shrink violet • Page 2 of 5 • my life before & after gastric sleeve surgery

finding replacements for all my supplements

Tuesday, March 6, 2018 7:30 am in before gastric sleeve surgery Leave a Comment

I take a lot of vitamins and supplements in addition to a few prescription meds. None of my prescriptions are available in chewable or liquid form for after gastric sleeve surgery, so my surgeon said I can continue to take them even the day after surgery. But it was pretty easy to find substitutes for my supplements, and I thought I’d share those here in case someone else needed the same ones.

Celebrate Multivitamins are recommended by my surgeon, so those are the ones I chose. I need to take 2 a day for the first month, then one a day after that.

Celebrate B12 sub-lingual tablets are also ordered by my doc. I take these just once a week under my tongue.

I can’t fall or stay asleep without melatonin, so I got these 5mg gummies.

I also take 5,000IU of vitamin D since I’m not always out in the sun.

5HTP is, for me, a great addition to my antidepressants. It also works well alone. Some doctors say you can’t take it with antidepressants, but my psychiatrist says it is fine. Check with yours first.

Liquid Tylenol will help with surgery pain after I’m off my prescribed liquid Vicodin. (Party at my house!)

Magnesium at bedtime helps me to fall asleep, so I bought this powder that makes a fizzy drink.

Any time I get hospital-strength antibiotics I take probiotics so that my gut flora isn’t completely destroyed.

Allergies don’t stop just because you’ve had surgery (I sound like a commercial!), so I splurged on a month’s worth of Zyrtec dissolvable tabs. After a month I’ll take the regular pills since they’re so small.

And finally, in the vain hope that my hair won’t all fall out, I got some Biotin gummies. Fingers crossed!!

What chewables did you buy? Just the multivitamin, or did you splash out and buy a lot like I did? What did your doctor recommend?

started my pre-op diet

Monday, March 5, 2018 7:30 am in before gastric sleeve surgery Leave a Comment

I’m having gastric sleeve surgery on March 12 (gasp, it’s getting so close!), and last Friday I started my pre-op diet. Here’s how it goes:

Day one

Health Wise cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast. (I hate oatmeal! It is so slimy!)
A regular lunch.
A regular dinner.

Day two

1 Health Wise chocolate shake for breakfast. (super-sweet and super-gross)
1 Health Wise soup for lunch. (basically a thin broth.)
A regular dinner.

Days three – five

2 Health Wise meal-replacement shakes and 4 of their “protein packets” throughout the day. The protein packets mix up into soup, oatmeal, or fruit juices and they have added protein. I can also have a few “regular food” snacks during the day if I’m hungry, like a handful of nuts or some yogurt. I haven’t been too hungry so far, so no snacks for me.

day six

I have a (unrelated to gastric sleeve) colonoscopy scheduled for the next day, so I have to have clear liquids this day too. This has nothing to do with my surgery, but it is just some added, extra fun for me! Yippee!

Days seven – nine

2 Health Wise shakes and 4 protein packets throughout the day. No snacking allowed.

Day ten

Clear liquids like my bone broth.

The cost of these ten days of meals is included in the enrollment fee I paid at the beginning of the process. I’m also able to buy additional weeks at $99 per week for post-op, but I think I’ll make my own way. You can see that I’m not a huge fan of the taste of this stuff, and I’d rather eat yogurt, my pudding, shakes, jello, my bone broth, and protein water.

What was your pre-op diet like? Did you get something pre-packaged from your surgeon, or did you make it up as you went along?

now I love drinking tea. go figure.

Friday, March 2, 2018 7:30 am in clear liquids, full liquids, gastric sleeve recipes & food reviews, puréed food, soft food, regular food Leave a Comment

Since I had to quit coffee in order to have gastric sleeve surgery, I’ve come to love tea. Decaf tea, of course. And I love brewing it in my Curve Teapot. It came in so many colors, it was hard to choose, but in the end I selected Mandarin. A bright, light orange. You can use it with bags or it comes with a diffuser for loose tea (that’s what I use).

To cover it up and keep it warm throughout the morning, I chose this cute tea cosy made by Ulster Weavers. It’s no longer available, but you can find one you love here.

Some days I enjoy having Decaf Double Bergamot Earl Gray with a splash of milk and one drop of EZ-Sweetz. This is what I drink in the morning when I’m pretending it’s coffee. (Shhh, don’t remind me it’s not…)

In the afternoon, or when my stomach isn’t feeling great, I like to have Peppermint Tea. Soothing and tasty, it brightens up the afternoon. For a double-whammy, you can even get Ginger-Mint Good Digestion Tea! I’ve not tried that one, but I think I may add it to my next order so I have it on hand post-op.

The one difficulty for me making tea is my tea kettle. I have this one by Le Creuset (I got it on sale!), and it dribbles when you pour from it, and the handle gets too hot to hold. I don’t recommend it. And while I’ve heard really, really good things about Simplex kettles, they’re about $300! So unless you’re independently wealthy, I don’t recommend them!

If I had to choose a new kettle today, I’d go for this OXO kettle. It even has a cork handle, so your hand doesn’t burn!

Do you drink tea? Did your dietitian make you quit before surgery? I like Stash Teas from Oregon – what’s your favorite brand?

subscribe to shrink violet in email

had my pre-op appointment

Thursday, March 1, 2018 5:39 pm in before gastric sleeve surgery Leave a Comment

I had my pre-op appointment for gastric sleeve surgery, and it was pretty uneventful other than my blood pressure being up from nerves. I went in with a list of questions, and he answered them 🙂 And I picked up my pre-op liquid diet shakes and post-op vitamins. We went over the procedure and post-op meal plans again, and I signed consent forms. Curious about my questions? Here they are:

Do I have to quit coffee for life? When I met with the dietitian, she told me to give up coffee, but I forgot to ask for how long. He said it is fine to resume once I’m good at getting in my liquids. Frankly, I’m enjoying tea so much that I may not go back, but it is nice to know I can if I want to.

Pain meds make me really constipated. What can I do proactively to avoid it? He OKayed taking colace in the am and pm starting the day after surgery. He said if it gets really bad to try magnesium citrate.

Will I have a drain? A few years ago I had an emergency appendectomy (fun!), and I had to have a drain for a long time afterwards. They’re gross and annoying. The doctor said that he quit using drains a few years ago. He also doesn’t do leak tests or xrays.

My biggest question was when can I start taking my prescription meds after surgery I take 2 for blood pressure (for now!), 2 for depression, and 1 for ADHD. I’m anxious to stay on my depression meds as much as I can for obvious reasons.

He said that I could start taking them right away. I brought the pills into my appointment so he could see their size, and he said that since they’re important meds for me I can take them. And I don’t have to crush them either! That would have been so disgusting…

In other news, I got my pre-op blood work done, and I’ve found chewable replacements for all the supplements and vitamins I take. Next up is some cooking and buying yogurt and other “full liquids.” It’s all go here at the Shrink Violet household!

Did you have a long list of questions like mine at your pre-op appointment? Did they all get answered?

all the sweetness without the calories

Wednesday, February 28, 2018 7:30 am in clear liquids, full liquids, gastric sleeve recipes & food reviews, puréed food, soft food, regular food Leave a Comment

I love this stuff. I put a single drop in my tea and it tastes sweet enough for me. A couple of drops in a large tumbler plus lemon juice, water, and ice and you have a fresh-tasting zero calorie lemonade in a minute.

EZ-Sweetz is pure liquid sucralose, and you can use it to sweeten anything without adding calories or carbs. And the taste is just like sugar – no bizarro aftertaste either.

Plus since you only use a few drops at a time, it lasts forever. I use it all the time and maybe buy it once a year or so.

Have you ever tried it? What do you use it in? Never heard of it? Give it a try!

scheduled my surgery!

Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:30 am in before gastric sleeve surgery Leave a Comment

ZOMG, yesterday I was finally able to schedule my surgery, and I’m officially terrified AND excited. (Terrifited? Excitified?)

March 12, 2018 @ 11-ish I’ll be getting wheeled back to the operating room! Wow. I can’t believe gastric sleeve surgery is finally happening.

Being self-pay means that I didn’t have to jump through insurance hoops. So from the time I first thought, “Hey, I should have that surgery” to now has been about 4-6 weeks. At least there’s a good side to now being $20,000-something in debt! I got to get to this point quickly. (I should say, however, that I’ve been thinking of having this surgery for 10 years, so in no way did I just jump blindly into it…)

How long did it take you to go from idea to surgery? Did your clinic’s office work with you to expedite things, or did they drag their feet? Were you able to get all your paperwork together quickly, or did some of your referrals take a long time getting their reports in?