I'm back

I had my pre-op appointment on 13th Jun 08.  It looks like Dr. Fitzer will be my surgeon.  That's ok - I feel confident he knows what he's doing.  It was a 4 hour drive.  I had a Tom Tom & mapquest and no trouble getting there. My sister and newphew accompanied me.  It was a pretty nice drive - all highways.  The only disappointment was taking a detour to go shopping afterwards to the discount mall in Waterloo - it was not worth the trip and the prices were the same!! It was a whirl-wind appointment which lasted approx 2 hours.  First I met with Michelle who went over my medical history and she answered my questions.  Then I met with Dr. Fitzer which was good because I had a couple of misconceptions about the surgery that he cleared up for me.  My biggest misconception was the malabsorption.  I thought that you no longer absorbed the calories.  He stated this was not true.  He stated that the surgery worked due to the following:  The pouch that is reconstructed through RNY contains the majority of the satiety sensors (this signs the brain that you are full).  Although you eat only 2-3 oz of food - you now feel full.  He stressed the importance of following the diet after surgery and when able to eat meat, veggies, etc.  He said it was the solid food that triggers the satiety signal.  When I asked him about continuing with the protein shakes he discouraged this very strongly as it would pass through the pouch too quickly and it would not trigger those satiety signals but I would be absorbing those calories and still feel hungry.  I am scheduled for surgery 12 Aug 08.  I still have this sense of unreality over this entire journey it's like it's not happening to me!  I am determined to go ahead with it and I trust everything will go well.

Hi LouLor Congrats on your surgery date. I am the same day but in MI with Dr Schram. Sheila

Best of luck to you also - it's exciting isn't it!

It is so exciting...I am counting down the days!! Where is Dr Fitzer located?

The time will pass quickly and before you know it you will be on the loosers bench telling us how great you feel and how fast it all passed. E

I'm glad to hear your appointment went so well.  I know the about the not real feeling it'll probably hit me when i'm on the OR table.

Hi LouLor,  I'm glad you had a great consult w Dr. Fitzer. It's important to feel confident with your surgeon. I just wanted to clarify something you mentioned. The surgery does 2 things which support weight loss: 1) Creating  a restrictive pouch which limits the amount of food we can eat & 2) Altering the normal digestive process which causes food to be poorly digested & only partially abosrbed. (Source" WLS for Dummies" page 11.) So you were partially right. Dr. Fitzer is also correct when he mentioned how the satiety signals work.  I just didn't want anyone to think that the surgery doesn't cause malabsorptive issues, because it does for both calories & nutrition. This is why it's so important to take nutritional supplements after surgery.  Take care, Andrea.

Thank you for sharing that information on the shakes.  i am having surgery on june 25 and i was thinking 'oh i can always go to my dependable shakes if i have trouble not getting in or integrating enough protein '.  i guess i should not do that ... hmmm ... thanks again.  ~m

Hi Michele,  I think it's better to get your protein via food as much as you can. You need to get at minimum, 68 grams of protein/day & I've found that to maintain good weight loss, that really needs to be increased to 80-90 grams. That would be virtually impossible to do with the limited amounts  we can eat per day - especially at the beginning. So, you'll really need to supplement with shakes or bullets for a while. Remember: Food first, Shakes second. Just don't replace a meal with a shake. You need 3 meals of real food per day.  Take care,  Andrea.