How to get in 64oz a day for New-ops!!

Another one borrowed from Elizabeth N.. 

This is something I want all you preops to practice a bit until you really KNOW what it is to sip. It will stand you in good stead in those early postop weeks when you are thinking you'll barf yourself to death on more than 16 oz. of fluids.

Get the following: a measuring teaspoon, a measuring tablespoon, a single size shot glass. Sit down with them and a glass of fluid of choice. Oh, and get a stopwatch or digital timer. 

I shall divide this exercise into three parts. Please try all three. 

1. Let us begin with the shot glass. Pour out a shot of water and down it by sucking it through pursed lips--sipping, not chugging--in one swallow. Feel how big that swallow is? Practice it several times until you KNOW how it feels. 

Once you KNOW this feeling, take out that timer and take a full minute to ingest that jigger of water. TIME YOURSELF and make yourself do it over a full minute, NOT in one swallow. 

64 oz. per day means doing one of those shot glasses 64 times. If you take a full minute to empty that shot glass, you will spend a total of 64 minutes of your whole entire day drinking. 

2. If you fear this will be too much water to ingest in one minute, take the tablespoon and repeat the exercise. A tablespoon is 1/2 oz. So, by drinking a tablespoon of fluid in one minute (USE THE TIMER AND TAKE THE FULL MINUTE TO DO THIS), you will spend two hours and 8 minutes of your day drinking. 

3. Think this is impossible? Repeat the exercise using a teaspoon. Doing a teaspoon per minute (TAKE  THE FULL MINUTE!!) will take you six hours and 24 minutes of your day. 

Okay? Don't tell me 64 ounces is an impossible amount of fluid to ingest in a day. You can do it and still have LOTS of time to sleep, poop, walk etc. Yes, you will feel it. It might be uncomfortable. You might have nausea. If you do, get it medicated. Use your acid reducer and your antiemetic. If you can't keep down a teaspoon of water per minute, you are in trouble and belong in your doc's office or in the ER. It might feel like pure **** to keep it down, but that's basically tough bananas. Keeping it DOWN is what counts. Feeling good while you keep it down does NOT. 

It might take this kind of work to hydrate yourself early postop. Get your head around it NOW. 

This is very helpful information. Thank you

 I used a one ounce medicine cup and a 8 oz. liquid measuring cup as a pitcher. As I lay in bed, I watched the clock and drank 1 ounce cup every 15 minutes. The measuring cup makes it easier to keep up with how much you have downed and allows you to keep refilling the little medicine cup without getting out of bed. 

I agree. Practicing makes it easier post-op.

Lynda

Thanks for posting this.  Since I have decided to get sleeved, I've been up'ing my water intake and practicing on taking smaller sips (when I think about it), even though I'm still in my pre-op doctor / NUT / psy eval. appointment process.  Figured its not gonna hurt me at all, so I might as well get used to it.  

 

Bumping again///////

 this one too!