What's on your (PHOTO) Friday Menu, RNYers?

Happy Friday JB, sorry to hear about the pizza incident, that really sucks. I hope you feel better soon. Love all the Halloween treats, if I worked with you I would so excited to see all those goodies you made!

Enjoy your downtime this weekend!

With surgery coming next week I have been trying to rest and keep weight loss to a minimum so I have been titrating tube feeds back up in addition to whatever protein I can get orally. I can't bear much pressure without pain so it is mostly liquids and puree. The silver lining of it is that bariatric prepared me for that, (and each of the Drs has emphasized the importance of sticking to that post-op and I am like, no problem guys). My partner works long shifts several days on/off but is off this weekend and is taking off the early part of next week to be with me for the surgery. They said, "I am off all weekend and took those days off. You won't have to be alone"; god, that was the sweetest, most comforting thing right now. I am so scared but I have seen some awesome, strong examples here on OH and I am trying to keep these big girl panties ...where are they now?!

I didn't see any actual in-person costumes but my favorite one on social media was a photo of someone dressed up as white Jesus holding a steering wheel. I think I laughed so hard I snorted when I saw that. Of course, I saw adorable kids and 2 frat guys dressed as avocados with their carefully cultivated beer bellies as the pits. So many good ideas on display this year with less focus on the creepy and more on creativity across the board. It was nice.

Hang in there! This is really hard what you are going through. {{hugs}}

You have been through a hell of a year, proud of you for being so strong and not falling apart, I am sure you have your bad days/moments but I think you are handling it very well.

I also hate the Dentist and get a lot of anxiety just thinking about going. I wonder if you changed your thoughts and didn't call it "Dental Surgery" but "Jaw Surgery" and maybe that will help with some of the anxiety. Its wonderful your partner is taking time off and great she can get away & be there for you and the kids, you need that support now. Sending lots of healing vibes from Canada!

Love the costume of Jesus & the Steering wheel, that's hilarious. I agree people are getting more & more creative with their ideas and less scary. I have zero creativity and would need to hire someone to dress me and do hair/makeup.

In regards to protein and trying to stop weight loss what about protein ice cream? I know you can't chew but could you have soup with mushed up crackers in it (I am thinking Tomato soup with lots of Soda crackers!). Protein pudding, unflavoured protein powder in applesauce? Very mashed hard boiled eggs? Glad you are increasing you tube feeds, last thing you want is to be more underweight going into this.

Sending hugs

One of the surgeons who will be operating actually called me yesterday to answer questions. I haven't been in to see them, (CT scans were sent to the bigger city/hospital where they do trauma surgeries). That helped. He was matter of fact and thorough in answering questions so I am getting better with accepting what is happening. He explained what they would probably be doing once they were in the OR and when I asked him what would happen if we didn't do the surgery, he said after reviewing the scans, his opinion was that if surgery wasn't done, it was likely due to multiple breaks that I would have pain with eating for the rest of my life. I am not able to bear weight without pressure/pain so that lines up. When I used to work with families preparing to give birth one thing that always struck me was that across all the families, it was never pain tolerance or birth plans that determined which mothers or families experienced trauma/lack of emotional distress. A sense that whatever happened was necessary, knowing their options and understanding why and consent were huge in acceptance and overall healing though. I think remembering that has helped me cope with the unexpected after WLS. I have always tried to make informed choices and most of the time I had enough time to research ahead of time but that was not always the case. (In those cases, learning how to suss out signs of professional honesty and competence usually helped but not always fool proof; however, sometimes it really is out of our hands. ) I am also trying to remind myself how fortunate I am to be able to access surgery and realize that in some areas of the world I would just have to suffer whatever fate doled out. I see you are in Canada and I am not familiar with the health care system there. It i**** or miss here in the States but compared to some countries I realize no matter what I am very fortunate in comparison. I think softening up the carbs to tolerance may help reduce weight loss. I do have some dumping so I have to go slow and watch my Fitbit for early signs I am hitting tolerance. I am still fairly early post-WLS, (initial one was mid 2017 and then the bypass a year later), but this is one of the times where I DONT want to lose weight, especially with flu season coming on. It is weird having struggled with my weight for so many years to attempt the opposite of the tools of WLS success and making it work the opposite way. I realize that eventually, it gets harder when the rare members who are very long term post and I realize this won't always be a struggle. I would just like to be healthy for a bit. I realize that it won't get any easier to be healthy as I get older.

I think that is very true, knowing what you can/can't control and then being comfortable with the provider is huge. I'm glad he reached out and walked you through what to expect and it's good that you're partner will be able to be with you; it's nice to have someone to lean on if you need it!

Knowing what is wrong and that there is something that can be done would be a huge relief to me. Hopefully this will be quick and easy and soon forgotten.

i think this is one time where reading PubMed, Medscape, etc. and knowing enough but also drawing the line where I am like, man, understanding the scope of this is so far beyond my paygrade that I just can't know everything and maybe not knowing is ok, after having a basic understanding. I was a little uncomfortable reading and hearing what would be done after I was out. I have so much respect for surgeons. I realize they don't always have the best bedside manner but at the end of the day, I would much rather have a great surgeon than the feels, iykwim. This experience has helped me have a (hopefully brief) insight into yet another area. My Facebook friends are all chipping in for a custom made bodysuit of bubble wrap at this point, I think. I have great friends and their sense of humor and virtual support have meant so much these past few years.