY way that works for you. Bitty bottles, measuring from a pitcher, whatever. ANYTHING that makes it clear to you what you need to get in. But please, DO practice the exercises in my first post of this thread before you have surgery. I promise you that it will take away all the fear and mystery about "how can I possibly drink ALL that fluid?" Yes you CAN do it.

See, what almost everyone does is to drink too much, too fast. They think they are "sipping" when in fact they are putting away many ounces in no time flat. So of course it hurts or comes back up. That's why I'm telling you to learn what a "sip" is and how many "sips" make up a day's worth of fluids. Know this before you go to the hospital and it'll be a terrific tool in your toolbox.