Just had Pre-op visit and met with anesthisiologist and other random thoughts....

Greetings from Fort Lauderdale,

Ok, it is getting more real.

I just got back from Cleveland Clinic after meeting with one of the dr's and with the anesthesiologist and the pulmonary team.

I begin my liquid diet tomorrow and I have decided not to have a last supper after all. Just going to dinner with a bunch of close friends tonight, nothing crazy, I am ready to let go of food once and for al.

I have my 2 nieces coming to stay with me for a week,on Sunday. It is really bad timing as one is 13 and the other one is turning 16 while she is here.  She wanted to spend her 16th bday with her gay uncle in Florida   I know we will go out to eat a lot but I am mentally prepared that this is it with the food.

I hope I am  not really *****y to them since i will be detoxing from food. I will try not to be.

I found out they are going to take out my gallbladder and do a liver biopsy while they open me up.
Apparently I have gallstones so they are being preventive.

Scary stuff, they told me it is a 2 hour surgery.

I got my prescriptions for pain meds already but since I am a recovering addict as well as many other things, I am not filling it until the day before surgery so it is here at home when I get here.

Any others out there recovering from other addicions?

I cant believe how organized they are at the Cleveland Clinic, they really think of everything.

I have my leave of absence paperwork turned into work, the dr gave me 3 weeks.
WIll I really need that long to feel better?

I am glad I have this forum to just ramble as I know you all understand what I am going thru.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Kevin

 

Ya know, I had a few last suppers. Things I thought I would never eat again. There was only one that I was right about. I went out to dinner with friends at Uno's and that is one thing I will never touch again. I do eat pizza but it's thin crust and usually it's just the toppings after one entire piece.

I had the same thoughts about giving up food. It's a good mentality to have since you don't eat for a while but you get to continue the love affair after surgery. You just have to have healthy choices. You can't continue doing the old habits. If you do the weight will just come back. Morn the fatty, fried foods that you will stop eating, but realize that it's not the end of food.

hehehe All I can think about with your niece is a hag in training.  Altho, she will prolly prefer fruit fly since she is new school.

In a sense are we not all recovering from some form of addiction? I know I didn't get to be 387 by not having one of some kind to food.

I was off for a month BUT... I could have gone back after 3 weeks. My grandmother was in town helping me after the fact and I went back after she went home.

Feel free to ramble on. Most of us here have been there.

Heya!  Don't worry about the gall bladder thing.  I wish they had taken mine out during the surgery, but instead I had to go in about 4 months after to do it then.

I might suggest having a "first supper" with your friends.  Maybe you can do a pot luck where everyone brings something low in sugar and low in fat that they think is delicious.  Foods to look forward to, rather than look back on.

Congrats, Kev!  It just keeps getting better.

Three weeks off from work seems pretty average.  I was totally ready to be back at work after 2 1/2 weeks and I even had a relatively serious complication (GI bleed requiring a transfusion) post-op. 

Again, don't worry about the last supper behavior, I bet we all did it. 

I think 3 weeks is a nice amount. Gives you time to get used to the radical changes in how much you can sip and nibble, gets you into more normal food textures before work. May as well have the GB out at the same time.

Don't worry. You sound perfectly normal!

I have 3.5 weeks off work and that seamed just enough time to get over surgery and get used to all the changes. Plus I was just starting solid food again when I went back... I was hoping that I would win the lotto so I would have to go back but that jus wasnt in the cards.

Great to hear from you, Kevin.  Good to see that you seem a little calmer and relaxed about everything.  Don't worry, you'll be fine.

On the subject of time off, my supplemental insurance plan paid me 100% on short term disability for up to six weeks.  And my doctor sent my work information that said I could take up to six weeks off.  So guess what?  I milked the hell out of that system.  Hehehe...  I could have gone back after three weeks, I was well enough, but what the hell...  I had to make sure...    So, I enoyed my little one and a half month vacation, as well as the little checks I was getting every so often.

On the subject of addictions, something weird happened five months after my surgery.  I was on liquid lortab for a month after surgery, pretty regularly.  Then, just after, I got a kidney stone (not my first).  They gave me pain meds to pass that.  Then I got another, and they discovered that I had gall stones.  So I had it removed.  More pain meds.  Then, one more (and I hope my last) kidney stone  (I was doing something wrong with my liquids and calcium, folks.  Don't want to go through that ever again.)  So more lortab.  When I finally felt well enough to stop taking the pills, I started getting these shooting pains in my abdomen.  I went to my PCP, but he couldn't figure out what it could be.  My surgeon couldn't, either.  I went back to my PCP, and he offered to prescribe me more Lortab.  I said no, that I had been on them for almost five months straight.  I told him I had taken them almost constantly, for different reasons, and that I hadn't taken any for a few days or so, the longest since surgery that I had gone without them.  He knew my problem- I was going through physical withdrawels from the narcotics.  Oy, vey, the next few days while I went through withdrawals SUCKED!  (Though, I'm sure nowhere near as bad as your's, Kevin.)  But the pain did go away.  BTW- I was never psychologically addicted.

Now, I'm very careful when I take pain pills.  Here in the Philippines, a lot of substances considered controlled you can get sans prescription.

I'm just more careful now.

Chris